Comedian Leslie Jones had a blast hosting Sunday’s BET Awards in Los Angeles ― but according to a tweet from her on Monday, an unpleasant experience at the Ritz-Carlton killed the night.
Jones had clearly been enjoying herself as a first-time emcee of the BET Awards, but her hosting high was ended by a seemingly race-fueled negative experience during her stay at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Los Angeles that night.
The star didn’t expound on the issue that led to Monday’s tweet. But hours later, the company apologized to Jones via Twitter and asked the comedian to send it a direct message through the microblogging site.
A representative of Ritz-Carlton declined to comment on the specifics of Jones’ complaint but said in an email to HuffPost Tuesday that the company remained committed to providing an environment where all feel welcome.
“Diversity and inclusion are part of the fabric of The Ritz-Carlton culture and operations,” the statement read. “While we do not comment publicly about individual guests, we take every guest concern seriously and work quickly to resolve issues.”
HuffPost has also reached out to Jones’ team for comment.
Jones, who’s also a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, spoke out with a tweet last June about an absence of designers offering to dress her for the premiere of the “Ghostbusters” remake, in which she was one of several female leads.
She later received an offer from designer Christian Siriano, but would find herself having to speak out again a month later after being targeted by racist social media trolls, including right-wing extremist Milo Yiannopoulos. Not only was she called a bevy of derogatory names, some sent her nude photos, she said.
Jones closed her Twitter account for a few days and was forthright about the painful experience and the reality of racism in America.
This story has been updated with comment from Ritz Carlton.
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