UFC Champion Conor McGregor’s Family Denies His Mother Wore Blackface for Halloween

Halloween just passed, so, of course, some people are facing backlash for seemingly resorting to blackface as part of their costumes. But no one expected mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor to make the list.

The UFC star is standing by his mom after facing public scrutiny for her ghoul costume, which included black face paint. McGregor and family came under fire on Monday after the Irish mixed martial arts fighter shared photos of his family’s Halloween costumes in a since-deleted post, Daily Mail reports.

While McGregor opted to dress as Frank Abagnale from the film Catch Me If You Can, his mom, Margaret, 63, sparked controversy after being accused of wearing blackface for her costume. The family was attending a party at The Black Forge Inn in Dublin, where Margaret could be seen with black paint smeared across her face.

McGregor’s sister, Erin, shared a video to her Instagram Story that showed Margaret posing in her costume with the caption:

“Mad Magzer loving the Halloween vibe,” along with two laughing emojis.

McGregor immediately came under fire when his followers reminded the Irish athlete about the racist history behind wearing blackface.

“Come on bruh we still doing blackface in 2022,” one viewer wrote.

“Nobody else seeing the black face paint on the lady at the end? Wtf?” said someone else.

“Is that….blackface? What is going on with that?” another user wrote.

“Whoever in the red costume is racist,” quipped another.

But McGregor insisted that his mother wasn’t donning blackface but instead had black spiders painted on her face to go along with the red dress and necklace with three skulls she sported for her ghoul costume.

“The McGregor family loves Halloween,” a spokesperson told The Sun.

“Mrs McGregor had spiders painted on her face since her costume was a ghoul risen from the grave.”

“Any other interpretation was just wrong and truly unfortunate,” they added.