Actress Blake Lively says she was surprised by the backlash after she quoted Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” in an Instagram caption last month.

She posted side-by-side front and back shots of herself on a red carpet with the caption: “L.A. face with an Oakland booty”.

The caption is a line from the 1992 hit song celebrating African-American women’s derrieres.

She faced a backlash from people on social media who felt her post was racially insensitive.

This is the dress Blake was wearing when she posted the photo)
This is the dress Blake was wearing when she posted the photo (Thibault Camus/AP)

The 28-year-old told AP she didn’t intend to offend anyone and “only meant love and respect and celebration for my body and the feminine body and quoting a song that people had a lot of fun with for a long time”.

Sir Mix-A-Lot told The Hollywood Reporter last month that he too was surprised by the criticism and that he liked the post.