A controversial British television personality with a reputation for attention-seeking, race-baiting, and anti-British social media posts has hit back after making foolish comments about Kate Middleton‘s appearance.
Narinder Kaur found fame in 2001’s second series of the reality show Big Brother when she was the third person evicted out of 11 contestants. She now makes a living appearing as an argumentative guest or panelist on shows like Jeremy Vine, Tonight LIVE with Dan Wooton, and Tonight LIVE with Mark Dolan.
Her latest contentious post on X saw her rudely suggesting Kate Middleton looked old while attending the Remembrance Sunday event at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. Kate was appearing in public for the first time since undergoing cancer treatment, and Kaur wrote of her appearance, “Genuine question – why has Kate aged so much? Isn’t she only 42? Is she a smoker? It’s the only explanation.”
Understandably, Kaur’s lack of sensitivity towards Kate’s illness elicited an angry response from X users — particularly those who are fans of the Royal Family and those who cancer has affected. When one user sarcastically answered Kaur’s question by saying, “I don’t know, maybe she’s had cancer for the past year,” Kaur defiantly replied, “My brother had cancer… he didn’t age like that.”
Ultimately, the response to the offending post prompted Kaur to delete it. However, she didn’t leave it there. The defiant TV personality posted a video defending her comments.
In the video, Kaur admitted that her post was “stupid” and apologized for offending people. However, she insinuated that the angry response was based primarily on sexism and racism (Kaur is of Punjabi heritage). The internet is a horrible place, so there may have been some of that, but it certainly wasn’t the root cause, and it reeks of gaslighting to suggest it was.
Kaur also said, “I didn’t kill babies,” in an attempt to downplay her insensitive comments, and brought up the fact that her brother had passed away from cancer.
But the insensitivity continued as she downplayed Kate’s illness, insisting the Princess of Wales didn’t suffer full-blown cancer because she merely had “pre-cancerous cells,” as if the resulting chemotherapy wasn’t still brutal to endure. Kaur then said she’d known people who’d returned to work one week after similar treatment and that Kate was privileged for being allowed so much time off. To make her non-apology worse, she suggested people should direct the anger they have towards her at the Royal Family for not paying taxes and “profiting from cancer charities.” She bizarrely added, “I’m not excusing my tweet.”
The reaction to the video wasn’t the one Kaur had hoped for (or maybe it was, given her tendency to seek attention in all of its forms), as people were just as angry about it as they were about her original comments.
This was a prime example of the age-old adage, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, it’s best to say nothing at all.” Some of Kaur’s criticisms of the Royal Family may be valid, but expressing them in a supposed apology video after insulting the appearance of a member who’s been going through chemotherapy comes across as nasty and makes the supposed apology seem hollow. Will she do better in the future? Maybe, but we’re not holding our breath.
Published: Nov 11, 2024 10:07 am