Sheryl Underwood Apologizes for Insensitive ‘Natural Hair’ Comments, Reveals Her Own Hair: ‘I Understand Why I Was Called an Uncle Tom’ [Video]

Sheryl Underwood made a joke a few years ago that didn’t quite sit well with a lot of people.

She made a joke about how she didn’t understand why Heidi Klum chose to save her biracial children’s hair.

“Why would you save Afro hair? You can’t weave in Afro hair!” Sheryl joked — and subsequently got dragged on social media.

On Monday’s episode of The Talk, she debuted her own natural hair—a short, curly Afro—and apologized for her prior comments.

“I made some statements that were not only wrong, but they hurt our community […] black people are very sensitive about a discussion about our hair.” 

“The way the joke came out offended my people and my community, which was not my intent,” she continued.

Sheryl then described the backlash she received after making her insensitive joke:

“There was a lot of backlash. A lot of people said that I was an Uncle Tom […] I was a coon. I could understand that kind of language being used because people were hurt.”

Shortly after the incident, Sheryl decided to embrace her own natural hair.

“I cut my hair off. I cut the perm out. I still wear wigs because I like variety, but what I really wanted to do was engage women,” she said.