'An arrogant comment': Brandon Espiritu admits fault in 'halfies' remark
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American pageant titleholder Brandon Espiritu has called his controversial "halfies" remark an "arrogant comment" in an ambush interview in Osaka, Japan, where he said he is taking a break from social media.
Brazilian content creator Eren Wayne Jr. uploaded on Threads a man-on-the-street interview with Espiritu, whom he said he spotted walking in Osaka.
Wayne said he decided to interview Espiritu, the second runner-up at Mister Supranational 2024.
Espiritu said he is a model and business owner based in Manila and was in Osaka to celebrate his mother's birthday.
"Osaka is kinda a healing place," he told the content creator.
Espiritu then opened up about the backlash he received earlier this month over his "halfies" comment.
"It wasn't supposed to be ill intent, but it just blew up and like I was like so infamous for like two weeks... Crazy backlash. I deactivated my stuff and I'm just taking a break from social media for like two months. And yeah, that's kind of why I'm here too. I just want to relax, take a break," Espiritu said.
He said he stopped using social media after previously having 500,000 followers and regularly making content.
'Arrogant comment'
Wayne discussed social media and its negative effects, then asked Espiritu about his social media issue in the Philippines.
"A lot of Filipinos got really mad about that because they thought that I was basically saying ‘Full Filipinos are less than half-Filipinos,' but I was just basically speaking in the context of the pageant world," Espiritu said.
The Brazilian content creator commented on how social media posts and comments are taken out of context and blown out of proportion.
Espiritu agreed, but added: "True, but I will say it was an arrogant comment. I should not have dropped that, and I do respect my country, my people. I'm Filipino myself. I definitely see where I went wrong, but yeah, man, I got to take a break."
Espiritu also shared a message about finding confidence in faith after public backlash.
"If this goes out to the internet, I just want to let everybody know like if shit hits the fan, your money, your career, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, anything external that you can't control, you can still find confidence in God, in your faith," Espiritu said.
"You're only here because of our faith, and like without Him I'm not confident at all, so like you can take anything away from me, but you can't take that away," he added.
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