23 February 2026\n <\/p>\n
John Davidson has said he is \u201cdeeply mortified\u201d after shouting a racial slur during the Bafta Film Awards.<\/p>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/image-library\/partners\/bang\/land\/1000\/j\/john-davidson-has-said-he-is-deeply-mortified-after-shouting.jpg\")
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John Davidson has said he is \u2018deeply mortified\u2019 after shouting a racial slur during the Bafta Film Awards<\/p>\n
The Tourette\u2019s campaigner whose life inspired the film I Swear attended the 79th British Academy Film Awards on Sunday (22.02.26) night and during the ceremony, Delroy Lindo, 73, and Michael B Jordan, 39 \u2013 who both star in the vampire horror Sinners \u2013 were presenting the award for special visual effects when he was heard involuntarily shouting the N-word from the auditorium. <\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Monday (23.02.26) night, John said: \u201cI wanted to thank Bafta and everyone involved in the awards last night for their support and understanding and inviting me to attend the broadcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciated the announcement to the auditorium in advance of the recording, warning everyone that my tics are involuntary and are not a reflection of my personal beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was heartened by the round of applause that followed this announcement and felt welcomed and understood in an environment that would normally be impossible for me.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn addition to the announcement by (show host) Alan Cumming, the BBC and Bafta, I can only add that I am, and always have been deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nJohn also said: \u201cI was in attendance to celebrate the film of my life, I Swear, which more than any film or TV documentary, explains the origins, condition, traits and manifestations of Tourette\u2019s Syndrome. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cI have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette\u2019s community and to teach empathy, kindness and understanding from others and I will continue to do so.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMoments before John\u2018s interruption, actor Michael said: \u201cDelroy and I are delighted to present the first Bafta of the night, a vital part of movie making.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe actors paused briefly when the N-word was heard, before continuing. <\/p>\n
\nHost Alan Cumming, 61, later told the audience: \u201cWe apologise if it has caused offence.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nJohn left the ceremony halfway through after several involuntary tics.<\/p>\n
\nHe was diagnosed with Tourette\u2019s at 25, having first noticed symptoms at 12. <\/p>\n
\nActor Robert Aramayo, 33, won best actor for portraying him in I Swear.<\/p>\n
\nDelroy told Variety that he wished \u201csomeone from Bafta spoke to us\u201d and said he and Michael \u201cdid what we had to do\u201d as they continued presenting. <\/p>\n
\nThe BBC later removed the ceremony from iPlayer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.femalefirst.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 23 February 2026 John Davidson has said he is \u201cdeeply mortified\u201d after shouting a racial slur during the Bafta Film Awards. John Davidson has said he is \u2018deeply mortified\u2019 after shouting a racial slur during the Bafta Film Awards The Tourette\u2019s campaigner whose life inspired the film I Swear attended the 79th British Academy Film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2296693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[320210,445077,378436,445075,350556,444602,445074,347327,445076,349119,445073],"class_list":["post-2296692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-alan-cumming","tag-alan-cumming-apology-speech","tag-delroy-lindo","tag-delroy-lindo-baftas-reaction","tag-jamie-foxx","tag-john-davidson","tag-john-davidson-tourettes-campaigner","tag-michael-b-jordan","tag-michael-b-jordan-bafta-presenter","tag-robert-aramayo","tag-thierry-mabonga"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/John-Davidson-\u2018deeply-mortified-after-shouting-racial-slur-during-Bafta.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2296694,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296692\/revisions\/2296694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}