Earlier this week, Gap was grilled for its latest fashion ad for kids featuring a white girl resting her arm on the top of a black girl’s head, but now there’s a little more to the story.

After a Twitter backlash.

An apology from the retail chain.

Plus, this newly released photo.

Photo: gap
Photo: gap

Come to find out, the two girls centered around the debate are actually sisters and their mother isn’t too happy about the fallout. Brooke Smith, the actress from Grey’s Anatomy and Ray Donovan, took to Twitter to silence some of the confusion.

Her daugthers, Lucy and Fanny are with Le Petit Cirque, a youth performance group. Founder, Nathalie Yves Gaulthier released a statement via ABC News about her full support of GapKids and the company’s handling of this matter.

The child in the ad is not an “armrest,” she’s the other girl’s little sister. They are a very close family. The child is a very young [junior] member with Le Petit Cirque, a humanitarian cirque company, and therefore a wee shyer than the more seasoned older outgoing girls. Our company is deeply saddened by some people misconstruing this as racist, and are keeping the children out of this at the moment to protect their beautiful feelings, but we are extremely supportive of dialogue in our country to move past any racial barriers. We stand by Gap Kids and Ellen DeGeneres.

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