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Journalist Ava Evans, known as Ava Santina on X, formerly Twitter, has spoken out after Laurence Fox made vile comments about her on GB News.
The former actor, 45, has been suspended by the broadcaster over the ‘totally unacceptable rant’ on Dan Wootton’s show on Tuesday Night, during which he said: ‘Who would want to shag that?’
Evans, who is the political correspondent for online site Joe, appeared on Jeremy Vine on Wednesday and said she was ‘really hurt’ Fox made comments about her ‘body rather than her work.’
Asked by Vine, 58, how she felt about the ‘appalling’ speech, she replied: ‘I think the clip speaks for itself. I don’t have anything to say about it at all.
‘I’m actually a journalist rather than a commentator and I’d rather be judged and asked about my work than have people talking about my body.
‘Sorry, I’m a bit speechless. I don’t really know what to say.’
Vine regular Carole Malone, who shared her support for Evans and assured her Fox’s behaviour will ‘harm him more than you’, asked the reporter if she was ‘hurt’ by his actions.
Evans replied: ‘Yes I am hurt by it. I’m really hurt by it. I’m shocked it went out. It’s the sort of talk you worry men have about you when you’re not in the room.
‘There’s always a worry of… are people actually interested in what I’m saying or doing or are they just looking at me physically? I think that clip proves that there are some men who are.’
Laurence Fox's vile rant on GB News – in full
‘We’re past the watershed so I can say this: show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman, ever, ever, who wasn’t an Incel?
‘That little woman has been fed, spoon-fed oppression day after day after day… starting with the lie of the gender wage gap, and she’s sat there and I’m going, if I met you in a bar and that was like sentence three, chances of me just walking away are just huge.
‘We need powerful strong amazing women who make great points for themselves, we don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0… they’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who would want to shag that?’
Responding to the backlash over his comments, Fox said he stands ‘by every word of what I said’ and claimed it was ‘free speech.’
In a long post, Fox continued: ‘So you keep trying to cancel away in your state of permanent offence, I’ve been cancelled already and may well be again, but I don’t care one bit, and I will keep defending my right to have an opinion on issues which concern me.
‘Without free speech and the presumption of innocence we are not free. We aren’t quite communist Eastern Europe yet. We may very close, but not quite there. It’s still worth fighting for.
‘So if you are expecting a grovelling apology, I suggest you don’t hold your breath. I won’t ever apologise to the mob.’
Signing off the message he said: ‘In this self censoring world, speak your mind. Live strong and free.’
Following his suspension, he followed this post up with claiming he had done a ‘pre interview’ with the channel ‘so they knew exactly what I intended to say.’
While sharing a screenshot that appeared to look like an exchange about news stories he was being asked to comment on, Fox wrote: ‘A phone call might have been polite.”
After the show, GB News said it has launched an investigation, branding Fox’s comments ‘totally unacceptable’ and adding: ‘What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused.’
The show’s host Wootton apologised in a follow-up post to an earlier apology, writing on X: ‘I want to reiterate my regret over last night’s exchange with Laurence on GB News. Having looked at the footage, I can see how inappropriate my reaction to his totally unacceptable remarks appears to be and want to be clear that I was in no way amused by the comments.
‘I reacted as I did out of shock and surprise in an off-guard moment while working out how to respond as he continued to speak by searching for tweets @AvaSantina had sent earlier in the day while having them read out in my ear at the same time.’
He added: ‘I apologise unreservedly for what was a very unfortunate lapse in judgment on my part under the intense pressure of a bizarre exchange. I know I should have done better. I’m devastated that I let down the team and our supportive GBN family.
‘We seek to tackle the issue and not the person, which I intend to stress again on air tonight.’
Evans, a former producer at LBC, shared a clip of the comments on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: ‘Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me?’
In a follow-up tweet to her nearly 100,000 followers she added that the footage made her feel ‘physically sick.’
Fox, who was previously married to actress Billie Piper, founded the Reclaim Party in October 2020 after an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time earlier that year, which the actor said resulted in him being ‘cancelled from a 21-year acting career.’
According to its website, the party exists to challenge ‘woke orthodoxy’ and promote ‘freedom of speech’, which it views as being ‘under grave peril.’
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Metro.co.uk has previously contacted GB News for comment.
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