Jesse James: I’m no racist, despite Nazi photograph

Jesse James, tattooed reality TV star and estranged husband of actress Sandra Bullock, says he posed as Hitler for a photograph wearing a Nazi SS officer's hat as "a joke" and that "there's not a racist bone in my body". He also told US television that his recent stint in rehab involved treatment for "childhood abuse".
 
In March this year James (above, with Bullock) admitted to an affair with tattoo model Michelle 'Bombshell' McGee. The news broke just days after Bullock was awarded the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the film The Blind Side and led her to cancel the UK premiere of the film. Later, three other women came forward to allege affairs with James, and he now says he was serially unfaithful to his wife.
 
The photograph of 41-year-old James making a Nazi salute, miming a moustache and wearing the offending hat has caused controversy particularly because a photo-shoot of tattoo model McGee wearing Nazi regalia including a swastika armband emerged soon after the couple's affair was exposed.
 
McGee was quickly dropped from her modelling contract with the 'Angry White Boy' clothing company – which was at pains to stress it is not a racist organisation – after her ex-husband Shane Modica claimed she had a swastika tattooed on her stomach, and had spelled out the words "White Power" in fridge magnets in their kitchen.
 
James said yesterday the accusations of racism were the main reason he wanted to speak publicly about his affair. He told ABC: "I don't even remember taking the photo. I could tell by the look on my face it was a joke that was funny then, probably for a minute, but then looking at it in the context of now and in my life, it's not funny."

The "context" James refers to is not just McGee's apparent flirtation with fascism, but also Bullock's revelation in April that she and her husband had negotiated the adoption of a baby son shortly before news of the affair emerged. She was pictured on the front of People magazine with baby Louis Bardo, adopted from New Orleans. Bardo is African-American.
 
Asked yesterday why the couple had adopted a black child, James said he "didn't care what colour" the baby was. "My only prerequisite for adopting a baby was that I want the baby that needs us the most," he added.
 
Speaking about the effect his cheating has had on his 45-year-old wife, James said: "It's terrible - and she's going to be hurt for a long time." He said his time in rehab had been spent receiving treatment for anger management and sex addiction – but especially dealing with "childhood abuse".
 
"I was petrified of my dad, you know," he told ABC. "It wasn't so much... getting my arm broken or getting kicked, or whatever, or punched, it was the in-between time, it was the fear of that happening again. I was a terrorized kid." ·