Why Did Ayo Edebiri ‘Tearfully’ Apologise to Jennifer Lopez?

Ayo Edebiri, the Emmy-winning actress and comedian, recently made headlines for her tearful apology to Jennifer Lopez, the pop star and actress, before they appeared together on Saturday Night Live. The apology was prompted by a resurfaced podcast clip from 2020, where Edebiri called Lopez’s music career “one long scam”. What led to this awkward and emotional encounter, and how did Lopez react?

The facts

The podcast in question was “Scam Goddess”, hosted by Laci Mosley, who invites comedians and celebrities to discuss various scams and frauds. In an episode from October 2020, Edebiri was the guest, and the topic was the infamous Fyre Festival, the failed luxury music festival that scammed thousands of attendees and investors in 2017.

During the conversation, Mosley brought up Lopez’s involvement in the Fyre Festival, as she was one of the celebrities who promoted the event on social media. Mosley then made a bold statement: “Jennifer Lopez’s whole career is one long scam”.

Edebiri agreed with Mosley and proceeded to criticize Lopez’s singing abilities and authenticity. She said: “Well, that’s the thing — she thinks she’s on multiple tracks, but it’s not her. I think she thinks that she’s still good, even though she’s not singing for most of these songs … A lot of the write-ups of the songs will be like, ‘J.Lo didn’t have time to make it to the studio.’ Like, ‘J.Lo was busy.’ Doing what? Not singing, obviously.”

Edebiri also implied that Lopez was lip-syncing during her Super Bowl halftime show performance in 2020 and that she was stealing songs from other artists, such as Ashanti and Selena Gomez.

The arguments

The podcast clip went viral in February 2024, when it was announced that Edebiri would host Saturday Night Live on February 3, with Lopez as the musical guest. The clip sparked a backlash from Lopez’s fans and supporters, who defended her talent and achievements and called out Edebiri for her disrespect and ignorance.

Some of the reactions on social media included:

• “Ayo Edebiri is so rude and unprofessional. How can she host SNL with J.Lo after saying those things about her? She should be fired or at least apologize.”

• “Jennifer Lopez is a legend and an icon. She has been in the industry for over 30 years and has sold over 80 million records worldwide. She can sing, dance, act, produce, and more. She is not a scam, she is a star.”

Edebiri was aware of the controversy and decided to address it before the SNL episode. According to Lopez, who revealed the details in a Variety cover story, Edebiri came to her dressing room and apologised to her “with tears in her eyes”.

Lopez said: “She was mortified and very sweet. She came to my dressing room and apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. She felt really badly and loved my performance because we had just done my soundcheck and she actually got to hear me perform. She was just like, ‘I’m so fucking sorry, it was so awful of me.'”

Lopez added that she was not affected by Edebiri’s comments, as she had heard similar things said about her throughout her career. She said: “It’s funny. I’ve heard similar things said about me throughout my career, so it really didn’t affect me.”

Edebiri also made a subtle reference to her apology during the SNL episode, in a sketch where she played a contestant on a game show that forced her to confront her mean online comments.

She said: “OK. We get it. It’s wrong to leave mean comments, post comments just for clout, or run your mouth on a podcast, and you don’t consider the impact because you’re 24 and stupid. But I think I speak for everyone when I say from now on, we’re going to be a lot more thoughtful about what we post online.”