Madonna apologises for Instagram racial slur gaffe

After initially dismissing as 'haters', those who criticised her for using the racist term to describe her white son, Madge later said sorry

Apologising for using the word to describe her white son, Madonna claimed that it was meant as a term of endearment (Getty Images)

It all started on Friday when proud mother Madonna posted a seemingly innocent picture of her 13-year-old son boxing on the photo sharing app Instagram.

The problem was, at the end of the caption accompanying the image, the pop superstar used a variation of a racist slur as a hashtag to refer to Rocco, her child with British director Guy Ritchie.

“No one messes with Dirty Soap! Mama said knock you out!“ the caption read, followed by the words “#disnigga”.

When outraged Instagram users berated her for using the word, Madge soon deleted the comment, but rather than apologising there and then, she replaced it with the words “Ok let me start this again #get off of my d*ck haters!”

After having the night to consider her actions however, a contrite Madonna span a u-turn and in a statement asked to be forgiven, claiming that the word was meant as a 'term of endearment'. She has also now deleted the original photo.

“I am sorry if I offended anyone with my use of the N word on Instagram. It was not meant as a racial slur. I am not a racist. There's no way to defend the use of the word. It was all about intention,” she said.

“It was used as a term of endearment toward my son who is white. I appreciate that it's a provocative word and I apologise if it gave people the wrong impression.”

Besides Rocco, Madonna has three other children - Lourdes, David and Mercy. The youngest, Mercy and David, are black, adopted from the African nation of Malawi.

This is isn’t the first time Madge has courted controversy through posting pictures of her son on Instagram - earlier this month, she posted a photo of Rocco and his two young friends holding up bottles of alcohol.

Responding to criticism that time round, she said: “No one was drinking we were just having fun! Calm down and get a sense of humor! Don't start the year off with judgement!”