Graham Norton appears to have deleted his Twitter account, after a clip of him emerged talking about cancel culture and Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
The popular TV host was speaking openly at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, when he was filmed noting that the term 'cancellation' needs to be replaced with 'accountability'.
In the clip, The Daily Star reports that he can be heard saying: "You read a lot of articles in papers by people complaining about cancel culture and you think, ‘In what world are you cancelled?'"
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Norton was then pressed with regards to how his comments can be applied to Rowling, who said that she had recently been met with 'anger, rage and attempts at censorship' due to her stated views on the transgender community. And the 59-year-old, added that his input on the topic 'adds nothing to the discussion', saying: "If people want to shine a light on those issues then – and I hope people do – talk to trans people".
He urged people to: "Talk to the parents of trans kids. Talk to doctors. Talk to psychiatrists. Talk to someone who can illuminate this in some way."
“Graham Norton shouldn’t be in your headline," he went on.
"If you want to talk about something, talk about the thing. You don’t need to attach a Kardashian to a serious subject. The subject should be enough in itself. It’s the Michael Gove thing about ‘enough of experts’ – no, please can we have some experts!
"Can we rustle up some [SIC] experts and talk to them.”
Norton was widely praised for his comments, with many suggesting that he was speaking sensibly, however, on Monday (October 17) it appeared that his Twitter account had been deleted without explanation, causing many to speculate whether the emergence of the clip had something to do with his sudden departure.
Singer and activist Billy Bragg called Norton's widely shared comments 'really good', prompting a retort from JK Rowling, who said Bragg was supporting 'rape and death threats' by agreeing with Norton's view.
Bragg responded: “Hard to think of anything that better illustrates Graham Norton’s point than the sight of someone with 13.9m followers reacting to a call for a fair hearing for trans teens and their parents by equating it to *checks notes* support for rape and death threats.”
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