Jared Padalecki deleted a supportive message to Perez Hilton on Aug. 9 after some fans pushed back, then said he did not know enough about Hilton’s past to have posted it. The actor had first written that Hilton was in his thoughts and described “being human” as wonderful, exhausting and awful, but the post did not last long once criticism started coming in.
The backlash landed on a day when Hilton was still recovering from a medical emergency that had already drawn attention online. He was hospitalized on Aug. 4 after harming himself on TikTok live, and his family said on Aug. 8 that he would need surgery after significant blood loss. Padalecki’s message appeared to be a simple gesture of sympathy toward someone who was hurting, which is why the reaction around it moved so quickly.
Padalecki answered that reaction on X the same morning he removed the post. “I didn’t know. It’s been brought to my attention. I’m sorry,” he wrote, then followed with a longer explanation saying he had “ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA about his past.” He added that he had heard of Hilton and had heard Hilton “hadn’t exactly ‘been kind’” to him before, but said his instinct was to offer grace rather than hold a grudge.
That explanation did not erase the objection from fans who knew Hilton had spent years talking negatively about celebrities and believed Padalecki should have understood why the post would land badly. Padalecki said he had never looked Hilton up or visited any of his sites, insisting he thought Hilton was only a “tabloid” style sensationalist journalist. He also said he did not support “ANY of the actions” he had just learned about, then apologized again, writing, “Full stop. I’m sorry if my words caused any harm.”
For now, that leaves Padalecki’s public response as the end point of the dispute: a deleted post, a fast apology, and a clear statement that he was speaking without knowing the full history. The broader question is not whether he meant to be kind — he plainly did — but how often a brief show of support can become a problem when the person receiving it comes with baggage the sender has not checked.
