Godfrey has apologized to the late James Avery for his insensitive remarks aimed at the late actor. On Thursday (Feb. 20), the New England native took to Instagram to amends with Avery’s friends, family, and fans for a viral video of his. In the clip, which the comedian claims to have been taped during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Godfrey brazenly discusses The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air icon as being “gay as hell.”
The entertainer recalled a moment during an unnamed gospel awards ceremony in Chicago where he worked as an audience coordinator and saw Avery there. The 55-year-old insisted that he didn’t mean any ill will by his joke, saying, “I used the phrase, ‘Oh yeah, he was secretly gay as hell’… That was distasteful the way I said that, and to a man that I respect—HIGHLY respect. It was disrespectful to him, his family, and to people who are fans of his. I had no intention of being that disrespectful. I was just talking loosely as a comedian, and it wasn’t cool.”
If you were unaware of the controversy, an alleged old video of the South Side actor went viral earlier this week, with him making disparaging comments about James Avery. Godfrey claimed that Avery was acting “very gay” and that he was caught off guard by the late thespian’s “flamboyant” behavior.
“I had to do audience coordinating for the Gospel Awards when I first started comedy in Chicago,” Godfrey shared. “Behind the scenes, James Avery was there. Mike Tyson, Farrakhan, everybody was there.”
“I saw him, he was flamboyant,” Godfrey added. “I was like, ‘This is Uncle Phil? Uncle Phil is Aunt Phil?’…He was like, ‘Girl’… He was such a great actor. You would never know.”
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