KEY POINTS

  • The controversial photo showed Griffin posing with a bloodied replica of Trump's head
  • Many, including her former friend and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper did not approve
  • The 61-year-old appeared on TV for the first time in 5 years with "Search Party"

Kathy Griffin posed for a controversial photo in 2017 which involved a bloodied replica of then-President Donald Trump's head. The incident caused a lot of outrage at the time and ultimately led to the comedian being ousted from Hollywood.

It has been nearly five years since, and the 61-year-old opened up about the consequences she faced back then, during an interview with The New York Times.

In the photo that went viral, Griffin posed with a mask of Trump's severed head covered in ketchup. "I wasn't canceled," Griffin said. "I was erased."

The photo received a lot of flak from many, including Chelsea Clinton and Griffin's former friend Anderson Cooper, adds People.

"​​I honestly never had a desire to make enemies, but I keep making enemies," added the comedian.

Griffin had a busy schedule before the photograph. She was performing several stand-up shows and executive produced her own show "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List", which aired on Bravo from 2005-2010. However, after the controversy, the actress was not only fired from her annual New Year's Eve co-host job for CNN with Cooper, 25 theaters canceled her upcoming shows as well.

Along with being dropped from shows, Griffin also received several death threats after the incident, including dozens of messages left on her aging mother’s answering machine, and others kept calling into the hospital room of her sister, Joyce, who was dying of cancer.

The star was also investigated by the Secret Service and heard from the Department of Justice.

Kathy Griffin
Kathy Griffin hosted a dinner party for Kris Jenner, Melanie Griffith and Rita Wilson just hours after she posted the controversial decapitated photo of Donald Trump. Pictured: Griffin speaks during a press conference at The Bloom Firm on June 2, 2017 in Woodland Hills, California. Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown

While there were a lot of people against Griffin at the time, a few did side with her.

Griffin “tried to tell a joke, but the joke wasn’t clear and it bombed,” said Bill Prady, the co-creator and executive producer of “The Big Bang Theory.” “It has happened to me a million times — the joke was a misfire because unless you knew the reference she was making, you were looking at an image that was hard to interpret.”

Director and producer Judd Apatow then shared that if America is still mad at Griffin, its priorities are messed up. It is “seriously out of whack,” he said, “that she is struggling to get things back on the rails because something went too far in a photo.”

Griffin made her return to television for the first time in five years when she was cast in season 5 of HBO Max's "Search Party" as a conspiracy theorist named Liquorice Montague for four episodes.

She also toured in 17 countries and released her own documentary, "Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story," which delves into details of the fallout from the Trump photo scandal.

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