Ben Foden’s pregnant wife Jackie accused of racism after claiming Chinese government is ‘spreading coronavirus’
BEN Foden's pregnant wife has been labelled a racist for sharing a post accusing China of spreading coronavirus.
Jackie Belanoff-Smith wrote the world was paying a big price for "China's diseases that keep coming out of there, either accidentally or intentionally".
Jackie married the 34-year-old rugby star last year and revealed in February that she was pregnant with their first child together.
The New York-based business owner took to Instagram to make the controversial statements, with people quick to call her out for the comments.
"China owns a lot of US's debt, BUT how much death and danger have they put us in, and how much money and time and energy have we exhausted because of it, caused by China's diseases that keep coming out of there, either accidentally or intentionally? " Jackie wrote on Instagram
"Is that fair? Like if I owe you $100, and then you caused a bunch of deaths in my family, and I had to spend a lot of time, money and energy to prevent further deaths, do I still owe you that $100?"
She then added: "Like, clean your s*** up China, this isn't the first time this has happened #forgivethedebt."
One of her followers quickly replied, warning Jackie: "Eh racism isn't particularly helpful right now. I don't think the USA is suffering like countries in the Third World that do and are repaying debt to the USA. White American privilege..."
Jackie shared her response to that follower asking how exactly her point of view could be seen as racist.
"How is this racist?! How is it fair?? All these diseases coming out of there, either from poor regulation of meat centers or poor regulation from labs, or they intentionally doing it to cull their population, which, with this very convenient disease that only kills old sick ppl, just seems a [lite] too convenient, it's not fair that we have to bankrupt our economy to deal with it, while still owing them the same amount of money?" she asked.
She continued: "I'm not hating on the Chinese people, I'm talking about the government. That's it."
Jackie also told her fans to unfollow her if they thought she was racist adding: "And anyone who thinks I'm being racist, can go ahead and get ***** and go hit that unfollow button bye."
China holds $1.07 trillion of US debt which is 16 per cent of the country's $6.7 trillion held by foreign countries.
It comes second only to Japan as the greatest amount of debt held by a foreign power which gives it political leverage, according to The Balance.
Jackie runs her own company called The Goddess Line, which sells cruelty-free fragrances, oils, soaps, lip balms, and yoga products which are all handmade in small batches in New York City.
She married Ben last year - only two weeks after they got together - in a relaxed ceremony onboard a luxury yacht in Massachusetts.
After the wedding Ben wrote on Instagram: "I met a girl who seriously swept me off my feet and in a time of hardship showed me love, a deep devoted love."
Their pregnancy announcement comes just 19 months after Ben's divorce from The Saturday's singer Una Healy.
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Ben - who now plays for Rugby United New York - admitted to cheating on Una while they were married.
Una dumped Ben after finding out he had a fling with PR girl Becky Milne – and bedded her just days after she had their second child.
The pair were married for six years and have two children together, Aoife, seven, and Tadhg, four.