Angela Simmons apologizes for bringing gun-shaped clutch to the BET Awards after weapon-inspired accessory sparked backlash: ‘I thought it was a fashion moment’

Angela Simmons has responded to the backlash she received after bringing a gun-shaped clutch to the 2024 BET Awards.

Simmons, the daughter of Run-DMC’s Rev Run, drew criticism when she attended the awards show wearing the accessory inspired by her arms, but she later explained that she didn’t mean to “inflame anyone’s emotions” and only saw the clutch as a “fashion moment.”

Simmons, 36, apologized to anyone who was offended by her fashion accessory and reminded fans of her own tragic history with gun violence: in 2018, her ex-fiancé Sutton Tennyson was shot dead.

Simmons, who has a 6-year-old son Sutton Jr. with her late ex, told fans in an Instagram video: “I’ve been seeing a lot of conversations about the bag I wore to the awards. I normally don’t comment on rumors and stuff like that, but that’s not who I am.

‘Never been like that. I’m great, I’m not violent, I’ve obviously been through a lot in my personal life when it comes to gun violence and it’s very personal to me, but I just liked the bag and I thought it was cool and I thought it was a fashion moment and that’s it.

“I didn’t mean to ruffle anyone’s feathers. It seems like everyone, or a few people, are a little upset. I didn’t mean any harm. Super, super peaceful. I’m sorry if it upsets anyone, but that’s not me, that’s not me.”

Fans were not impressed when Simmons, who is now in a relationship with rapper Yo Gotti, wore the eye-catching accessory.

“She could have done without that damn clutch,” one wrote. “Bad choice of bag,” another wrote.

“Glock clutch is insane,” one person wrote with a laughing-crying emoji. “I can’t defend this one. Normally I’d stand up for you.”

On the red carpet, Simmons boldly posed with the bag in the shape of a gun, even holding it up as if she was about to pull the trigger.

The shoe designer beamed with happiness as she posed in a semi-sheer green dress by Casze Atelier.

In a 2020 episode of the show Growing Up Hip Hop, Angela candidly spoke about the painful moment she had to tell her son Sutton Jr. that his father had been murdered.

“How do you explain to a three-year-old that he or she will never see you again?” Simmons told life coach Chenoa Maxwell.

On the red carpet, Simmons boldly posed with the bag in the shape of a gun, even pointing it as if she was about to pull the trigger

She beamed with happiness as she posed with the eye-catching bag

She wore a semi-sheer green dress by Casze Atelier

Simmons said she had to tell the child about the tragic death when the boy thought he saw his father in a vehicle that looked like the one his father was driving.

“I was with my son, and super emotional, even talking about it. He looked out the window and said something like, ‘Dad, white car,'” she recalled.

She continued: ‘I asked him, “Where do you see him?” or “Who is Daddy? What does he look like?”

“I ask him. I say, ‘Do you want to see your father?’ and he says, ‘Yes.'”

“So he comes over and I’m showing him videos and pictures and stuff, and he stops,” Simmons said. “He’s not able to have a full conversation yet, so that’s what makes it emotional. He’s like, ‘Is he still alive?'”

In a 2020 episode of the show Growing Up Hip Hop, Angela candidly spoke about the painful moment she had to tell her son Sutton Jr. that his father had been murdered.

Simmons responded to the negative comments on Instagram

She apologized to anyone she had offended and insisted she had no intention of “ruffling any feathers”

“He doesn’t even say the word ‘alive,’ so when he asks that it’s like, Whoa. Did you really just say, ‘Is he alive?’

“I was just like, ‘No, he’s not,'” Simmons said. “This is the first time I’ve had to explain it to him, which is really sad because he’s 3. How do you explain to a 3-year-old that they’re never going to see him again?”

‘Except in my own way, which says, “He’s in heaven, he’s with God.”

Simmons said her son “put his head on my chest and told me he was sad.”

“I never saw him emotional. He’s a happy kid, and that whole day he was just kind of, like, grumpy and sad. And I said to him, ‘I got you. You’re OK. You’re good.’ And he said, ‘Okay, I got you.’ It was that conversation, but it was super hard to have that conversation with him.”