Bridget Maasland is accused of opportunism now that she is going through the dust in the Kelly van der Veer documentary. However, she has already said sorry out of sight of the camera, she proves.
It’s a joke that might have cost her her TV career in 2023: Bridget Maasland called Kelly van der Veer ‘a man’ on television seven years ago, as if she wouldn’t be a real woman as a transgender woman. A documentary about the Big Brother celebrity is currently being shown and Bridget is crying through the dust in it.
Bridget says sorry
Critics argue that it is purely to save her career, but Bridget now proves that she also said sorry outside the view of the camera at the end of 2021. She shares in her Instagram stories the email she sent to Kelly at the time: “Hi Kelly, I’m just going to get straight to the point,” it says.
“I would like to sincerely apologize for a comment I made years ago in Shownieuws about us arriving at the Beau Monde awards in the same dress. I didn’t understand until recently – sheer ignorance – that with my, I thought funny, comment, I hurt you and undoubtedly other transgender people enormously.”
‘I’m sorry’
The apologies Bridget makes in this email seem sincere. “Again, I am deeply sorry and it was never my intention to intentionally hurt. In The Hague, where I come from, we have the saying: the joke takes precedence over the insult! But it certainly shouldn’t hurt. Under the guise of better late than never. Love, Bridget Maasland.”
Kelly replies, “That’s very sweet of you! After all those years. Apology accepted. Love back!”
Not mean
Seven years ago, Bridget already publicly apologized, but that did not seem serious at the time. She added at the time: “But seriously, she was a man, right? It’s vicious because everyone knows she used to be a man.”
The fact that Bridget is now going through the dust so publicly has earned her a compliment from Anouk Smulders: “I think it’s very brave that she does that. You can’t do it either, can you? And bury your head in the sand of: that was then. I think it is right that you are standing there, but it is also good.”
The email in question:
