Emmerdale actress Shila Iqbal’s damning tweets have been revealed a day after she was fired from the show.
The tweets, believed to be posted to friends when Shila was in college in 2013, are said to have contained the N-word and gay slurs.
The 24-year-old star, who played Aiesha Richards in Emmerdale, was sacked from the soap yesterday following the news of the scandal.
One of the tweets is believed to have read: “Do not tweet me you gay.”
Another apparently contained a racist comment, which stated: “I know too many noisy (BLEEPS).”
Shila has now apologised for the messages and deleted her entire account.
The messages, first reported by MailOnline, were posted around six years ago, when Shila was 19 years old and attending Rochdale college.
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Shila said in a statement yesterday: “I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language. I have paid the price and can no longer continue the job I loved the most at Emmerdale.
“Although I was young when I made the Tweets, it was still completely wrong of me to do so and I sincerely apologise.”
She continued: “The only consideration I would ask is that I have recently received hateful tweets telling me that as a Muslim my Emmerdale role means that I am ‘committing sinful acts, promoting sin and deliberately going against the Quran’.
“We live in sensitive times for members of all communities and especially those in multi-racial Rochdale where I grew up.
“I regret that I too have let people down by the use of such language, albeit six years ago. I, like everyone else have a responsibility about the language I have used on social media as well as in conversation.”
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A spokesperson for Emmerdale confirmed that Shila has been let go.
They said: “As a consequence of historic social media posts Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale.
“The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”
Shila’s last scenes are believed to be airing in two weeks time.
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