Neil Patrick Harris Formally Apologizes to ‘Devastated’ Rachel Bloom

Neil Patrick Harris is asking for forgiveness after an ill-timed Twitter joke during Sunday’s Tony Awards left Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star and co-creator Rachel Bloom feeling “devastated.”

The actor tweeted during the awards ceremony about the actress, who was serving as the host backstage who throw to commercials during the show.

His tweet seemed to throw shade at Bloom, which led to her responding to his tweet by reminding him that they had met several times before the Tonys.

In an interview with GQ, Bloom admitted the actor’s joke had left her feeling hurt.

“It wasn’t a joke. Basically I saw that tweet. And I was kind of devastated,” she said. “I was actually going to tweet, ‘This makes me sad.’ But then I was like, ‘Ehhhhhhhhhh… I don’t want to give him that, necessarily.’”

Bloom went on to explain that the two had met before and recently hung out backstage after a Broadway show.

“It was just bizarre to me that it wouldn’t ring a bell. And also, that he wouldn’t Google it,” Bloom said. “But look, he’s not a writer, so his version of a Twitter joke is to just kind of… live-comment to Twitter followers with kind of random, unformed thoughts.”

After the interview was published, PEOPLE reports, Harris tweeted his “sincere apologies” toward Bloom.

“Sincere apologies to [Rachel Bloom] for my Tony tweet. I failed to research her before pressing ‘send’, and what I thought was a funny comment in our living room must have been far from funny to read, backstage, mid show. As a performer and a parent, I should have known better.”

Bloom also explained in the interview how hurtful Harris’ joke was, particularly with the fact that her husband, Dan Gregor, was a writer on How I Met Your Mother and even penned a special episode of the series where Harris’ character meets his father for the first time.

Bloom said the two actually have a framed picture and script from the episode in their home with Harris in it.

“So it’s, like, a big part of our lives!” Bloom said. “And I guess what I would say is, the thing he said in response [to my tweet] wasn’t really an apology as much as saying, like, “well said! Thanks for the reminder.”

Harris made headlines during the ceremony when he tweeted, “Who is the woman in the top hat backstage at the [The Tony Awards]? Gideon remarked that she says ‘like’ and ‘oh my god’ a lot. I’m confused…”

Bloom quickly responded to his tweet: “I’m a big fan of yours. We’ve met numerous times and my husband, Dan Gregor, wrote for How I met Your Mother for 5 years. Notable he wrote the episode where your character finally meets his father.”

She added during her interview, “Look, he didn’t say that I was terrible. It was just kind of a random thing. But I think, if he wants to be gracious: He has 27 million Twitter followers. He could check out an episode of the musical TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — which is, right now, the only musical show on television. And tell his 27 million Twitter followers to check it out. I wouldn’t hate that!”

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will return for its fourth and final season in fall 2018, airing Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.