Forgive me for what I wore and trying to protect what was meant to be mine: Ushna Shah

The actor apologised to the blogger, adding while some people snuck in, she shouldn’t have let social media get to her

Actor Ushna Shah got married last weekend to her beau, an Austrian golfer, Hamza Amin and while her big day was beautiful, it was interrupted by a few uninvited guests who ruined the memory for her. Shah earlier called out a blogger for bringing a plus one, a photographer who brought a drone when the invite was only for the former. However, she has now issued an apology because she truly wanted to “move on” from the chaos.

Shah also announced that she will be taking a break from social media for a few days since the negative comments have affected her mental health deeply and made her question her profession.

"I haven't reacted to online trolling for years, but I am a human being at a very vulnerable time of my life; a new bride in a new home," she wrote on Instagram.

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Talking about how the breach of privacy made her upset, she added, "From hiring photography teams who signed NDAs to hiring security and strict guest lists at the door, I wanted to protect our union and only share what I was comfortable with. I worked very hard to make this time private. Several people invaded that privacy to exploit our happy occasion, including disrupting our Nikkah. As any bride would be, I was mortified, only a million times."

Shah asserted that she didn't have any intention to "offend our culture" and let people down. "I have read many of the comments. They don't seem to stop. Please believe that I did not get married to offend our culture, that wasn't the intention and if that is what people feel I have done, then I apologise for letting anyone down. I'm going to sign off from this platform for a few days, for the sake of my mental health and to spend this precious time with my wonderful husband and my new family, who are a blessing," she wrote adding that this incident has made her question whether she's "cut for this job" or not.

The Habs actor, who got “mercilessly trolled and bullied” for the shade of red she wore, the kind of dress and the makeup, said that it wasn’t right of her to direct hatred towards the said blogger, even if what he did was wrong, because that’s not how she was raised.

“The embarrassment I will face after this doesn’t outweigh the importance of an apology. I’d like to publicly apologise to AB Lakhany. He did not ask me to, I simply don't want to begin my new journey with this weighing down my conscience,” she wrote in an Instagram Story.

“I had no right to besmirch him online, even if he did bring in a photographer without permission, the world didn’t end. A new bride, managing so much, a nikah violated with an unknown drone, hundreds of thousands of trolling messages took a bit of a toll on me and AB was simply the final straw,” she added while claiming that many photographers “snuck” into the wedding and used the blogger as a scapegoat.

However, Shah truly regrets the meltdown she had. “In hindsight, I am mortified that I shared my grievance online. I simply needed a mental health day. Social media is a toxic, double-edged sword. What matters is the incredible man I married, the wonderful family I married into, the beautiful day we had and the abundance of love we received. Back to wedding celebrations!” she concluded while asking her fans to not be unkind to the blogger and to end this now.

In another Instagram Story, Shah confronted a photographer who released “unflattering” pictures of her from her wedding and multiple portals picked it. The images led to a lot of hate and trolling directed towards the actor.

“I apologised to AB only to save him from trolling and I am getting mercilessly bullied for getting married my way, for desperately trying to keep my shaadi my own, for being upset that my nikkah got interrupted by a drone and for feeling violated,” she wrote adding that she got “hundreds of thousands of messages” spewing hate when all she did was get married the way she wanted to.

“This is beyond cruel. Please forgive me for wearing what I wore and for trying to protect what was meant to be only mine. I did not sign up for any of this. I'm bowing out of this narrative,” concluded Shah.