Comedian Kathy Griffin has always been a rather controversial Hollywood figure. The actress is known for speaking her mind, even it means ruffling a few feathers. For instance, she once accused Andy Cohen of being worst boss, claiming that her former pal “treated me like a dog.” Griffin also has an ongoing feud with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and there’s no sign of a reconciliation between the two personalities anytime soon.

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In recent years, Griffin had also been expressing his displeasure at former president Donald Trump. At one point, however, some believe that the Emmy-winning comedian took things too far. Even worse, the stunt may have also drastically affected Griffin’s career.

Here’s How Kathy Griffin’s Donald Trump Controversy Unfolded

Just like other Hollywood celebrities, Griffin has long been critical of Trump and his administration for as long as anyone can remember. And while others just express their opinions, the comedian decided to express her true feelings for the former tv personality by staging a shocking photoshoot with the help of famed photographer Tyler Shields. The result was a photo of Griffin holding up a prop that resembled a severed head of Trump.

While discussing the photoshoot with Entertainment Weekly, Shields explained, “We’d been talking about doing something and she said to me, ‘I’m not afraid to get political if you want or make a statement if you want.’” The photographer also confirmed that they had shot the photo in a single day and that there were “10 different ideas” that they considered. “But then on the day, it was like, ‘This is the one. This is the one to do for sure.’”

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When Griffin posted the photo in 2017, the rebuke was instant. Trump himself tweeted, “Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children especially my 11 year old [sic] son, Barron, are having hard time with this. Sick!” Meanwhile, the photo also prompted outrage from Chelsea Clinton and celebrities like Anderson Cooper and Debra Messing.

Eventually, Griffin apologized for posting the photo. “I sincerely apologize. I’m just now seeing the reaction of these images,” the comedian said on Twitter. “I’m a comic, I crossed the line. I move the line then I cross it. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing, I understand how it offends people. It wasn’t funny. I get it. I've made a lot of mistakes in my career, I will continue. I ask for your forgiveness.”

Not long after, however, Griffin decided to withdraw her apology despite all the criticism she received from politicians, celebrities, and the general public. During an interview with Seven Network in Australia, she remarked, “The whole outrage was B.S. The whole thing got so blown out of proportion and I lost everybody. Like, I had Chelsea Clinton tweeting against me. I had friends — Debra Messing from ‘Will & Grace,’ tweeting against me. I mean, I lost everybody. So, I have been through the mill.”

Meanwhile, Shield recalled discussing the implications of the photo with Griffin. He knew that the stunt could have a lasting affect on her career. "The day that we realized this was going to be really crazy—I don't remember if it was the day after, or a couple days later—I called Kathy and I said to her, 'Listen, this happened with the Dixie Chicks, if you remember with the George W. Bush thing, and people were burning their albums, and driving over their albums or whatever," he said while speaking with Architectural Digest . "Kathy was in a tough mental place and I said, 'Kathy, this happened to them and they thought they were over, and they had that song and it wasn't an apology, and it ended up being their biggest song ever, but it took time."

What Happened To Kathy Griffin After The Controversial Post?

The backlash also extended to Griffin’s career. CNN, for starters, decided to cut ties with the comedian almost immediately. In a statement, the CNN Communications Department confirmed, “CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year's Eve program.” She was essentially blacklisted from Hollywood too.

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At the same time, Federal officials threatened to file charges against Griffin. They also made it hard for her to get around by putting Griffin on the no-fly list. “I was detained at every single airport,” Griffin revealed while speaking with NPR. “People have a myth - they think, oh, they can't take your phone and SIM card. Oh, they can, and they did at LAX, at London Heathrow.”

Years after shocking everyone, Griffin has made a return to entertainment, making her own movie and going on a comedy tour. Of course, she is aware that the people would never stop thinking about what she did in the past. “I’m very acutely aware I’m tied to that photo for the rest of my life,” Griffin said during an with Variety. “People confront me in the street. They think I’m ISIS. And then it becomes funny.”

Despite everything she had gone through as a result of the severed head tweet, Griffin also recently decided to relive the controversy once more. In 2020, she retweeted the very photo that almost ended her career following Trump’s continuous false claims about the presidential elections. The photo has since been retweeted over 9,000 times.

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