By John Jones

Copyright walesonline

European football giants Borussia Dortmund have apologised after a video was posted on the club’s TikTok account that appeared to mock a Welsh woman’s stammer. The clip featured influencer Jessie Yendle, from Pontypridd , who has always lived with a stammer and now has over three and a half million subscribers on TikTok after spending years raising awareness around speech impediments. In the video, she is shown struggling to pronounce a sound as she stammered, with the repetition then transitioning into a dance track-backed highlights clip of Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassy, A similar video was also posted online by triathlon organiser Ironman, with Ms Yendle said to be “deeply shocked and hurt” by the “cruel and public mock[ing]” after discovering the clips that had been posted. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the influencer told the BBC : “Jessie has been deeply shocked and hurt to discover the videos shared on social media. “As someone who has courageously used her platform to raise awareness about stammering, being mocked in such a cruel and public manner is not only personally distressing, but also extremely disappointing. Sadly, these posts only highlight just how far we still have to go in building a truly inclusive and respectful society.” The videos posted by Dortmund and Ironman have now both been deleted, with the football club’s clip reportedly having 765,000 views on TikTok before being taken down. Both organisations have now apologised for their actions, with Dortmund promising to fly Ms Yendle to a Champions League game of her choice. In a statement, a spokesperson for the eight-time German champions said: “It was absolutely not our intention to embarrass, insult, or attack anyone,” adding that the club was “deeply sorry” for sharing the video online. Extending the invitation to Ms Yendle to attend a Champions League match, the spokesperson added that the club wanted to do so “to convince her on-site that we at Borussia Dortmund are good people”. Ironman has also receached out to Ms Yendle – who is known online as Mimidarlingbeauty – to apologise, admitting that it had made a mistake after receiving backlash over the video. “We should have done proper research before jumping on what we thought was a social media trend,” the organisation said. “As an organisation, we care deeply about inclusion and have worked closely with athletes of all abilities.” Ms Yendle has garnered a huge online following after posting videos to raise awareness of her stammer and other speech impediments, with her clips regularly getting millions of views. In 2021, she began to set herself public challenges, including asking people for directions and ordering food at drive-throughs, which she then shared online. She previously told the BBC how she couldn’t complete an interview for her “dream job” in London due to her stammer, explaining: “I sat in that room for 20 minutes just trying to say my name. “They asked me to come back tomorrow, but as it was in London, I’d already booked my travel home. I had the qualifications, I’d worked really hard and I just wanted the chance but I couldn’t because of my speech. That was really hard. I’m always trying to prove myself to people because they just saw my speech and that was it, they didn’t see beyond that.” Before finding fame on TikTok, Ms Yendle opened up to WalesOnline about the struggles she faced growing up with a stammer, admitting it led to her being bullied and being placed in lower sets after being deemed unintelligent. “It started when I was a child,” she said. “I couldn’t speak until I was four years old. “When I was younger, I used to punch myself in the face and pull on my hair. I would just get more frustrated that I couldn’t speak. “ School was hard. I got bullied all the way through school, but the school I went to thought I was just not intelligent and put me in all the low sets. It made me feel really low about myself. The teachers would all tell my mum I would need extra help, but I was just very shy and very quiet.”