Greater than 2,000 complaints made to Ofcom over Vanessa Feltz coeliac illness feedback

Vanessa Feltz has been the topic of over 2,000 Ofcom complaints after her controversial feedback on coeliac illness.

The This Morning presenter got here underneath fireplace after saying a caller’s mother-in-law not permitting them to deliver their very own meals to a gluten-free Christmas dinner was “completely unreasonable”.

During the episode of the ITV present on 18 December, the caller defined that their mother-in-law made the meal gluten-free to accommodate a visitor who had coeliac illness.

Feltz responded, saying: “So she’s treating coeliac disease as if it’s a potentially fatal peanut allergy and they can’t have anything with gluten in the house, which is completely unreasonable.”

Coeliac illness is a situation the place your immune system assaults your individual tissues while you eat gluten, damaging your intestine so your physique cannot absorb vitamins correctly.

It impacts a minimum of one in each 100 folks within the UK, based on the NHS.

The media watchdog stated in its report on 3 January {that a} additional 1,177 complaints have been made since an Ofcom report was revealed on 20 December, bringing the full to 2,269.

Feltz, 61, later apologised on her TalkTV present for the feedback, saying: “If anyone misunderstood or felt that I did, I am very sorry.”

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On her present earlier than Christmas, she confirmed a clip of herself making the remarks earlier than discussing them with Dr Saleyha Ahsan and a viewer named Jason, who suffers from coeliac illness.

Feltz stated: “I said what I said there, and then I said, but I’ve been thinking about it, and in the spirit of Christmas I think you should go, I think you should eat the gluten-free meal that your mother-in-law is kindly preparing.

“I didn’t, nor would I for a second, counsel that they need to put the coeliac visitor in danger in any approach, nor did I counsel that they carry their very own meals and shove it of their mother-in-law’s oven or put it on the desk. I would not dream of that.

“And nor did I intend in any shape or form to show any disrespect or misunderstanding of how unpleasant it can be leading your life as a coeliac, partly because some of my best friends are coeliacs.

“So I understand how horrible it’s as a coeliac if, by any mistake, you need to end up consuming one thing with gluten in it.

“I am astounded by the reaction and horrified that anyone’s upset. I would never want to upset anyone.”

She claimed she checked her language earlier than and after the present with professionals, including: “I don’t think I said anything wrong, but if anyone misunderstood or felt that I did, I am very sorry.”

This Morning tried to sort out the topic additional in two different segments main as much as Christmas.

One was a section discussing coeliac illness with NHS GP Dr Zoe, whereas one other had meals author Becky Excell focus on gluten-free meal choices.