THE UGLY TRUTH Richard Madeley reveals the real cost of long-lasting career on TV
When you think of Richard and Judy, it’s hard to imagine them connected to anything sinister. As much-loved TV presenters, they graced our screens for the best part of 13 years on This Morning - but Richard has confessed that, behind their hugely successful career, there is a scary side of fame.
Having recently taken more of a back seat, as the pair enjoy a mixture of semiretirement and the impact of lockdown, he’s opened up about what happens when success turns ugly.
DEATH THREATS
With TV host Piers Morgan enduring a battle with trolls and death threats following controversial comments on
Good Morning Britain, Richard has recalled his own experience of being hounded by haters. He says, ‘Death threats on social media are part of the price paid for having a high profile. Everyone even moderately famous gets them. I’ve had a few over the years and dismissed them in the same way that I once used to rip up abusive letters written (for reasons no one has been able to explain to me) in green biro.’
But, behind the facade of these nameless trolls, Richard admits, lies something more serious. ‘When the ugly truth emerges, relationships, friendships and jobs are often lost. There’s a high price to be paid for trolling.’
In 2014, trolling comments got too much for Richard when they started to impact his daughter. A family statement revealed they’d been in touch with the Metropolitan Police about ‘cyberstalking, harassment and, most recently, rape threats made against Chloe on Twitter’. And, when talking about trolls in general, Richard adds, ‘I’ll make this prediction now. When the semi-literate individual behind these threats appears in the dock, named and shamed, they’ll cut a pathetic figure. No cool and calculating would-be Jackal-like assassin this, but an inadequate, blustering saddo; one of life’s failures. They’ll probably burst into tears and say they didn’t mean it.’
‘THEY’LL BURST INTO TEARS’