Former Bachelorette star Georgia Love has apologised after being accused of “casual racism” on Instagram.
Ms Love, who is a reporter for Channel 7 in Melbourne, posted a video inside a restaurant serving Asian food on Monday morning.
Zooming in on the cat at the glass door, Ms Love captioned the video “shop attendant or lunch?!” alongside a crying laughing emoji.
The video was reshared to Instagram account @aussieinfluenceropinions, an account with almost 60,000 followers that describes itself as an “opinion space to talk everything about our Aussie influencers”.
“As well as ‘casual’ racism being totally not okay, did Georgia not take into consideration about how this could make her audience with an Asian background feel?” the account captioned the video
Others also slammed the reality star, saying her video was a “stupid thing to post” and “so disappointing”.
Vietnamese-Australian woman and anti-Asian hate campaigner Alyssa Ho also condemned the post, describing Ms Love’s actions as “just reckless”.
“It makes me sick just as much as it makes me genuinely sad to think people like her can so openly share things like that, completely disregarding the harm they cause to the Asian community,” Ms Ho wrote on her Instagram story.
“To those triggered by that, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry to every single Asian person who has ever had to sit there in embarrassment, anger and discomfort as someone pulled the whole dog/cat eating joke.”
Ms Love has since deleted the video from Instagram and issued an apology, writing on her story that she had “meant for this to be a joke about an animal being in a restaurant at lunch service time”.
“I meant absolutely no insinuation about the type of animal not the type of restaurant, but I see that my post did not come across like that and was offensive,” she wrote.
“I sincerely apologise for the oversight and offence I have caused.”
Ms Love also said thank you to “those who called me out” as it was “what we need to make sure we are all accountable and do better”.
News.com.au has also contacted Ms Love’s management for comment.
Back in July Ms Love faced criticism for a tweet she made about controversial MAFS couple Bryce and Mel’s pregnancy.
The Melbourne-based influencer also copped a backlash for tweeting about her wedding cancellation last year to Lee Elliott, who she met on The Bachelorette in 2016.
The couple have since tied the knot in a Tasmanian ceremony.