Howie Mandel apologized on-air for making a bulimia joke during a live episode of NBC's "America's Got Talent" on Tuesday night.
The comment followed a performance by Stevie "The Regurgitator" Starr, who swallows objects then regurgitates them as his talent,
USA Today reported.
"This would probably come out wrong, but you, sir, make bulimia entertaining," Mandel said during the show.
Mandel was soon called out by people on Twitter who said his comments were insensitive and offensive.
"I just want to take a second just to apologize," Mandel said later in the show.
"I made a comment earlier – it's live television, I wasn't thinking. I made light of bulimia, which is a very serious eating disorder and mental health issue. I deal with mental health all the time, and I did something stupid. I should never make light of it. I apologize to anybody that was offended. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes."
Later that night, Mandel repeated the apology
on Twitter, writing, "I am NOT perfect. I make mistakes. I sincerely apologize to everyone who was offended."
As Us Weekly reported, Mandel himself struggles with an extreme fear of germs and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). In a 2009 television interview, he spoke openly about his struggle.
"I'm always on the verge of death in my head," he said. "In my mind [my hand] is like a petri dish. ... I would spend the day, as I have in the past in my life in the men's room rubbing and scrubbing and scalding... The biggest fear I have is being triggered. And if I'm triggered and I get some sort of weird thought in my head that can't go, then my day is, is stopped. My life stops."
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