Loose Women defend I’m Celeb’s Jack Maynard over homophobic and racist tweets
By Will Stroude
Loose Women
stars Denise Van Outen and Coleen Nolan have defended Jack Maynard after racist and homophobic tweets sent by the I’m A Celeb star were uncovered this week.
YouTube star Maynard, 22, was forced to apologise on Monday (November 20) after it was discovered he repeatedly used racist and homophobic slurs including ‘n****’ and ‘f*ggot’ between 2011-2013.
Discussing the controversy on Wednesday’s edition of the ITV panel show, Van Outen and Nolan said they believed Maynard deserved a “second chance” because of his age at the time the tweets were sent.
“I think if you’ve apologised then you deserve a second chance” Van Outen told fellow panellists Nolan, Saira Khan and Jane Moore.
“If it’s something you have done when you are young… how many times have you said things that may have been out of character when you were young?
“You don’t really think about what you are saying or doing and if it is just young kids talking amongst themselves…”
Nolan continued: “To be fair to him, he has said age is no defence, I disagree. It is massive defence.The difference between someone 15, 16 or 22…
“And also I do think people should get a second chance when it is historic tweets.”
The 52-year-old added: “I do think it’s getting to the point where we can’t say or do anything without it affecting us.”
In one post made in February 2013, Maynard hit back at a critic saying: “Hahaha shutup you faggot… By the way who hit you with a shovel?”
He also called a neighbour a “retarded faggot” during an argument on social media. In a racist tweet posted in June 2011, Maynard wrote: “At Alices with my n*****s!”
A representative for Maynard apologised for the tweets on the vlogger’s behalf on Monday (November 20).
“Jack is ashamed of these tweets, many were deleted a long time ago. He would never use that language now and realises this kind of retaliatory, inflammatory, insulting language is completely unacceptable,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
An ITV spokeswoman said: “Jack has issued a full apology and has deleted the tweets that he sent.”
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