Laurence Fox issues apology to Ava Evans over vile comments on GB News
Laurence Fox has apologised to journalist Ava Evans over his comments on GB News.
Earlier this week, political journalist Ava Evans discussed men's mental health and suicide on BBC's Politics Live show, which led former actor Laurence Fox to launch a vile tirade of abuse towards her while chatting to Wootton on GB News. In his vicious rant, Fox mocked Evans and publicly humiliated her.
He asked the offensive question: "Who'd want to shag that?" He also described Ms Evans as a "little woman" and declared: "We don't need these sort of feminist 4.0" who he said are"pathetic and embarrassing". Fox and Wootton received a lot of backlash online, with GB News later suspending Wootton.
The GB News presenter's contract with MailOnline was terminated a day later. And Ofcom later revealed they will investigate the shocking episode under rules on offence. It comes after MailOnline's parent company, DMG Media, released a statement on the termination of his contract.
The Dan Wootton Tonight Show is being investigated by media regulator Ofcom after a recent sexism row received over 7,300 complaints.
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Laurence Fox issues apology to Ava Evans over vile comments on GB News (Twitter/@LozzaFox)Following days of controversial tweets and an unwillingness to back down on his comments, Laurence has now issued an apology to journalist Evans.
The actor-turned-political-activist said his comments were "demeaning" and "not representative of who I am". However, he said he maintained "the sentiment" of his comments, saying he was angry about what he said was Ms Evans "demeaning" male suicide.
In the video, posted on his account on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: "Hello everyone. Strange couple of days it's been. First of all, I've got a few things I want to say. The first is to thank you so much for all of the messages of support that have come my way. I really do appreciate it. It's been a tricky couple of days - but I have brought a lot of it on myself.
"I don't think there is any bonus in this modern climate that we have of turning around and saying to people to be unforgiving and unhumble, even though we know that we are faced with a very, very powerful cancel mob. I am now on my second cancellation, so as a father-of-two, raising two children and starting again is very, very worrying.
"Ava was talking to Geoff Norcott and he was talking about male suicide on Politic Live. I felt like he was just demeaned every time he tried to raise a point. As somebody who knows men that have killed themselves, and with suicide being the biggest killer of men under 50, you'd think that it should be a big deal.
"But there was one moment where Ava suggested that it was being made into a cultural issue or something similar, and I thought that was really reprehensible because male suicide is dreadful and it shouldn't be demeaned. It rips apart lives and men do store up their feelings and put on a brave face often and suddenly, from nowhere, they end up taking their own lives and that is unbelievably tragic.
"I've seen this happen more than once and so, I took that very personally - which is a problem sometimes for me because I am a very emotional person. That was then followed up by seeing a few other clips of Ava saying that she wanted to see men terrified and frightened. I sensed this very strong dislike of men in general, which brewed in me for a couple of days - which is never good.
"The overwhelming majority of men - 99% of men are good, decent, and honest people and they love their partners and they support and encourage them. You see families every single day working together happily, and it's only these extreme cases that are dragged out. I think that Ava shouldn't paint all men with one brush, in the same way as I shouldn't paint all women with one brush. I was being particular about a certain ideological-driven type of woman.
"I don't think it makes women happy to hate men. I don't think it makes society happy for women to hate men in the way that Ava so often does and there has been an awful lot of talk of misogyny."
Laurence went on: "I went on the Dan Wootton show. I told them exactly what I was going to say and I think that people found it amusing. They knew what I was going to say and I think I did even mention to the producer the use of the word 'shag' - which I don't think is the world's worst word. The point I should have made, was to say that men who are traditionally stoic men should probably avoid women who don't like them very much and women who dismiss male suicide. If I was going to be sensible and I could re-play it, I would say that any self-respecting man in 2023 would be well advised to avoid a woman who possesses that worldview because she will probably cause him nothing but harm.
