Guest pulls out of Woman’s Hour after claiming she heard Emma Barnett ‘talking about me like I’m a d***head’
A GUEST pulled out of Woman’s Hour after claiming she overheard herself “being talked about like a d***head” by the BBC Radio Four show’s host.
Kelechi Okafor was due to speak with new Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett about the MeToo movement and why it is still needed for marginalised voices.
But the actress claims the host was speaking about her without realising her mic was on.
It is Barnett’s third day as the new official host of Woman’s Hour.
As the programme was live on air, Ms Okafor revealed she had come off the show, writing: “Because what I’ve just had to witness is absolutely degrading and vile.”
Posting a video to Instagram, she said: “I won’t be going on Woman’s Hour now. The host didn’t realise her mic was on as she was talking s*** about me to the producers.”
The mum-of-one, who hosts the podcast Say Your Mind, wrote on Twitter: “Hi guys I’m coming off woman’s hour because what I’ve just had to witness is absolutely degrading and vile.
“The host didn’t realise her mic was on as she was talking about me before the interview started is all I’m going to say.”
She added: “You can have a genuine concern about something you’ve been told about me and address it in a manner that is kind. That wasn’t what took place.
“Myself and the other people who would be talking during the segment could hear me being talked about like a d***head.”
‘DEGRADING’
Ms Okafor is an actress and dancer who has built a large following online discussing issues that affect black women.
She suggested that as Emma realised her mic was on, she tried to recover the situation.
Explaining her reason for being on the show, she added: “The need for me on today’s show was to offer balance to these wayward women thinking that the MeToo movement is no longer needed.
“The fact is that if you feel it’s no longer needed for your white middle class sensibilities marginalised voices still need it.”
The alleged conversation appears to have taken place off air.
In 2017 Ms Okafor defended TV presenter Reggie Yates after he apologised for using the phrase “fat Jewish guy” in a podcast.
He had said in an interview: “The thing that makes it great about this new generation of (music) artists is that they ain’t signing to majors.
“They’re independent, they’re not managed by some random fat Jewish guy from north west London, they’re managed by their brethren.”
Ms Okafor argued that Mr Yates was wrong to apologise for the comments and to step down as a host of the BBC’s Top of the Pops programme.
Emma Barnett, whose grandmother escaped from the Nazis in Austria, has previously spoken out against anti-semitism, condemning rapper Wiley for an anti-semitic outburst last year.
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She said at the time: “(the rapper’s words) burn deep, are deeply dispiriting and play on a very well hidden fear a lot of Jewish people have – that some day anti-Semitism will rise up once more”.
Emma took on her new role as Woman’s Hour host on Monday, replacing Jane Garvey and Dame Jenni Murray who both left the show last year.
The Sun Online has approached both Kelechi and the BBC for comment.