Bad boy biker Jesse James defended himself from accusations that he’s a racist, saying that a photo of him wearing a German S.S. officer’s hat and posing in a Nazi salute was “a joke.”
James said the photo — which ran in Us Weekly during his time in rehab after it was revealed that he’d been cheating on actress Sandra Bullock — doesn’t portray who he really is.
“I don’t even remember taking the photo. I could tell by the look on my face it was a joke that was funny then, probably for a minute, but then looking at it in the context of now and in my life, it’s not funny,” he said in an interview that aired this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America. “There’s not a racist bone in my body.”
After months of keeping a low profile, James said one of the reasons he sat down for the interview — the rest of which will air tonight on “Nightline” — was to dispel such rumors.
“I think out of everything, this is why I’m doing this interview the most, because you know, dealing with losing my marriage and my son and embarrassing everyone and decimating my life, but to be called a racist on top of that is, it makes me really sad,” he said.
InTouch magazine revealed in March that James had been cheating on Bullock with a tattooed stripper named Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. Three other women subsequently came forward saying that they had had affairs with James, 41, since he’d been married to Bullock in 2005.
“It’s terrible — and she’s going to be hurt for a long time,” he said of the affect his cheating has had on the 45-year-old Bullock.
James said seeing the recent People magazine cover of a smiling Bullock holding their adopted 3 1/2-month-old newborn son was a difficult reminder that he was absent.
“It made me sad, but I realize why things have to be done in a certain way,” he said.
James said he and Bullock found out around Christmas 2009 that the adoption went through and welcomed Louie, who was born in New Orleans, into their family on New Year’s Day.
Asked why they adopted a black child, James said he “didn’t care what color” the baby was.
“My only prerequisite for adopting a baby was that I want the baby that needs us the most,” said James, owner of the West Coast Choppers bike shop in LA.
Bullock had been a step-mom to James’ three children — daughter Chandler and son, Jesse Jr., whom he had with his first wife, Karla; and another daughter, Sunny, whom he had with his second wife, porn star Janine Lindemulder.
James also added that seeing Bullock, who won an Oscar for best actress for her role in “The Blind Side,” added: “To see her in the role as mother is, like, one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. She is like a fish to water.”
Of his infidelity, James said, “I told her basically everything, that I had affairs outside of our marriage. I think she’s had her suspicions in the past, but, you know. I lied, and lied my way out of it. I lied to everyone about everything, even to myself.”
With Reuters