AceShowbiz - A morning TV news in Oklahoma apologizes after landing in hot water for her racist remark about her black co-host. During last week broadcast, Alex Housden jokingly compared her colleague Jason Hackett to a gorilla on-air, enraging many people.

The KOCO-TV host said the insensitife remark when she was reporting on a young gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo. “This week, the ape's caretaker took over their Instagram and we are all loving that they did. Now as you can see, Finn was fascinated by the camera," she said during the August 22 segmet.

Housden then added that the ape "kind of looks like you, when you take a picture" to Hackett. The latter then chuckled nervously and replied, "Kind of does actually, yeah."

It was almost unsurprising that the backlash arrived immediately, prompting Housden to issue a tearful apology the next day. Sitting on a couch beside Hackett, whom she dubbed her best friend, Housden said on-air that she was sorry for the comment and apologized to him and to the "entire community."

"It was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate and I have hurt people. And I want you to know I understand how much I've hurt you, out there -- and how much I've hurt you," she said.

"I love you so much," Housden said to Hackett. "And you have been one of my best friends for the past year and a half, and I would never do anything on purpose to hurt you. And I love our community, and I want you all to know from the bottom of my heart, I apologize for what I said. I know it was wrong and I am so sorry."

Hackett then revealed that he accepted her apology. "I want to let everybody out there to know that Alex is one of my best friends...what she said yesterday was wrong. It cut deep for me and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community...," he shared.

He continued, "I want this to be a teachable moment and that lesson here is that words matter...we're becoming a more diverse country and there's no excuse. We have to understand the stereotypes...each other’s backgrounds and the words that hurt...that cut deep and we have to find a way to replace those words with love...."

Despite the apology, some people didn't really buy Housden's words. "If you're comfortable saying those kind of things on air, who knows what you say behind closed door," one person wrote said on her Facebook page. "Think before you speak. And you were on live television. An apology will not make that go away," one other adviced.