Married to Medicine star Dr. Jackie Walters says she is “brokenhearted” but “moved to be better” amid controversy over comments she made in 2020.
Walters, an OB-GYN, is facing backlash from fans after saying in an interview with costar Dr. Heavenly Kimes on the latter’s Heaven Help Us podcast that Black women sometimes cry wolf with their doctors during pregnancy, as Deadline reports.
“Sometimes as African-American women, we’re a bit more dramatic, and that you go to the doctor, and you complain, and you complain, and you complain, and you’re not taken seriously because you cried wolf the entire pregnancy,” Walters said at the time. “As African-American women, we want to also make sure you’re being serious with your doctor and not playing the game … Because then, we see you 25 times in the pregnancy, it’s hard to believe that there’s a true problem when there’s a true problem.”
According to Deadline, that interview resurfaced online following the latest episode of Bravo’s Married to Medicine, in which Walters had a Zoom conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris about Black women’s maternal mortality rates.
And on Saturday, Walters apologized on Instagram, saying in a video that she is “taking a much-needed pause” to address her 2020 comments.
“First and most importantly, to Black women and mothers, including your friends, families, and the medical community who cares for you: Because my words left you hurt and feeling unsupported, I want you to know I hear you, I see you, I believe you, and I apologize from the bottom of my heart,” she says. “I am brokenhearted over this. The guilt and reality that I have hurt and offended people, especially Black women and some of my own patients, pains me to my core.”
Walters also tells Instagram followers that she “used the wrong words and descriptions to properly convey my concerns regarding maternal mortality related to women of color.”
But because that maternal mortality crisis is ongoing, Walters wants to clarify her message. “If I could say it all over again, here’s how I’d say it: When experiencing a health matter, keep a log of your concerns and symptoms so that you can provide them accurately to your physician,” she recommends in the video. “Have a buddy system, someone who can advocate for you when you’re with a physician, especially when pregnant. Know that a second and third opinion is not just sometimes warranted but necessary.”
She closes the video by thanking fans for watching. “I’ve been shaken and moved to be better,” she says.
Married to Medicine, Sundays, 9/8c, Bravo
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
