A gay Texas pastor who claimed that Whole Foods wrote a homophobic slur on his cake admits that it was all a hoax​

From the moment that Jordan Brown, an openly gay pastor from Austin, Texas, first posted his tearful video to YouTube claiming that a cake he’d bought from Whole Foods had a homophobic slur scrawled across it in icing, there were questions about the veracity of his story. Brown insisted that the cake was a confectionary attack from a bigoted employee.

“For me, it was humiliating,” Brown said at the time, “Being a pastor who is also openly gay, I’ve had to deal with this in the past and literally the feeling that I had just resurfaced a bunch of painful memories of things that have happened to me.”

After a few weeks of legal tension, Brown now admits that he made the whole thing up and apologized to both Whole Foods and the broader LGBTQ community.

“The company did nothing wrong,” Brown said. “I was wrong to pursue this matter and use the media to perpetuate this story.”

Whole Foods took Brown’s admission in stride, saying that the apology was enough to convince them to drop their counter lawsuit.

“We’re very pleased that the truth has come to light,” Whole Foods said. “Given Mr. Brown’s apology and public admission that his story was a complete fabrication, we see no reason to move forward with our countersuit to defend the integrity of our brand and team members.