​Queen's Brian May Apologizes for Following Bryan Singer on Instagram

Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has faced plenty of artistic criticism, but the morality of its fired-but-still-credited director Bryan Singer has been further called into question after an Atlantic exposé revealed four more allegations of sexual misconduct involving underage men. Now, Brian May of Queen has apologized after his online activity was interpreted as defending the disgraced director.
 
One of May's followers requested that he unfollow Singer on Instagram — implying that following the director on social media is the same as supporting or condoning him.
 
May initially replied, "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."
 

Following swift backlash to his response, May issued an apology to the original commenter in the form of a new post.

"I was shocked and saddened to realise what I had done by my hasty and inconsiderate IG reply," he began.
 
"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," the post continued. "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."
 
May added that he has now unfollowed Singer, and apologized to anyone else who was offended by his retort.
 
See his full post below.
 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Folks - 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. This must have caused you a lot of upset. I wish I could take the comment back, but all I can do is apologise, and hope that my apology will begin to make amends. Sadly, this is all very public, but since I snapped at you in public, it's only fitting that I should apologise in public. I'm going to try to follow you so we can communicate privately if you want. With love - Bri. —— I should add that this is also a sincere apology to anyone else out there that I inadvertently offended. No such offence was intended and I will be more careful in future. Bri

A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal) on Jan 24, 2019 at 8:25pm PST

 
This week, Bohemian Rhapsody was nominated for several Academy Awards. Earlier this month, it won the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama.