TV star Baz Ashmawy has hit out at angry protestors who ‘followed’ and ‘attacked’ him for building homes for Ukrainian refugees.
The DIY SOS Christmas special – which featured building homes for Ukrainian refugees - enraged a minority of viewers who accused Baz of "not putting the Irish first".
Baz revealed he was followed by protestors to Kinsale, where he was attacked by a small group of people.
READ MORE - Baz Ashmawy leads tributes as RTE DIY SOS favourite dies after battle with motor neurone disease
He said: "I had people following me to Kinsale on my night off. I got out of the car, and they started attacking me and I was thinking, ‘the energy these people are putting into chasing me and not doing anything to help people.'
"People were upset and wanted someone to blame but you can’t blame a show like DIY SOS because the people who helped build the houses for the Ukrainians are very often the same people who come back every week and help build houses for Irish people."
He added: "The show is entertainment, sure, but it’s also showing the goodness of humanity."
Baz returns to our screens with a new season of DIY SOS next week, which sees the show travel to Cork first.
Baz believes the story of 23-year-old Adam Drummond, a talented basketball player who was left paralysed from the waist down following an accident in 2021, was the most heart-breaking one of his TV career.
He said: "I’m a dad so I can relate to that, and I’ve lost people who were close to me and I know the void that it can leave in your life.
"I always say that we’re not just rebuilding a house here, it’s not just bricks and mortar, we’re also bringing someone home.
"And the show taps into that idea of home and what it means to people," he told the RTE Guide.
Baz also opened up about his fall from grace in 2011, when he was convicted of drink driving, suspended from RTE and didn’t work for 18 months.
He said the fall made him change his attitude to life.
"I changed my attitude to what I saw myself as," he said.
"Like who is going to know what TV show you want to do better than yourself? And then there’s’ the thing that you yourself don’t dislike what you see in the mirror.
"I’m in my late forties now and it has taken me a long time to get here although my missus reading this will probably think he still has a lot of work to do.
"But you should like who you are because that reflects on how you are as a dad and a husband and a person."
He added that being a parent has had a very positive effect on him, admitting: "I just wanted to be around and be a better person for my kids. There were certain things about myself that I didn’t like and wanted to change and to be a more present dad."
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