Giuliana Rancic is finally speaking out about her Fashion Police comments on Zendaya Coleman’s Oscars locs, which started a media firestorm after Rancic quipped that Zendaya’s hair looked like it smelled of “patchouli oil” and “weed.” Rancic offered a most perfect apology in the aftermath of the incident, but never really got a chance to explain herself, namely, why she made such a crappy joke in the first place.
Rancic finally got the opportunity to tell America what happened in her own words. The Fashion Police host paid a visit to the Today Show and told host Savannah Guthrie how this whole thing started in the first place. “I made a reference to the hippie culture. I talked about patchouli oil, which is a hippie perfume,” Rancic said. “In the editing process, some of the gestures I made were taken out for time. So I made peace signs, I said bohemian twice. Those were taken out for time, so when the joke aired, some people were offended by it.”
Though Rancic says she learned a lot from the experience, she says the thing that was most hurtful about the entire debacle is the fact that she was painted as a racist. “That someone could believe that I would have racial undertones in the things I do – absolutely not.”
Rancic says she understands why people were offended and blames it on the fact that she was “not edited in the proper way” as she was telling the joke.
In the interview, Rancic also addresses viewers’ hurtful comments about her weight. “It became distracting. I would do a two-hour red carpet show and I would be so proud of these interviews and fun moments, and I would go on the internet afterwards and see 99% of the comments were about my weight.” Rancic goes on to say that she does not have nor has she ever had an eating disorder, and her thinness is due to the side effects of the cancer medication she’s taking. “I was eating more than I’ve ever eaten and I was losing weight. I was scared. I didn’t think, ‘oh, this is great!’, I was thinking, ‘what the heck’s happening to my body?'”
[via Today]
