27 August 2023 , 15:41
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Catherine Tyldesley has broken her social media silence after cancelling her 40th birthday following the ‘cakegate’ scandal.
The former Coronation Street star was due to throw a lavish bash to celebrate her milestone birthday on September 17, but the Mirror exclusively revealed Cath had called it off after the company she hired to arrange the party asked a baker to provide two cakes and 100 cupcakes for free.
Although the requests from party firm NVRLND were apparently made without Cath’s knowledge, she was caught up in the backlash after the owner of Three Little Birds bakery in Keighley, West Yorkshire hit back saying she couldn’t pay her mortgage or staff on payment “in the form of promotion on their socials”, so would have to decline the “very generous” offer.
After facing horrendous trolling online, sources said “blindsided” Cath had decided to pull the plug on her big birthday plans and will have a quieter celebration with friends and family instead when she turns 40 next month, after originally wanting to mark the milestone birthday with a huge bash.
Cath got caught up in the 'cakegate' scandal and has since cancelled her birthday party (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
She revealed the past month had taken its toll with this frazzled Barbie post (Instagram)Seemingly revealing that ‘cakegate’ and life's other battles had indeed taken its toll, she posted a picture of a frazzled Barbie on her Instagram stories which said: “Yup. Me trying to work, go to the gym, stay hydrated, not be broke, maintain a social life, and get 8 hours of sleep every night.”
Mum slammed for cancelling son's birthday party after 'sexist' joke to friends
It follows a tough month for the actress, who is best known for playing Eva Price in Coronation Street. She even posted a video on social media clarifying she had no idea emails asking for freebies for her party were being sent to businesses.
Filming the clip – which she called ‘Cakegate – The Truth - in her car, Cath told her 646,000 followers: “Cakegate, what?! So, I had no idea those emails were being sent. I'm not working with the lovely OK! magazine on anything that I'm aware of and NVRLAND are an amazing company. They've supplied me with performers in the past.
They're insane and they've been completely misrepresented in this matter. Utterly bizarre. Don't really know what to say. I mean I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving, whilst I’ve got journalists knocking on my front door while my kids are playing in the front room, dead nice that babes. Thanks for coming.”
The row kicked off last month after party firm NVRLND asked Three Little Birds bakery to provide the cakes for a “well-known celebrity” and claimed that while there would be no cash payment, they would be rewarded with publicity. But the email went viral when bakery owner Rebecca Severs posted on Facebook: “Unfortunately, as my mortgage provider doesn’t take payment ‘in the form of promotion on their socials’ and my staff can’t feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, I’ll have to decline your very generous offer.”
Leeds-based NVRLND later claimed their email had been "completely misconstrued". Founder Victoria Eames said: "NVRLND contacted Three Little Birds Bakery to offer them the opportunity to collaborate with one of our clients to cater for a party. As part of the collaboration, our client would cover all of Three Little Birds Bakery’s expenses and costs in exchange for social media content and local and national exposure for their business. To confirm, NVRLND are also retained on the same expenses-only basis."
A source told the Mirror Cath had now called off the party, saying: “Cath was blindsided by cakegate and found the whole thing very upsetting so she’s decided on a quieter celebration. She doesn’t blame NVRLND, but the whole situation left a sour taste so she felt it best to call it off."