VANESSA FELTZ HAS said she was “pretty horrified” by comments made about her in a Sunday Times column written by Kevin Myers.
Myers was fired by the newspaper in July after the article was heavily criticised as being anti-Semitic and sexist.
In the article, which was entitled ‘Sorry, ladies – equal pay has to be earned’, he argued that men may be paid more than women because they work harder and are “more driven”.
Myers then highlighted that the two highest-paid female BBC presenters are Jewish – Feltz and Claudia Winkleman.
“Good for them. Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity,” Myers wrote.
Appearing on the Late Late Show tonight, Feltz said she heard about the article after receiving texts from “everyone I’ve ever met and his dog”, adding she’s rarely online.
When she did read the article, she was upset, recalling: “Quite frankly, I was pretty horrified to see it and very shocked and hurt as well.”
‘Designed to provoke’
Feltz said the column was “designed to provoke” and was “deeply unpleasant”. She said she didn’t accept the idea that the comments were “throwaway” remarks, saying: “It’s a column, you choose to put in every line. It’s not as if anyone else is dictating it to you.”
Feltz said she had never heard of Myers before the incident and has accepted his apology, as well as those she received from the editors of both the UK and Irish edition of the Sunday Tune. She now wants to move on.
Let’s never ever think about it again … there are far better things to think about.
During the interview, Feltz spoke of her love of Ireland, saying her father used to recite WB Yeats to her as a child.
Just a few days before the controversy over the column, Feltz said she fulfilled a lifelong dream of buying a house in Ireland – in Ballycotton in east Cork.
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