Lorde apologises after posting bath picture with Whitney Houston lyric

Singer Lorde has apologised and called herself an “idiot” after posting a picture of a bathtub captioned with Whitney Houston lyrics.

The New Zealand star shared a now-deleted photo of her bath on Instagram along with the words “And iiii will always love you”, from Houston’s version of I Will Always Love You.

Following the post, a number of people shared their outrage on social media – Houston died after being found submerged in a bath six years ago.

Writing on her Instagram story, Lorde said: “Extremely extremely poorly chosen quote. I’m so sorry for offending anyone – I hadn’t even put this together I was just excited to take a bath.

“I’m an idiot. Love Whitney forever and ever. Sorry again.”

In a second post, along with emojis depicting shock and horror, the 21-year-old added: “It is not my fkn day today.”

Houston died at the age of 48 in February 2012, after being found in the bath of her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Her daughter Bobbi Kristina died at the age of 22 in 2015, seven months after being found face down in a bathtub.

A number of people slammed Lorde on Twitter for her original post, with one writing: “lorde is probably sitting in the tub not realizing what she just did.”

Another had said: “This is disgusting idk how people find it funny. Whitney was a legend. she was amazing. she was a queen. she was a strong black woman. I like lorde but this is truly disgusting.”

However, fans leapt to Lorde’s defence, with one describing it as “an unnecessary witch-hunt” and others saying that it was an accident.

“Wait y’all genuinely believe lorde was trying to make a joke about whitney’s death? weirdos,” another said.