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"But what I did say was, 'I wouldn't shag that', which is not right. It's demeaning to Ava so I am sorry for demeaning her in that way. However angry I am with her still, I am sorry for doing that. And it demeans me because it's not representative of who I am and also I'm not saying any of this stuff - I know I'm going to get sacked tomorrow - I'm saying this stuff to clear my own conscience.
"I do think that what has happened is that a narrative has been spun and a scapegoat has been found, which is me. I don't think that that has been particularly fair. We're living in a world which is getting progressively more divided and all the things that I care about in terms of free speech are a way of getting people to talk to each other from different political lines and different culture lines.
"I would like to say to GB News - I would like to add some context as to why I posted Dan's texts. Dan has been in a lot of hot water after an attack on him. I provided Dan with several weeks of daily moral support and encouragement and the full access to free legal services. I said to Dan if they had sacked him without any actual police investigation or involvement and on the back of some complaints which are unfounded and the presumption of innocence isn't maintained, then I told him I would walk out in solidarity with him.
"So when I read his response where he had thrown me under the bus - which has been a standard feature from GB News presenters - I decided that it was important to know that context of that. One shouldn't behave in that way. I don't do disloyalty and I don't do cowardice and I believe 100% in integrity which is why I'm stumbling through this apology.
"GB News have now opened themselves up for complete destruction because they have branded themselves as the home of free speech. They could have said something like what 'Laurence said was appalling but he's got the right to say it'. I know myself I could have expressed it better but to see GB News to that cancelling of me and sack us both tomorrow - certainly I think they'll sack me. They are opening themselves up to that cancellation mob which was well whipped up and organised and there has been more suppression of free speech.
"GB News had one opportunity and that opportunity was to stand up and defend free speech which they haven't done. They are actually the home of cancel culture and not of free speech. They're more at risk of cancel culture than any other channel which is so ironic."
Laurence went on to compare his situation to that of Gary Lineker who earlier this year, received a seven-day suspension for comments he made on refugees. "When he was given his seven-day suspension, everyone walked out with him. Sometimes I wonder to myself why we're losing this cultural war with people who want to dismantle our culture entirely and dismantle our history and education. And anyone who celebrates British values, they want them to be demonized and hated and that is the mission. So to me, it is a war.
"While everyone walked out with Gary Lineker, at GB News - which is never surprising to me because I've worked in showbiz for 20 years - it felt like someone else was just so happy to get into the seat before it was even cool.
"I wanted to just say that I regret the use of my language because I don't think it honours me or my view of women. I'm not a misogynist on any level so there will be no sex allegations or whatever coming my way. I honour, love, and respect women - even those that I don't agree with and I profoundly disagree with Ava. The original idea of feminism was equality which is a noble goal. Women have been suppressed but this wave of feminism that we're on feels like it's not about equality, it's about authority over men.
"It's like the BLM movement. It's not about black people struggling somehow, it's about revenge and money obviously. And the MeToo Movement, that was just a witch-hunt for people in lots of ways."
"The movements that need more notoriety are doing no favours by a woman standing up and saying that they want men to be terrified and frightened. I've got two young boys, young men now, who are going to go out into a world and god know what relationships are going to be like in that world.
"I fear for my boys so I don't like it when I hear someone saying that. I don't like it when an anti-male sentiment is so loud. We need a society full of strong women with great ideas. What we don't need is a society full of victims who want to take revenge on men because what happens then is you get a feminisation of masculinity and this idea of toxic masculinity but nobody ever sees the toxic femininity.
"To get us out of his problem where we've got a lot of weak men, we do need some strong men and in my own cack-handed way, I was trying to make the point that any self-respecting man should run a mile from Ava, which I actually, with all due respect, I do stand by. I think what I'm trying to say is that I could have expressed it in a better way."
Fox finished his 15-minute speech by telling viewers to 'be curious' because there are 'a lot more stories going around out there than the ones that are shoved down your neck every day'.
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