ITV bosses made huge mistake platforming David Haye – | UK News

ITV often have some controversy over the antics in the I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! camp. Generally, it comes in the shape of celeb feuds or the perennially pampered stars’ reactions to the trials or menu. However, former boxing champion David Haye clearly believes in the mantra go big or go home and determined to outrage his fellow campmates and viewers with vile and misogynistic remarks about his girlfriend and his opinions on girls in common, which aired in the episode broadcast on Monday, April 13.

What makes the state of affairs worse is that ITV selected to broadcast this. Unlike the common collection, the All-Star offering at the moment airing is absolutely pre-recorded. There are no live moments or spontaneity. An editor has watched every interplay and listened to every assertion. And they made a premeditated selection to go away that in. At a time when the “manosphere” is being widely slammed, they gave a public discussion board with thousands and thousands of viewers to Haye to broadcast his vile ideas.

It pains me to regurgitate his pathetic opinions, but in case you missed it, he gave Andrew Tate a run for his money (or as a lot as you possibly can on prime time terrestrial TV). He horrified his fellow campmates when he explained his girlfriend, Sian Osbourne, is a great cook before claiming “she has the personality of a proper ugly bird”.

That alone is dangerous enough, but on a roll, he expanded on this, including: “Most ugly girls realise…they gotta have a personality to banter and to tell jokes and s**t, so people overlook the fact that they’re not aesthetically amazing, straight away.”

He continued digging his gap, telling the (rightly) shocked camp it’s “called Ugly Duckling syndrome”, explaining his warped concept that: “Where girls are ugly, when they start off, and then they get pretty as they get older. But they still got the personality of when they’re ugly….

“You get a woman who’s fairly from day one, you get a woman who’s different day one. Everyone goes ‘You’re so lovely. You’re wonderful.’ She grows up pondering, I’m wonderful. Everyone loves me. I can open any door. I can go anyplace I need. They do not have to have a character, because most tremendous fairly ladies are just idiots. But then their ugly pal, they have to work a bit tougher, be more personable. They received to be nicer to everybody. Gonna get you a drink.”

These are not harmless remarks. As a former champion athlete, he has many young fans who hang on his every word. Since hanging up his boxing gloves, he also apparently helps develop young fighters – all of whom look up to him and will take his attitudes to heart.

His remarks were akin to what Incels and so-called Men’s Rights Activists in the manosphere brainwash their followers with. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks this is a good thing, except those exploiting it to make money.

ITV would baulk at giving airtime to anyone promoting this online. Yet they thought it was OK to give Haye a platform with millions of people watching to share his thoughts. The show has a huge teenage fanbase who will also have seen the moment, and no doubt some were influenced by it.

Make no mistake – if a civilian contestant on a actuality show said one thing comparable, they might rapidly be ejected for inappropriate behaviour. ITV would never let somebody say that variety of factor on their flagship daytime reveals. Yet they made an editorial resolution to run this on one of their largest programmes, and it’s utterly unacceptable.