Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson has spoken out for the first time about an incident during this week’s show that got the whole world talking.

On Saturday night, recent Oscar winner Mikey Madison was SNL’s guest host, with country music performer Morgan Wallen appearing as the episode’s musical guest.

At the end of the live broadcast, while the credits rolled and the cast celebrated the episode, Morgan was seen sharing a brief hug with Mikey before exiting the stage completely, passing in front of the cameras to do so.

Shortly after this, he posted a picture of his private jet on Instagram, alongside the message: “Get me to God’s country.”

Understandably, this led to widespread speculation that Morgan may not have enjoyed his experience on SNL, particularly as he’s not posted about the episode since it aired.

Weighing in during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kenan said: “I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that.

“I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way.”

The sketch comic admitted he “definitely saw” Morgan’s abrupt exit as it happened, adding: “It’s definitely a spike in the norm. We’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.’

“So when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, ‘hmm, I wonder what that’s about?’.”

Of Morgan’s subsequent Instagram message, Kenan claimed: “The ‘God’s country’ of it all is strange because it’s like, what are you trying to say? You trying to say that we are not in God’s country? We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella?

“That’s not necessarily my favourite. But whatever. Moving on…”

Morgan has been at the centre of several controversies since he first rose to prominence on The Voice in 2014.

In 2020, a planned appearance on SNL was postponed when it emerged he had broken Covid guidelines, poking fun at the scandal on the show weeks later.

The following year, he issued an apology after he was caught on camera using a racist slur to a friend after a night out.

Last year, he also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour counts of reckless endangerment after allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of a bar.