Good Morning Britain presenter Richard Madeley says he “couldn’t give a stuff” about the many complaints he received during his morning hosting slot.
Richard, 65, was slapped with more than 800 Ofcom complaints over his comments about death threats.
During an episode of GMB on February 16, Richard and his then co-host Ranvir Singh spoke about the death threats which had reportedly been sent to the Labour leader Keir Starmer.
This led Richard to say: “Well I was going to say, actually, is it that big a deal?”
The ITV presenter insists he isn’t worried about sparking a backlash with the comments he makes on the programme.
(Image: ITV)
Speaking about the backlash, he told the Express: “I really, genuinely, couldn’t give a stuff because I know that it doesn’t matter.
“I’m still here and I’m still being asked to work and nobody spits on me in the street, there is no impact in the real world.”
He added: “Virtually any day that I do Good Morning Britain, you can go on Twitter an hour later and there will be some Twitter storm kicking off over something I’ve said or done.”
(Image: mirror.co.uk)
Asked if the criticism matters to him, he replied: “It doesn’t have any effect at all.
“I’ve never had a contract withdrawn or altered. It doesn’t cross over into real life. I couldn’t give a stuff!”
The broadcasting watchdog confirmed that Richard received 855 complaints relating to his comment.
After backlash from GMB viewers on social media, Richard returned to the show the following day and shared a message to clear things up.
(Image: ITV)
He sat alongside co-host Charlotte Hawkins and said: “I want to say one thing very quickly at the top here.
“I tried to pose a question on one of our early discussions on the programme about how prolific online death threats are.
“I didn’t actually quite press it properly, I didn’t go into it enough.
“I just want to reiterate the obvious statement that death threats clearly are never acceptable.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
