Miriam Margolyes has addressed the backlash to her ‘racism row’ with Andi Peters on ITV’s This Morning.The outspoken actress, 85, used an offensive term to describe ITV presenter Andi’s skin colour during an appearance on This Morning on Thursday. ITV bosses were forced to intervene after she referred to Andi as ‘high yalla’. The clip, which was removed from the ITVX recording of the show, has since gone viral, with many viewers taking to Twitter to express their outrage over Miriam’s comments. Miriam was asked about the incident during an audience event to promote her new memoir, Miriam’s Full English, at Cliffs Pavilion in Southend on Sunday.In videos shared by audience members on social media, she insisted: ‘I didn’t want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice.’I’d never met him before; I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know he was black until I saw him. When you see someone, of course you know they’re black. Miriam Margolyes has addressed the backlash to her ‘racism row’ with Andi Peters on ITV’s This Morning ‘I wanted to know what he thought about it because that’s what interests me.’Miriam then used an offensive term for disabled people as she continued: ‘How do black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do cripples feel? How do fat people feel?’You see what I mean? All of us feel something about who we are and how people see us, what they think of us.’The host interjected to clarify that ‘in other words you wanted to discuss his identity with him’, to which the actress was in full agreement.’I am fascinated by other people,’ she continued. ‘They are the people that interest me, not the celebrities so much. It’s everybody. What their story is, what made them who they are, why you are the way you are.’Miriam appeared on This Morning to promote her book last week, but ITV bosses were forced to intervene after she referred to Andi as ‘high yalla’.The term, which can also be spelled ‘high yaller’ or ‘high yellow’ is an outdated and offensive slang term used in the US to describe a black person with a light complexion. Miriam added that she ‘welcomes everybody’ and her book is about inclusion, but viewers on X accused her of being racist after the uncomfortable conversation. After first impersonating presenter Christine Lampard’s Northern Irish accent, Miriam turned to Andi a she asked: ‘But what accent would be normal for you?’ The outspoken actress, 85, used an offensive term to describe ITV presenter Andi’s skin colour during an appearance on This Morning on Thursday ‘This is normal. This is what I am,’ replied Andi, as Miriam continued: ‘Oh, you’re a mix, aren’t you? You’ve got a black daddy and a white mummy.’ ‘No, no, no. Both my parents are black,’ confirmed Andi, before he joked: ‘What have they put on me, am I a lighter shade than normal?’ Miriam continued: ‘Both parents are I think you’re what I would call a “high yalla”. That’s what they call it in America. Oh, when someone isn’t deeply black, right?”I didn’t even know there were shades,’ said Andi, as Miriam added: ‘There are shades.’Worried about the direction of the conversation, producers are thought to have issued a warning to Andi through his earpiece – with him then saying out loud: ‘Oh, okay. They’re getting nervous now. They’re getting nervous now.”Don’t be nervous,’ reassured Miriam, ‘We welcome everybody. That’s what I want to write about in my book. It’s about inclusion.’The Daily Mail contacted both ITV and Miriam’s representatives for comment. One outraged commenter wrote on social media: ‘Miriam Margolyes just sounds like a run-of-the-mill racist here. It’s very uncomfortable viewing.’Another wrote: ‘”Both your parents are black? I think you’re high yellow – that’s what they call it in America!” Well, yes, if you happen to live on a plantation in 1845. ‘We don’t actually call it that any more, on account of it being super racist’; ‘Imagine being called a slur that hasn’t been heard, in English, for like a hundred years’;’I assure you that is not what we call anything in America’; ‘No filter, not really a funny woman. Why do we still have her on TV?”This isn’t run of the mill racism. It’s 19th-century American racism.’ However, others penned: ‘What is racist about that?’; ‘Ignorance maybe but this isn’t racism’.Andi has responded to the ‘racism row’ as he said he has to be ‘ready for anything’, after his friend and fellow journalist Jeremy Vine reacted to the incident. Jeremy weighed in as he reshared the clip and called out Miriam’s comments as ‘seriously nerve-wracking’. Praising how Andi dealt with the interaction while live on air, Jeremy penned: ‘This is seriously nerve-wracking. No filter. ‘@andipeters dealt with it brilliantly but note at the end – “they’re getting nervous” [the producers]’.Thanking Jeremy for his support, Andi replied: ‘Thanks JV. As you know we have to be ready for ANYTHING!!!’