Kathy Griffin has apologized for her relentless teasing of Anna Nicole Smith in her early-aughts comedy acts.Griffin called the ’90s and 2000s a “terrible time for women” that saw her being “vicious” to Smith.The comedian also recalled the last interaction she had with Smith before her death in 2007.<\/p>\n
Comedian Kathy Griffin<\/a> has apologized for her treatment of her friend and early-aughts pop culture icon Anna Nicole Smith<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n In a new YouTube<\/a> video (below), the 64-year-old Emmy winner recounted her relationship with Smith, the famed model and entertainment personality who was widely ridiculed by comedians and the media over her substance abuse and public demeanor prior to her 2007 death.\n<\/p>\n Griffin regularly spoke about Smith (and impersonated her by slurring her words) in various stand-up acts, including her televised Bravo specials, which included recollections of her time filming a segment for Smith’s former E! reality program The Anna Nicole Show.\n<\/p>\n Kathy Griffin attends the 11th Annual Shorty Awards on May 5, 2019.<\/p>\n Noam Galai\/Getty<\/p>\n The comedian called Smith “one of the greatest beauties ever of any generation” but noted she “also was very troubled. As her career went on, she was very addicted to drugs, she overdosed. That’s how she passed away. It’s no secret.”\n<\/p>\n “I knew her, and I knew her from putting her in my act. I really loved her. So, let me just talk about her, because I was quite vicious to her in my act because she was always f—ed up,” Griffin said, before again bringing up filming The Anna Nicole Show’s Christmas special at the model’s house alongside Margaret Cho<\/a>, Rip Taylor, and the late wrestler Chyna.\n<\/p>\n Griffin said he has “real, genuine affection for Anna” and, at the time, “didn’t know one minute to the next if she was going to hate me or not based on what I was saying in my act.”\n<\/p>\n She continued, “Let me just say again, apologies for everything I ever said in the ’90s and 2000s, but once again, unless you lived through the ’90s and 2000s, you don’t know what a vicious time it was comedically. Vicious.”\n<\/p>\n The entertainer went on to call the era a “terrible time for women,” and cited things like wet t-shirt contests as rampant examples of men fetishizing women without quesiton.\n<\/p>\n “So, I was vicious to Anna, and I also witnessed a lot of tough times with her because when she was messed up, she could be nasty, she could be rough,” Griffin continued. “I know, in her heart, she was so abused by the business.”\n<\/p>\n Anna Nicole Smith poses for a portrait during the Video Software Dealers Association Convention on July 11, 1993.<\/p>\n Ron Davis\/Getty<\/p>\n Griffin then shared a sweet memory that put a cap on their relationship, as she noted what happened during her final interaction with Smith at an awards show.\n<\/p>\n “She looked across a darkened backstage area, picked me out, and just went, ‘Hi, Kathy,” Griffin remembered. “And that was the last time I saw her, and I just said, ‘Hi, honey.'”\n<\/p>\n She finished, “I just have to say, I loved her. I’m not a hater. Yes, I made fun of her, and yes, she had issues, but I just have to say, it means so much to me that our last interaction was Anna Nicole, as messed up as she was, she wasn’t mad at me, she wasn’t confronting me, she wasn’t waving her finger in my face like Whitney Houston did and got very upset with me…. I love that my last encounter with her is just her going, ‘Hi, Kathy.'”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In a 2024 interview with <\/a>Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, Griffin opened up about the toll that navigating criticism and public scrutiny \u2014 particularly following her infamous photo with a bloodied prop head made in the likeness of Donald Trump<\/a> \u2014 caused.\n<\/p>\n