Angela Simmons apologizes for bringing gun-shaped clutch to BET Awards

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

Simmons, who is the daughter of Run-DMC’s Rev Run, was slammed after she attended the awards show with the arms-inspired accessory – but she later explained she didn’t intend on ‘ruffling anyone’s feathers’ and merely saw the clutch as a ‘fashion moment.’

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

Simmons, who has six-year-old son Sutton Jr. with her late ex, told fans in an Instagram video: ‘So I see a lot of conversation around the purse I wore to the awards and normally I don’t address rumors and stuff but I’m not like that.

‘Never been like that. I’m super, like 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 was it. 

‘I didn’t have any intentions of ruffling any one’s feathers. It seems like everyone, or a couple of people I’ll say, are a little upset. I didn’t mean no harm. Super, super peaceful. I’m sorry if it bothered anyone but that’s not me, that’s not how I am.’ 

Fans were not impressed to see Simmons, who is now dating rapper Yo Gotti, bring the attention-grabbing accessory. 

‘She could have did without that damn clutch,’ one posted. ‘Terrible choice for a bag,’ another wrote. 

‘Glock clutch is insane,’ one wrote with a laughing-crying emoji. ‘I can’t defend this one. Usually i take up for u.’  

On the red carpet, Simmons boldly posed with the gun-shaped purse, even pointing it as if she was about to pull the trigger. 

The shoe designer beamed with happiness as she posed up a storm while clad in a semi-transparent green dress by Casze Atelier.

On a 2020 episode of the show, Growing Up Hip Hop, Angela opened up about the painful moment she had to tell son Sutton Jr. that his father had been killed.

‘How do you explain to a three-year-old that they’re never going to see them again?’ Simmons told life coach Chenoa Maxwell.

Simmons said she had to tell the child about the tragic death when the boy thought he had seen his dad in a vehicle similar looking to the one his father drove.

‘I was with my son, and super emotional right, even to talk about it. He was looking out the window and he’s like, “Daddy, white car,”‘ she recalled.

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

‘I’m asking him. I’m like, “Do you want to see your dad?” and he’s like, “Yes.”’

‘So he comes over and I start showing him videos and pictures and stuff, and he stopped,’ Simmons said. ‘It’s not like he’s full conversational yet, so this is what kind of makes it emotional. He was like, “Is he alive?”’

‘He doesn’t even say the word ‘alive’ so for him to ask that is 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’m having to explain it to him, which is, like, super sad, because he’s three. How do you explain to a three-year-old that they’re never going to see them again?’

‘Other than my own way, which is like, “He’s in Heaven, he’s with God.”

Simmons said that her son ‘kind of laid his head in my chest and told me he was sad.’

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