Candace Cameron Bure Defended Herself From the Great American Family Backlash But Critics Won’t Be Dying Down
Over two years ago, Full and Fuller House star Candace Cameron Bure made headlines for leaving Hallmark and signing with Great American Family, a new faith-based network. “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” Bure told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
Of course, saying this quickly wrapped up the actress in a scandal, with fans accusing her of homophobia, transphobia and much more.
Two years later, Bure is the chief content officer of Great American Media and is sticking by the network no matter what.
“It certainly is difficult when talking to media outlets,” Bure told The Hollywood Reporter of the backlash in a new interview. “While we are grateful for media outlets that point people to our channels, there’s still always a risk because the answers can be written out of context. That certainly happened to me when moving over to the Great American Family, and it was a really hard time, and to be misunderstood in that way was difficult.”
Bure, who’s starred in dozens of Hallmark Christmas movies like Let It Snow and Christmas Under Wraps, then explained what she meant all along. “What I will say is that we are a relatively new channel,” she explained. “This is only our fourth year in Christmas. Like any new business, you have your core demographic and what you’re looking for, and you’re going to produce the product that will best suit that audience. Most networks are not trying to be all things to all people.”
“What really differentiates our channel from some of the other ones out there is that we’re not afraid to talk about God and God’s hand in our lives instead of fate or providence,” she added.
For Bure, making movies about God and faith has nothing to do with dividing and excluding people, but it’s all about bringing people together. “Yeah, it’s always been the spirit of all the movies that I’ve produced,” she said. “God loves all of us, and so that’s the spirit in which I make everything.”
Just this year, Bure will be releasing four new movies under GAF: Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker, A Christmas Less Traveled, Home Sweet Christmas and Jingle Bells, Wedding Bells.
Despite Bure sticking to her guns, critics won’t be shying away from going after her anytime soon. On X, users think this is just her repeating her prejudicial and homophobic remarks all over again.
“She doesn’t seem to understand she’s a bigot and plays it off as [traditional] values,” wrote one user. “Aww, poor thing got called out for being a bigot,” echoed another. “They just love to play at being persecuted.”
Looks like Bure won’t be out of the woods until she changes her tone.
Before you go, click here to see our favorite rom-coms where the main couple isn’t white.