Love Island's Gemma Owen has branded her ex-footballing father Michael a 'weirdo' due to the fact he has allegedly only seen 13 movies in his life.
Prior to appearing on this Summer's season of the ITV2 hit show, Gemma took to Emily Dean's Walking The Dog podcast, where she revealed her thoughts and feelings on her father's apparent hatred of the silver screen.
During the episode, she said: ""He's awful with films. He can't sit through them. He just starts fidgeting and then he's off. He can't keep still for that long."
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When asked why she thought her dad, 42, had such a dislike of films, she added: "I don't know. He's a weirdo isn't he."
Responding to his daughter's comments, the ex-Liverpool and NUFC striker said: "I'd like to defend myself but I totally agree. I find it hard to switch off and you could be doing lots of things with those two hours."
The Mirror reports that the shocking revelation first came back in 2014 when Owen sent Twitter into meltdown by announcing he had only ever watched eight films in his life. After a long flight back from China, he Tweeted: "Watched my eighth ever film on the flight home. Must have been bored. #HateFilms"
People then started to come up with film titles based on the football pundit's career with the hashtag #owenfilms - and many poked fun at his unfortunate injury record. The suggestions included 'I couldn't bend it like Beckham', 'Lord of the Hamstrings', 'Scar Wars Return of the X-Ray', and 'Snow White and the Seven Owens'.
Within minutes the hashtag he created was trending around the world and people were desperate to know which films made his list.
The original eight were Rocky, Heat, Ghost, Jurassic Park, Cool Runnings, Seabiscuit, Karate Kid and Forrest Gump.
Three years later, Michael revealed that he'd added another five movies onto that list and gave some scathing reviews of the flicks. This included four of the Rocky sequels and spin-off movie Creed, which is one of the only recent films that made the list.
"I haven’t watched many films. I’ve seen all the Rockys to be fair, so that’s five. There’s a sixth is there? Didn’t know that. Rocky IV’s my favourite film. Didn’t like Rocky I, it’s rubbish," he told Shortlist in 2017.
"I watched Creed the other day. It was alright. My wife kept badgering me, so I watched it on a flight to Dubai. I’d have preferred a good documentary, to be honest. I like factual stuff. I don’t like being kidded by anything."
Michael explained that his major issue is that he is constantly thinking about how many takes a scene took or whether a stunt man was used. He claimed Heat 'wasn't great' and he preferred Ghost, which he saw when he was eight-years-old because his older sister had been watching.
Owen also explained he was 'forced' to watch the first Jurassic Park on two occasions while he was a young footballer and found it 'painful'. He went for a training week at Arsenal and all the kids were taken to the cinema, then the following week he had a trial at Manchester United and they did exactly the same thing.
His hatred for movies could have ruined relationships, as he pretended to like Cool Runnings to impress his wife when they were first going out.
He explained: "When we were 17, my wife and I properly got back together. She said, ‘Come round and we’ll watch a film.’ It was Cool Runnings. I went along with it to try and impress her. As soon as she pressed play I was in Hell, having to pretend I liked it. I told her a few weeks later that films weren’t my thing."
During the Walking The Dog podcast, Owen also admitted he had only seen 10 minutes of Seabiscuit and it 'lasted too long'. He also addressed claims that he can be 'boring' and said it was part of his image when he first made it as a professional footballer.
"It's fine, I really don't care about what my image is in many ways. As long as it's not a really bad one. It's definitely different to what I believe I am but it doesn't keep me awake at night."
Clearly Michael is no fan of sitting down for hours on end to watch a movie, so he also doesn't like his kids being lazy. He has never let his kids have a lie in and makes sure they are out of bed even at the weekends.
"They're just not acceptable in our house. You're up at 7am," he said.
"I can't stand people who lie in. Just get out of bed. There's the day ahead of you."
This desire to graft has definitely been installed in daughter Gemma, who started horse riding at the age of just two-years-old and competing across Europe for Great Britain at 11.
"It really has been all my life," she said. "I've never hade a lie in at weekends. Even if I have a night out the day before I'm always out sorting the horses out in the mornings.
"It's just what you have to do when you're at the top level of your sport. I've always wanted to achieve for myself, stand on my own two feet, be independent, do my own things. That's what's motivated me."
What do you make of Michael Owen's bizarre personality?
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