Singer and actress Bette Midler fired off a controversial tweet about transgender icon Caitlyn Jenner.
“Now that @IAmCait has been cancelled, will she go back to being Bruce?” Midler wrote, before referencing the reality star’s ex-wife Kris Jenner. “Will Kris take him back? Do I smell a re-wedding?!”
The Broadway star offered up a mea culpa on Sunday after she was slammed with backlash over a joke wondering if Jenner will transition back to being a man now that her reality show is canceled.
“DEAR FRIENDS @HRC, WHOM I HAVE ALWAYS SUPPORTED,” she tweeted, addressing the Human Rights Campaign. “SORRY LAST TWEET OFFENDED. AN IDLE MUSING. I SEEM TO HAVE MISREAD THE TEMPER OF THE TIMES.”
The 70-year-old Midler sparked an online firestorm Saturday when she shared the polarizing tweet, which came a few days after Jenner’s E! Network docu-series “I Am Cait” was axed after two seasons.
Midler deleted the divisive dispatch shortly after, but not before a wave of fans saw it.
Many social media users were outraged, with some calling out the theatrical singer for being tone-deaf.
“Yes, because being transgender is just a phase?” an appalled user named Josh Haigh wrote. “What a vile tweet. Will you go back to being irrelevant?”
Another deemed the tweet “seriously transphobic,” while some pointed out the irony in the tweet given Midler’s status as an icon within the gay community.
“Just shows, you can be as gay-friendly all you want, but to some, transphobia comes so easy,” wrote a user named Annie Wallace. “How tired and pathetic.”
Jenner, 66, has not reacted publicly to the “Hocus Pocus” star’s tweet.