Martha Stewart apologises for insensitive Halloween costume

American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart apologised late on Sunday after she appeared to dress as a homeless person for Halloween. The 85-year-old billionaire deleted a photograph of herself in the costume and told her Instagram followers it had been “insensitive and not funny”.
In the photograph, Stewart wore ripped jeans and a torn sweater and had dirt on her face. She held a clipboard bearing a handwritten plea for help. “I Am Hungry Help Me!!” it read. Social media users were quick to criticise Stewart, saying the costume showed how out of touch she was.
“It's hard to admit when you've really screwed up,” Stewart wrote on Instagram after taking down the photograph.
Stewart had initially told US media that she had chosen the costume to raise awareness of homelessness. In her apology on Sunday, she acknowledged that her earlier explanation “didn't go far enough”.
“I know many people are suffering economically. Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I am very sorry,” she said in the statement.
Stewart built her fortune in the homemaking and lifestyle industries, offering Americans advice on cooking and entertaining through her cookbooks, magazines and television shows. Her business also extended to retail, with housewares that brought her name into the homes of people who knew her from television or had read her books. Over the course of that career, she became one of America's most recognisable lifestyle experts, her name synonymous with gracious living. — AFP