Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, said she is "over living in a dictatorship that we call Michigan" in a series of Instagram video stories on Thursday morning.
Hours later, she issued the following apology:
Here's what I do best, coming back to apologize after I read some of your things . . . I'm really sorry, I was in the heat of the moment. I have a friend losing their business and it's just getting to me a little bit, so I apologize for calling it a dictatorship, probably the not so smart use of words.
In the videos, which came one day after new COVID-19 restrictions went into effect, Stafford said shutting down small businesses is not the answer.
"They will not make it. So once we are able to leave our house, once this dictatorship lets us have some freedom, there will be nothing left," she said.
She also said she's aware that there is a pandemic and that people are scared, and that she is scared, too.
"If you are at risk, don't leave your house until there's a vaccine," she said.
In the series of posts, she said that she knows everyone isn't going to agree with her, but that's her opinion.
"I feel for these small businesses. It’s not that I don’t feel for the people that have COVID or the hospitals, I do, but this is my opinion," she said. "I do not like living in a place where they tell me what I can and cannot do. I only live once."
In later posts, Stafford said she would be gathering a list of all local businesses she knows of and tagging them on Instagram to encourage people to go to them.
