Queen guitarist Brian May has posted an apology, after posting a defence of film director Bryan Singer, in the wake of sexual abuse allegations levelled against him.
The pair worked together on the Freddie Mercury biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, on which May was a producer and Singer served as director, until he was let go from the project weeks before filming was completed.
Earlier this week, The Atlantic published a piece in which they interviewed four men who accused the director of sexual abuse, prompting one Queen fan to tell Brian May he needed “to unfollow Bryan Singer after all that he has done”.
In response, May wrote back: “You need to look after your own business and stop telling me what to do. And you need to learn to respect the fact that a man or woman is innocent until proven guilty.”
However, he’s clearly since had a bit of a change of heart, posting a public apology to his fans en masse, as well as the woman who reached out to him in the first place.
He wrote: “I was shocked and saddened to realise what I had done by my hasty and inconsiderate IG reply to this lady yesterday. I’ve posted an apology to her in the ‘reply’ box, but it seems to have disappeared - so I’m going to try to repeat it here, to be clear.
“Dear Sue, I’m so sorry that I responded to your post so snappily and inconsiderately. My response was a result of my perception that someone was telling me what to do. I now realise that I was completely wrong in thinking that. You were actually just trying to protect me, for which I thank you.
“I am mortified to discover the effect my words produced. I had no idea that saying someone was innocent until proven guilty could be interpreted as ‘defending’ Bryan Singer. I had absolutely no intention of doing that.
“I guess I must be naive, because also it had never occurred to me that ‘following’ a person on Instagram could be interpreted as approving of that person. The only reason I followed Bryan Singer was that we were working with him on a project.
“That situation came to an end when Mr Singer was removed during the shooting of the film, but I suppose unfollowing him never occurred to me as a necessity. Now, because of this misunderstanding, I have unfollowed. I’m so sorry.”
Bryan Singer has denied all of the allegations outlined in The Atlantic, branding their article about him a “homophobic smear piece”.
Earlier this week, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ received a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for leading man Rami Malek and a coveted Best Picture nod.
In the wake of The Atlantic’s piece, the LGBT+ organisation GLAAD announced that they would be dropping ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – which tells the life story of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury – as a contender for Best Film at their annual Media Awards.