J-Lo: Tweet was supposed to be inclusive

Jennifer Lopez said she did not realise the “sensitivity” surrounding the hashtag All Lives Matter after she was criticised for tweeting the phrase to promote her Orlando benefit song.

The US music star posted a picture on Twitter with the controversial message after performing her tribute to the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Florida which claimed 49 lives.

Lopez, 46, deleted the tweet following a backlash from social media users, who argued the hashtag has been used as a counter-argument to BlackLivesMatter, the phrase inspired by the fatal shootings of black people by police in the US.

She said her tweet was intended to voice support for victims of “all the senseless acts of violence” in the US and abroad in recent weeks.

She told the Press Association: “We originally did a song for Orlando. I was only trying to be inclusive. It was about this, and I didn’t want to not say it was about this, but I also wanted to include everything that was going on. I didn’t realise there was such sensitivity to it in that moment which is why I decided to take it down.

“But my message has always been about love and my message is about including all the senseless acts of violence and that love is the answer for all of it.

“I think people understand that at the end of the day that those were my intentions.”