Emily in Paris Star Ashley Park Faces Massive Backlash for Mocking Pope Leo XIV: ‘Does Anyone Care…’

Ashley Park gets slammed for being disrespectful to the new Pope. The actress who’s currently shooting Emily in Paris in Rome filmed herself reacting to Pope Leo XIV being elected as the first American head of the Church. 

In the video, she mocked and laughed at the new Pope, insinuating that nobody cared. Park seemed in a cheerful mood as she joked about not understanding the hype around the election. “Does anyone care?” she asked her crew while getting her glam. 

Hair and makeup artist Carole Nicolas sarcastically responds, “Fantastic.” Park reacts with a laugh alongside her hairstylist, Parizhair. Content creator Addison O'Connor also giggled next to the actress and her crew. 

“We're here and we heard the church bells a'ringing!” she joked before ending the video. Netizens weren’t pleased by Park’s incentive remark and shared their reaction, rooting against it. “Ugh! So disrespectful. Ugly inside and out,” one user wrote on X. 

“She have to apologise for what she did!” a second user chimed in. However, some people also came to her defence. One user claimed that asking if somebody cared wasn’t that offensive. “Lol if you can see this and were offended fuck Jesus and any other false deity you pray to,” the user added. 

“That's not mocking. You guys are reaching bigtime on this,” another wrote. On Thursday, May 8, Pope Leo was appointed as the successor to the late Pope Francis, becoming the first ever American head of the church in the history of Rome. 

As for Park, she’s filming the highly anticipated season of Netflix’s hit rom-com Emily in Paris. The actress is set to reprise he role of Mindy alongside Lily Collins’ Emily Cooper, Lucas Bravo’s Gabriel, Lucien Laviscount’s Alfie, and others. 

Emily in Paris season 5 is set to premiere later in 2025.