Roald Dahl's family has apologized for the 'lasting and understandable hurt' caused by his anti-Semitic comments

• Roald Dahl's family and the Roald Dahl Story Company have issued an apology for his "anti-Semitic comments."
• The apology was made via a statement posted on the late children's author's official website.
• "Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl's stories," it reads.
• Dahl was best known for writing novels including "Matilda," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and The Witches," recently adapted into a Hollywood film.

Roald Dahl's family and the Roald Dahl Story Company have quietly issued a statement on the author's official website to "deeply apologize" for his anti-Semitic comments.

The late children's author, who died in November 1990, is best known for writing classic books including "Matilda," "The Witches," "The BFG," and "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory."

The statement was issued on the official Roald Dahl website in a note titled "Apology for anti-Semitic comments made by Roald Dahl."

"The Dahl family and the Roald Dahl Story Company deeply apologize for the lasting and understandable hurt caused by some of Roald Dahl's statements," the note reads.

It continues: "Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl's stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations. We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words."

No specific comments were referred to in the apology, though Dahl has faced criticism in recent years for making anti-Semitic statements throughout his later life.

In 1983, he told the New Statesman: "There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it's a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there's always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."

And in an interview with The Independent shortly before his death in 1990, the author said he was "certainly anti-Israeli and I've become anti-Semitic," per The Guardian.

Dahl's novel "The Witches" was recently adapted into a Hollywood film starring Ann Hathaway and Octavia Spencer that was released in October.

The film faced its own controversy last month after Warner Bros. issued an apology for its depiction of physical disabilities.

Equal rights campaigners slammed the film in which Hathaway plays a Grand Witch who goes through various transformations where she has long clawed hands that are missing fingers and mimics impairments such as ectrodactyly.

Warner Bros. said in a statement to Deadline that it is "deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in The Witches could upset people with disabilities" and that it "regretted any offense caused."

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