Actuality star Baylen Dupree is talking out in protection of Tourette syndrome advocate John Davidson after he blurted out a racial slur as a part of his Tourtette’s tics on the 2026 British Academy Movie Awards.
“I want to talk on this as somebody who lives with Tourette’s,” Dupree, 23, wrote in a press release shared by way of Instagram on Tuesday, February 24. “Once you reside with this dysfunction, you lose management of your individual voice generally. And that may be a terrifying factor.”
Dupree took to her social media platform after Davidson was heard shouting the N-word and different obscenities from the viewers throughout Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo’s second on stage on the Sunday, February 22, star-studded occasion held in London. Lindo, 73, was visibly greatly surprised when the incident happened because the duo introduced the award for Finest Visible Results.
Davidson was attending the awards ceremony in London to symbolize the movie, I Swearwhich explores his life rising up with Tourette syndrome in Eighties Scotland after experiencing his first verbal and bodily tics at age 12.
Host Alan Cummingwho instructed the gang that Davidson was in attendance on the occasion and warned them that they could hear involuntary tics all through the night, thanked the viewers for his or her “understanding” after listening to the offensive language. Jamie Foxx was among the many stars who shared their ideas on the now-viral second, calling it “unacceptable.”
“Tics aren’t ideas. They don’t seem to be opinions. They don’t seem to be secret beliefs hiding beneath the floor,” Dupree defined. “They’re involuntary neurological impulses — like a sneeze or hiccup besides generally they connect themselves to phrases that carry weight, historical past and ache.”
She prompt that Davidson doubtless felt “fast disgrace” and uttered phrases he “didn’t imply” as a consequence of his dysfunction. (Davidson publicly addressed the incident in a press release shared with Selection on Monday, February 23, noting, “I’m, and at all times have been deeply mortified if anybody considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to hold any that means.”)
“Individuals suppose if a slur comes out, it should replicate what’s in your coronary heart,” Dupree continued. “However Tourette’s doesn’t pull from hatred — it usually pulls from nervousness, from concern, from the very factor you’re most scared of claiming. The mind misfires on what feels charged or taboo.” (The TLC alum had tics in her youthful years however was identified with Tourette syndrome in 2020 forward her 18th birthday.)
She famous that Tourette’s “doesn’t excuse the harm a phrase carries,” including, “Phrases matter. Historical past issues. Ache issues.” Dupree identified, “However so does neurological actuality. There’s a distinction between intent and impulse.”
Baylen Out Loud star Baylen Dupree has discovered her match in boyfriend Colin Dooley. “He’s, like, my spine,” Baylen, 22, completely instructed Us Weekly on Thursday, January 9, forward of the premiere of her eponymous TLC docuseries. “All the things that I do, simply being round him helps. He understands me considerably higher than I perceive myself (…)
“Residing with Tourette’s means consistently apologizing for one thing you didn’t select,” Dupree concluded. “It means dwelling with the concern that one second may outline you eternally. It means realizing that regardless of how variety you’re, it doesn’t matter what you imagine, one tic may make the world determine who you’re.”
Amid the controversy, a rep for the BAFTAs additionally spoke out on February 23 to deal with the incident.
“We need to acknowledge the hurt this has precipitated, tackle what occurred and apologise to all,” the assertion started. “Early within the ceremony a loud tic within the type of a profoundly offensive time period was heard by many individuals within the room. Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo have been on stage on the time, and we apologise unreservedly to them, and to all these impacted. We wish to thank Michael and Delroy for his or her unimaginable dignity and professionalism.”