Rylan Clark-Neal during the 2018 Celebrity Big Brother Final. (Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Rylan Clark has dismissed the “slow news day” after a negative tabloid report about the British media personality surfaced online.
Clark, the cheery British presenter with a hundred-megawatt smile, faced controversy Sunday (30 January) after The Mirror published mobile phone footage of him jokingly asking for “gear” on a night out in London’s West End.
“Delete that now or I will f***ing kill you,” he said in the video, reportedly filmed this month, before reassuring the bar-goer who was filming him that the comment was a joke.
“Give me the gear,” he added, with the word being slang for drugs in Britain.
The Mirror, among other tabloids, described Clark as “troubled”, with some conflating the “worrying” video with him having recently split from his husband, Dan Neal.
“Morning,” the 33-year-old tweeted Sunday morning, seemingly addressing the wave of reports. “Slow news day. Have a good Sunday.”
Morning. Slow news day. Have a good Sunday 👍🏽
— R Y L A N (@Rylan) January 30, 2022
Countless celebs rush to support Rylan Clark after ‘b******s’ news story
Amid the drip-feed of snickering stories, countless famous faces sought to defend Clark. Stressing that regardless of the video, Clark is a national treasure.
“Lots of love Rylan, you’re a lovely bloke unlike the vultures circling over your private life!” replied Owen Jones, a gay journalist known for his rumbling anti-fascist activism.
Richard Osman, the towering English comedian and Pointless co-presenter, tweeted: “Rylan, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you’re a lovely, kind guy, and a brilliant presenter.
“Someone is being judged today, and it’s not you.”
“Look at Twitter,” said trans broadcaster and newsreader India Willoughby. “You win. They lose.”
Actor Amanda Abbington upbraided The Mirror article, which she sees as “dangerous” and “abhorrent”.
“Whoever thought it would be in the ‘public interest’ to publish that complete and utter b******s of a non-story in The Mirror regarding the beautiful and sweetly wonderful Rylan should be fired,” she tweeted.
Whoever thought it would be in the ‘public interest’ to publish that complete and utter bollocks of a non-story in The Mirror regarding the beautiful and sweetly wonderful @Rylan should be fired. You are the lowest of the low. You set a dangerous precedent and you are abhorrent.
— Amanda Abbington (@CHIMPSINSOCKS) January 30, 2022
While former The Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner wrote: “Mate, you’re an absolute legend!! People are jealous little helmets.
Mate your an absolute legend!! People are jealous little helmets. You’ve come a long long way mate, and everyone is double proud of ya!! Keep shining mate. Look how far we’ve both come from 10 years ago when it was trying to get ya to advertise my fake tan I was flogging 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/2Wri9JaTku
— Thomas Skinner ⚒ (@iamtomskinner) January 30, 2022
“You’ve come a long way, mate, and everyone is double proud of ya!! Keep shining, mate.”
The saga that has ripped through Britain’s rancorous tabloids is a high-decibel end to Rylan Clark’s months-long silence.
Clark, born Ross Clark, took time away from the harsh glare of the spotlight to focus on his mental health after splitting from his husband, he told The Guardian earlier this month.
The divorce deeply rattled him, he said, and he dramatically lost weight and was later hospitalised. But the breakdown had long been festering, he explained as he reflected on his cheeky presenter persona, Rylan.
“I think I’m finding a new ‘me’ now,” Clark said. “I’m so good at being Rylan. I know my job – what’s right, what’s wrong, what works what doesn’t – I do Rylan really well.
“But actually, I didn’t realise how much Ross I’d loss.”
“Sometimes,” he added, speaking of the draining drawback of fame, “you just want to f**k off over to the garden centre to buy a plant.”