Last week on French TV, Jean-Paul Guerlain (the last heir of the Guerlain line) used a racial slur twice in reference to  the work that went into crating Samsara, a fragrance launched way back in 1989. The perfume house is very keen to make it known that the 73-year-old hasn’t been a shareholder for nearly 25 years and retired from the company in 2002.

Jean-Paul has apologised in a statement; “My words do not reflect in any way my profound thoughts but are due to an inopportune misspeaking which I vividly regret.” Guerlain (the brand), however, calls his racist remarks “intolerable,” going against the “culture, values, and ethics practiced by the enterprise, which promotes the diversity of talents of all origins.”