Rylan Clark has said that he’s found it “really tough” when one of his celebrity friends has been “cancelled” – just months after his former Eurovision coverage co-host Scott Mills was fired by the BBC.
Clark, 37, opened up about cancel culture on ITV’s The Assembly, which aired on Sunday (24 May) and sees neurodivergent people conduct interviews with well-known British figures.
While Clark did not mention any particular celebrities who had been “cancelled” on the show, the episode aired just months after Mills’ contract with the BBC was terminated following allegations about his personal conduct. It is unknown whether the episode was filmed before or after Mills’ firing.
When asked by a participant how he copes when one of his “celebrity friends is cancelled”, Clark said: “It’s really tough.”
Becoming emotional, he continued: “Especially because some of them are not just my work friends – they’re genuinely, like, close friends.
“At the end of the day, if someone’s done something wrong, then I understand why they can’t carry on doing what they’re doing.
“But I do feel today that we live in a world where people will wanna go for you and cancel you for the sake of just doing it, because they can.”
He then urged them not to “always believe what you hear or read”, adding: “Don’t be frightened to ask why.”
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Wiping his eyes, Clark said: “God, this is like a lucky dip. You just don’t know what’s coming next, do you?”
While Clark didn’t name anyone in particular in his answer, he worked closely with Mills at the BBC – with the duo providing commentary for the Eurovision Song Contest together.
Mills was sacked by the BBC in March, with the corporation later confirming that it “acted decisively” after receiving “new information” about a police investigation into the presenter that took place in 2017. Mills had been investigated by the Metropolitan Police in 2016 over allegations of sexual serious offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000.
He was questioned under caution by officers in 2018, however the investigation was dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service said that “the evidential threshold had not been met to bring charges”.
Elsewhere in his episode of The Assembly, Clark spoke about the end of his marriage to ex husband Dan Neal, saying: “I never think about him [Neal].
“I miss feeling like I’ve got it all. I thought I had life done. I’ve got the job, I’ve got the family, I’ve got the marriage, I’ve got the car, I’ve got the house. I thought I had it sussed. I didn’t have anything sussed. I didn’t know what was a real relationship.
“I can look back now and know that I don’t regret anything.”
