New England-Born Celebrity Once Begged Jennifer Lopez for Forgiveness

There's a really good lesson in this, but we'll save that for the end because, let's be real, we mostly care about the drama.

Ayo Edebiri Boston

Her name may not be as well known as other New England celebrities like John Cena, Tom Bergeron, Adam Sandler, Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Anna Kendrick, and other locals that have made it to the big time, but she's well on her way.

Need proof? Dorchester, Massachusetts native Ayo Edebiri is one of the stars of the hit Hulu Original Series, The Bear, which is the series that led her to becoming a multi-time Screen Actors Guild Awards winner back in February 2024.

READ MORE: 25 Popular Celebrities Who Have Owned Homes in Maine

It's also the catalyst that led her to host an episode of Saturday Night Live, also in February 2024, where this huge apology to Jennifer Lopez comes into play.

Ayo Edebiri Jennifer Lopez Podcast

Back in 2020, shortly before Jennifer Lopez was scheduled to take the stage the the Halftime Show with Shakira during the Super Bowl, Ayo appeared on the Scam Goddess podcast and, in lesser words, called J-Lo's entire music career one big scam.

At the time, Ayo was 24 years old. Not necessarily an excuse, but also, who hasn't done stupid stuff in their 20s when, let's be real, they still don't have a full grasp on who they are, what the world even is yet, and their purpose in it.

Especially in a time where, let's face it, most people just want to go viral to get some kind of 15 minutes of fame and a payoff. Especially if your career literally revolves around being relevant for regular every day people like us. (Again, not an excuse, but just a dose of reality.)

Ayo Edebiri Jennifer Lopez SNL

Which brings us to the episode of SNL mentioned above that Ayo hosted in February 2024 -- an episode which also featured as a musical guest, of all people in the world it could've been on that particular Saturday -- Jennifer Lopez.

According to Billboard, backstage before the show in Jennifer's dressing room, Ayo was apparently in tears, apologizing to J-Lo for her comments four years ago.

The two buried the hatchet, and Ayo even referenced the entire situation in one of the skits that aired on SNL that night, titled, Why'd You Say It? -- a skit presented like a game show that asks three "contestants" why they posted the comments they did on Instagram.

And, honestly, here's where the lesson kicks in.

In a time where cancel culture is still a thing, and generally consists of Tweets, comments, and posts from way back in the day that didn't age well at all -- it doesn't allow room for one thing.

The realization that people can grow.

How many of us see posts or comments we made five, 10, 15 years ago pop up in our "memories" and we cringe, both unable to believe that we even posted something like what we see, as well as can't even recognize that we were ever a version of ourselves that would post something like that in the first place.

If J-Lo can easily forgive Ayo for basically insulting half of her entire well-being, since music has been half of Jennifer's entire career and a good chunk of her existence, maybe that should teach us to go a bit easier on each other and allow people to learn from past mistakes.