What did Jillian Michaels say about the Olympics Last Supper controversy? LGBTQ celebrity trainer's tweet on hypocrisy goes viral

American fitness expert, certified nutritionist, and celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels took to X on July 27 and shared her opinion on the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony controversy. She addressed the LGBTQ+ community of which she is a member and called out their “hypocrisy.”

Jillian Michaels posted a picture of the song and dance sequence, which was deemed as a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, and wrote:

“Dear fellow gays… We demand tolerance and respect but then make a mockery of something sacred for over 2 billion Christians. This type of hypocrisy and lack of understanding is a bad look.

“We get outraged when the extreme right bashes us, but then we do this s**t. What kind of reaction do you think they will have towards the LGBTQ+ community after this? This is NOT how we break down barriers it’s how you build them,” she tweeted.

Jillian Michaels' statement on the Olympics opening ceremony. (Image via X/JillianMichaels)

Jillian Michaels' post has now garnered severe traction online, earning more than 154,000 likes, over 11,000 comments, and nearly 22,000 reposts at the time of writing.

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Exploring the Olympics opening ceremony scandal in the wake of Jillian Michaels’ tweet

On July 26, at the inaugural ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, French artists including DJ, producer, and LGBTQ advocate Barbara Butch, singer, songwriter, artist, and actor Philippe Katerine, and theater director and actor Thomas Jolly portrayed a musical sequence.

However, their performance caused a stir online as many viewers worldwide deemed it a mockery of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Renaissance painting, The Last Supper. In the 15th-century piece, Vinci depicted Jesus Christ having his final meal with twelve apostles the night before his crucifixion and telling that one of them would betray him.

The song and dance sequence showed Barbara Butch dressed in a blue dress and a silver headdress appearing in front of a long dinner table. Viewers claimed that the headdress resembled the halo of Jesus in the historic artwork. Later, she was surrounded by more than a dozen drag queens on both sides, seemingly mirroring the Twelve Apostles, which also earned backlash.

Following this, Philippe Katerine appeared as Dionysus, the Greek God of wine-making, fertility, and celebration. He was scantily clad, wore blue body paint, and sat on the dinner table singing his song Nu with fruits lying around. The act ended with all the performers dancing along to his song and later exiting the stage in a seemingly runaway manner.

The show drew harsh criticisms online from notable figures, including Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate, Mike Johnson, and others. American telecommunication company C Spire withdrew their advertisements from the Olympic Games.

In the wake of the widespread backlash, Anne Descamps, the spokesperson of the Paris 2024 Olympics organizers, issued an apology over the weekend.

"Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance… If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry.”

Thomas Jolly, the choreographer of the act, also claimed that his “inspiration” was not The Last Supper painting but rather Greek mythology and the story of Dionysus. He said he wanted it to be a “pagan celebration” of French culture and not that he didn't intend to “mock” the world.

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Notably, Jillian Michaels told Fox News Digital in the aftermath of the Olympics opening ceremony that the performance was a “big F.U.” by the LGBTQ+ community.

“We have been given the right to marry. We are able to adopt children and there is significantly more tolerance and more acceptance. And instead of appreciating that, acknowledging that, and showing the same respect in kind, the gay community takes something that's sacred to two billion Christians and makes a mockery of it," she said.

Jillian Michaels, who recently launched her podcast Keeping It Real, added that the LGBTQ community should have behaved in the way they hope to be treated, included, and respected.