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British actress Sophie Turner took a short break from her honeymoon with husband Joe Jonas to make an important point: defend US soccer star Alex Morgan.
On Tuesday, the women’s football team, led by captain Alex Morgan, forward kicked the winning goal to beat England 2-1 to make the United States reach the women’s World Cup final, which is on Sunday.
She got embroiled in a controversy after she went to the sideline and pretended to sip an imaginary cup of tea, sparking online memes and some criticism of alleged poor sportsmanship.
“My celebration was actually more about, ‘That’s the tea,’ which is telling a story, spreading news,” Morgan, 30, later told reporters. “Sophie Turner does it quite often. She’s one of my favorite actresses. So it wasn’t a hit to England in any way.”
Shortly after, the ‘Game of Thrones’ actress came to Morgan’s rescue.
“OK, I’m on my honeymoon, I’m not really looking at my phone much, but I feel like this deserves a mention,” Turner, 23, said in an Instagram Story video on Friday.
She went on to add: “Unfortunately, the U.K. Women’s Football team lost at the World Cup, and of course, I’m incredibly sad and incredibly proud of that team. But I am so honored that we lost to such an incredible team, the U.S. Women’s Football team.”
“Alex Morgan, all the haters that are saying that this was disrespectful, I’m honored that you thought of me and all those people that are hating on you are probably sitting at home, Millennials drinking Kombucha. And I’m really proud of you, Alex Morgan, congratulations on your win.”
Morgan had opened about double standard for females in sports after her controversial tea-sipping gesture.
“I feel that there is some sort of double standard for females in sports to feel like we have to be humble in our successes and have to celebrate but not too much and have to do something but it always has to be in a limited fashion. You see men celebrating all around the world in big tournaments, grabbing their sacs or whatever it is, and when I look at sipping a cup of tea, I’m a little taken aback and kind of you have to laugh about it to see all the criticism.”