Jimmy Fallon and John Oliver leak text message Jimmy Kimmel sent after Melania Trump ‘got mad at him’
At the end of April, Jimmy Kimmel found himself in hot water with the Trumps once again.
On this occasion, it came after a joke he made about Melania Trump during an ‘alternative’ White House Correspondents’ Dinner segment on his 23 April show.
It led to both Donald Trump and his wife calling on ABC and Disney to fire Kimmel.
And during Monday’s (11 May) episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he spoke about the run-in with Melania as Colbert invited his ‘best television friends’ on to the show.
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Kimmel joined John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers to help ring in his final weeks on air as Colbert asked if they ever anticipated that they’d be ‘doing a job that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about’.
This led to a bit of an expose of what went down in the group chat.
"You know what's even weirder? Doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about. That's where it crosses over," Kimmel joked as Meyers said: “Most of us have avoided that part.”
The backlash to Kimmel came as he said on 23 April that Melania had a ‘glow like an expectant widow’.
And this happened to come just two days before a gunman opened fire at the real White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television.
“People are angry. It better be soon!!!”
On 27 April, Melania also asked for BBC to ‘take a stand’ as she claimed he had spouted ‘hateful and violent rhetoric’.
Oliver said that amid all this, it was ‘an amazing thing’ to get on group text: “Just a text from Jimmy saying, 'Oh boy,' and then a picture of Melania mad at him.
"What a way to start the day."
And Fallon joked: “And then I sent a text to you guys. I sent, 'Don't be mad at me but I liked it. I think she's got a point.’”
Kimmel told Colbert that the ‘saddest part of it is’ when he sees the ‘attention that the White House’s comments cause is: “I realize in those moments that the only four people who care are sitting right here. It takes 12 hours for the rest of the people in my life to even figure out that anything's going on
"Two hours after that, a guy I used to work with sent me a text. He's like, 'Hey, do you know a real estate lawyer?'"
Following the backlash, Kimmel explained on 27 April that his comment about Melania was ‘obviously a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they're together’.
He added: “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am.
"It was not by any stretch a call to assassination and they know that I've been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence in particular."
Topics: Jimmy Kimmel, Melania Trump, Donald Trump
Jess Battison