Champion Hamilton Sorry for Instagram Post

On Christmas Day, newly crowned F1 World Champion Hamilton posted a video of his nephew wearing a dress. As it turned out, he made some “inappropriate” comments after posting a video on Instagram. He appeared to make fun of his young nephew for wearing a dress.  Hamilton videoed himself saying “I’m so sad right now. Look at my nephew,” before directing the camera at a boy wearing a pink and purple dress while waving a toy wand.

He asked his nephew “Why are you wearing a princess dress? Is this what you got for Christmas? Why did you ask for a princess dress for Christmas? Boys don’t wear princess dresses!”

Since then, the video has been taken down from his profile after it started to attract negative comments on social media. On Boxing Day Hamilton issued an apology via his social media channels. The video drew a lot of ire on social media, with performance artist Travis Alabanza tweeting: “I hope @LewisHamilton properly thinks and apologises to his nephew for that video. Thinks about why it is so horrible, and considers donating to a charity which supports LGBT youth. That video is a video so many of us have experienced. Gross. It sticks with you.”

Anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label founder, Liam Hackett, tweeted: “Disappointing to see somebody with such a huge platform use it to publicly shame and attempt to undermine a small child.”

Hamilton said, “Yesterday I was playing around with my nephew and realised that my words were inappropriate so I removed the post. I meant no harm and did not mean to offend anyone at all. I love that my nephew feels free to express himself as we all should. My deepest apologies for my behaviour as I realise it is really not acceptable in the world today for anyone, no matter where you are from, to marginalise or stereotype anyone. I have always been in support of anyone living their life exactly how they wish and I hope I can be forgiven for this lapse of judgement.”