Jennifer Aniston clarified her social media activity after being accused of “liking” Jamie Foxx’s seemingly antisemitic message.
“This really makes me sick. I did not ‘like’ this post on purpose or by accident,” Aniston, 54, wrote via her Instagram Story on Saturday, August 5. “And more importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their feeds — I do NOT support antisemitism. And I truly don’t tolerate HATE of any kind. Period.”
Several hours earlier, Foxx, 55, posted a troubling message via his Instagram. “They killed this dude name Jesus … They’ll do to you???!” he wrote on both his Instagram and Instagram Story, alongside “Fake Friends” and “Fake Love” hashtags.
Foxx — who is currently recovering from an undisclosed medical complication — was immediately met with backlash and was subsequently accused of spreading antisemitic rhetoric to his social media followers. The Oscar winner has since deleted the post. In a screenshot captured by A Wider Frame — which aims to share “current events in the Jewish world” — Aniston appeared to drop a “like” on the post. The Friends alum also shared A Wider Frame’s upload in her Saturday message.
Foxx issued an apology via Instagram on Saturday, August 5.
“I want to apologize to the Jewish community and everyone who was offended by my post. I now know my choice of words have caused offense and I’m sorry,” he wrote. “That was never my intent.”
He continued: “To clarify, I was betrayed by a fake friend and that’s what I meant with ‘they’ not anything more. I only have love in my heart for everyone. I love and support the Jewish community. My deepest apologies to anyone who was offended. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️.”
Foxx’s social media scandal — and Aniston’s rebuttal — comes nearly one year after many stars came together to denounce similar antisemitic comments made by Kanye West.
West, 45, initially shared troubling messages via Twitter and Instagram about his desire to go “death con 3 [sic]” on individuals of Jewish faith in October 2022. After the platforms locked him out of his accounts and West lost many billion-dollar brand deals, the rapper — who performed with Foxx on many songs including their “Gold Digger” duet in 2005 — apologized for his remarks.
Amid the scandal, many A-listers denounced antisemitism and the recent rise of hate speech and attacks on Jewish people.
“Antisemitism in any form is deplorable. In person. Online. Doesn’t matter where. It’s hate and it’s unacceptable,” Reese Witherspoon, who costars with Aniston in The Morning Show, tweeted at the time. “Completely understand why my Jewish friends/ colleagues are frightened for their families. This is a very scary time.”
Florence Pugh, for her part, wrote via Instagram: “Any form of hate speech only encourages, it grows and spreads like a disease. Any whisper of anti-semitism is dangerous and needs to be addressed and taken down.”
Foxx, for his part, declined to “speak ill” of his friend and collaborator throughout the ordeal. “All those guys that you’re missing, every time I talk to them, I hold them up [and] I hold them down, I say, ‘Remember when we used to have fun and smile and be goofy?’” Foxx told TMZ in November 2022 when asked about West’s scandal. “Let’s get back to that and the world will take care of [itself]. But, if we allow ourselves to stop having fun, especially on our side, then who’s gonna go for it. … We only got one life to live, there’s so much craziness.”
