Earlier this year, Mary J Blige fans were treated to a very controversial commercial – advertising a sandwich, with crispy chicken inside and all sorts. This caused a media frenzy, mainly because people had thought that the commercial was targeting black people when Mary sings in the advert about chicken and salad.

Now, Blige has replied to these ridiculous comments that people have left on her fan page, her Twitter and everywhere else. Note, the $2 million advert was pulled after thousands of people complained that it was racist. However, Mary says that these kind of opinions broke her heart as that was not the case whatsoever, she says:

“I thought it would have been a great branding opportunity. It never was a chicken commercial, it was about a sandwich, and I was singing about the ingredients in the sandwich. That’s what I thought it was. It broke my heart. I understand the laughter and the jokes…you’re supposed to do that when something like that happens.

She added: “The thing that hurt me was when people started saying vicious negative things that had nothing to do with it. So many people reached out to me, [they] saw how it went terribly wrong. My brother Busta Rhymes who I love to pieces, he reached out to me. It was a mistake, you know. I didn’t think it would come out like that.”

Many people who had complained were the people she referenced to in the last thing she said: “I want to apologise to anyone who was offended or thought I would do something that was so disrespectful to our culture, so forgive me if I hurt you.”

You be the judge!