A BBC sports commentator has been accused of ‘broadcasting from the 1950s’ after making a stupid, sexist remark about Rebekah Vardy.
Vardy, who recently made a name for herself on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here is married to Jamie Vardy, striker for Premier League club Leicester City and the English national team.
The couple were recently reunited after her stint in the ITV jungle camp, and Alan Green took the chance to congratulate them on the homecoming… In the most misguided way ever, according to Twitter.
The BBC 5 Live commentator was covering Leicester City’s 3-0 home loss to Crystal Palace, with Vardy on the pitch.
The 65-year-old veteran of the mic said Jamie must be happy now he ‘has got his childminder back from the jungle’.
Cue: Sports fans’ eyes rolling into the back of their heads after the predictably short-sighted, sexist remark which degraded Becky and her entire existence to the simple, biological fact of her being a mother.
Green explained his comments later during the match, apologising:
By the way I think some people on social media took offence at what I was saying about Jamie Vardy and his wife Rebekah Vardy in relation to I’m a Celebrity.
I certainly didn’t mean any offence so I apologise to you if you felt that any was meant.
I was just trying to reflect the fact that I love the programme and really enjoyed Rebekah’s part in it and the other jungle celebrities. It’s a heck of a show.
Vardy responded on Twitter, saying Green’s comment was ‘pathetic’:
Vardy continued, musing the show must be using her newfound reality TV fame to make headlines.
She wrote, ‘must be desperate for more listeners’:
Rebekah isn’t the only one who thought the comments – and the apology afterwards – were pathetic.
Jez Wyck criticised Green for ‘making it worse’, joking that he was broadcasting from 1950:
He wrote:
You weren’t trying to ‘reflect that you love the show’ you were making a sexist ‘joke’ about a man’s wife being a ‘childminder’.
Elsewhere, Women in Football asked: “What century are we in?”
The outspoken 35-year-old mum – who dubbed herself ‘Mardy Vardy’ – met her future husband after she was hired to organise the athlete’s birthday party in January 2014.
After a two-year relationship and the birth of their first child, Sofia, the couple tied the knot at Cheshire’s Peckforton Castle on May 25, 2016.
Rebekah has two children with Jamie, two from a previous relationship and co-parents Jamie’s other child, bringing their family up to seven in total.
Rebekah has previously hit out at trolls and bravely discussed her sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her second husband, Steve Clarke.
You can watch her interview on ITV in the clip below:
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While I’m sure these stupid insults from Alan Green are nothing she can’t handle, it sets a damaging precedent for sporting commentators who think it’s okay to dismiss the wives and partners of footballers as merely there to help raise children.
Newsflash, Mr Alan Green: It’s not okay.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.