'Hurtful' phrases unearthed after she's signed up for a Covid campaign

Janey Godley has apologised for making ‘horridly offensive’ comments on social media.

The comedian’s Twitter old posts came under scrutiny after the Scottish government hired her to front a Covid-19 public health campaign.

Critics unearthed posts from several years ago that used offensive language mocking disabled people, such as ‘spazzy’.

She has now apologised for the ‘disgusting and hurtful’ words, but also said some of the comments being attributed to her were fake.

‘There are tweets from my past social media that are horridly offensive,’ the comedian said in a statement. ‘I believe in progress not perfection and I am far from perfect. 

‘People have every right to go through my social media and see what values I hold and to find hurtful phrases and statements is shocking, I am deeply sorry to everyone I offended.

‘Comedy is no excuse to use disgusting and hurtful words that affect people and I know many of you expected better of me. I apologise for every single word that upset people, I should have blocked and reported the accounts that threatened me and not replied with abhorrent heckles.

‘There are fake tweets created to damage my reputation but the ones I wrote I take responsibility for During this pandemic, I tried to keep everyone's spirits up and I will continue to do my best to keep that going.’

This morning she added she added on Twitter; ‘I absolutely deserve every bit of criticism for the language used in past tweets, there is no shying away from that. I am writing this as I haven’t slept well, it’s my own fault, people have the right to go through past TL [timeline] and scrutinise each tweet, I deserve this… if you put yourself up there and say horrific offensive stuff that hurts people, you deserve to be brick batted down - that’s life. I accept that, people have the right to punish me.’

Godley was reportedly paid £10,000 plus VAT for  the campaign the Scottish government has said. She also fronted an anti-litter campaign for taxpayer-funded Zero Waste Scotland, although the value of that deal has not been revealed.

Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Conservative chief whip,  criticised the  SNP  for using ‘a significant amount of taxpayers’ money in getting a divisive figure to front their latest Covid advert’.

Meanwhile, His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen has come under pressure over Godley’s appearance in their forthcoming pantomime  Beauty And The Beast.

Tory MSP Douglas Lumsden said her ‘history of offensive and derogatory language on social media’ means she is not ‘an appropriate star of a family pantomime’.

However, Jane Spiers, chief executive of the company which runs the theatre, said has stood by her, saying: ‘We would not consider this a reason for banning her from our venues."

Published: 9 Sep 2021