Fans of Eric Braeden were shocked today by a tweet posted by The Young & The Restless veteran, which featured a meme of Braeden with a racially offensive caption featuring the N-word.

The insensitive tweet drew an immediate reaction, with a number of Twitter and Facebook users condemning the language. It eventually was taken down, but, as usually is the case in the digital age, the image did not disappear completely when deleted on Twitter, with a number of copies reposted on social media. Here it is (caption censored by Deadline).

In response to a request for comment, Braeden issued the following statement to Deadline via his publicist: “My twitter account was hacked and I deleted the tweet once I saw it.”

The shocking tweet comes just two days after Braeden retweeted the following, “I dont understand why ‘i will not accept or excuse racism’ is such a hard concept to grasp. we won’t accept it. we won’t give it an inch.”

GermanY-born Braeden is best known for his role as self-made business magnate Victor Newman the long-running CBS daytime soap The Young & the Restless, which he has played for 37 years.