Laurence Fox has apologised to the journalist Ava Evans over misogynistic comments he made about her on the GB News channel that led to him being suspended.
The actor and Reclaim party founder released a video on Thursday evening on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, acknowledging he was “demeaning” about her during a discussion on the Dan Wootton Tonight programme on Tuesday.
Wootton has also been suspended by the rightwing news channel and Ofcom has launched an investigation after the regulator received about 7,300 complaints.
Fox made a series of remarks to Wootton about the political correspondent that included asking: “Who would want to shag that?”
In Thursday’s 15-minute video on X, Fox accused Evans of having a “dislike of men in general” and said he was angry with her about comments she had made during a BBC debate on male suicide, but apologised for “demeaning her”.
He said: “If I was going to be sensible and I could replay it, I would say: ‘Any self-respecting man in 2023 would probably be well advised to avoid a woman who possessed that worldview because she would probably cause him nothing but harm.’
“But what I did say was, you know: ‘I wouldn’t shag that,’ and all that sort of stuff, which is not right. It’s demeaning to her, to Ava, so I’m sorry for demeaning you in that way, however angry I am with you still for doing that, and it demeans me because it’s not representative of who I am.”
He said he expected to be sacked by GB News on Friday over the incident, adding: “I know I’m going to get sacked tomorrow. I’m saying this stuff to clear my own conscience.”
Fox also claimed he told the channel what he was planning to say before Tuesday’s debate and accused GB News of being the “home of cancel culture”.
After a social media backlash, Wootton issued an apology and said he was laughing at the time of Fox’s remarks only out of shock. On Thursday he was sacked by MailOnline, where he had a contract to write two columns a week.
Evans previously said she had received an apology from the broadcaster.
