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Original poster

Famous people you thought would be nice, but were tw*ts?

771 replies

Moodershewrote · 22/07/2025 14:25

Have you met someone famous and they turned out to be a bit of a twat?

I once met Steve Coogan (who I thought was hilarious as Alan Partridge) who was a sexist, lecherous buffoon IRL.

Share your tales!

OP posts:
Arlanymor · 22/07/2025 21:22

KimberWozRobbed · 22/07/2025 20:52

Shane Williams is an absolute dreamboat who went out of his way to make sure I got a photo with him. Jamie Roberts always pretends he remembers me and Leigh Halfpenny is the shyest person I've ever met ( but ridiculously pretty).

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Oh I love this! Shane Williams and I share a birthday - think he is 1 or 2 years older than me. (My best friend is very not secretly in total lust with Leigh! Every time I drive through Gorseinon I think of him and his Grandcha practicing kicks!) Tell you what Kim - I’ve never met a pig rugby player, not once!

tigerlady14 · 22/07/2025 21:24

i met giancarlo esposito at an event a few years ago, he was extremely kind, gentlemanly, sweet and friendly with a lovely calm energy but very charismatic and magnetic!

Tillow4ever · 22/07/2025 21:24

CaveMum · 22/07/2025 20:09

I’m very jealous! Despite being in my mid-40s I still go weak at the knees over Buffy-era James Marsters. I was always a Spike girl 😍

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I’ve been fortunate to meet him 3 times now and he was so, so lovely every time.

LancashireButterPie · 22/07/2025 21:26

First impressions...

Colin Morgan (Merlin) lovely kind guy.
Ben Wishaw...Adorable
Peter Andre...surprisingly lovely.
Posh spice.....Really sweet and seemed quite friendly but shy, met her a few times when the kids were small.
Princess Anne... Funny and chatty, I'd quite like to get drunk with her!
Jenna ??surname... Out of Dr Who and that Queen Victoria programme ...smiley and friendly.
Rick Astley...top bloke, just genuinely nice guy.
John Bishop....unfailingly nice (met him lots).

Jack Whitehall was rude and full of himself.

OtherS · 22/07/2025 21:26

I've known a few people who have met Camilla too, and all have said she's lovely and very down to earth, and seemed very interested in having conversations with them. On one occasion she turned up unannounced to a small garden centre opening in the west country, and stayed for ages meeting with everyone. It never appeared in the papers, but I know it meant a lot to at least one person there (my aunt). Think this was at the height of the Harry/Meghan drama and it really brought it home to me that there are good and bad ways of being a royal...!

Never met anyone with a bad word to say about Anne, either.

GoodOldTrayBake · 22/07/2025 21:27

Apfelkuchen · 22/07/2025 17:00

I hate to say it, but Julia Donaldson. Grumpy AF.

Nooooooo

wanttokickoffbutcant · 22/07/2025 21:28

LemondrizzleShark · 22/07/2025 19:13

Prince Charles visited my med school about 25 years ago (presumably to open a ward of something), and he was surprisingly lovely to what was basically a bunch of silly teenagers on a walkabout afterwards.

We would have been about the same age as his kids, and presumably he was used to having groups of their friends mucking about at home. “Jovial” is probably the best way to describe it. Bit awkward, like your dad trying to make a joke, but very friendly and warm.

I am a republican and was fully expecting him to be a massive twat (this was post-Diana and all of the books and interviews and stories about having a special valet to put his toothpaste on the brush for him, none of which showed him in a good light). But he was much better than I expected. I am still against the institution though.

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I also met KC when he was PC and found him to be lovely. It was a work event about 30 years ago so no idea if he has got more grumpy with age!

FridayFeelingmidweek · 22/07/2025 21:28

DancingNotDrowning · 22/07/2025 17:13

Another one: James Cracknell.

We stayed in a holiday property next door to him and his family, we shared some out door space with them so paths naturally crossed. Our DC were very similar ages but weren’t allowed anywhere near ours and we were generally treated with great disdain.

Didn't he have a brain injury though?

CoffeeCantata · 22/07/2025 21:28

LemondrizzleShark · 22/07/2025 19:13

Prince Charles visited my med school about 25 years ago (presumably to open a ward of something), and he was surprisingly lovely to what was basically a bunch of silly teenagers on a walkabout afterwards.

We would have been about the same age as his kids, and presumably he was used to having groups of their friends mucking about at home. “Jovial” is probably the best way to describe it. Bit awkward, like your dad trying to make a joke, but very friendly and warm.

I am a republican and was fully expecting him to be a massive twat (this was post-Diana and all of the books and interviews and stories about having a special valet to put his toothpaste on the brush for him, none of which showed him in a good light). But he was much better than I expected. I am still against the institution though.

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Ah…to be fair to KC, that valet toothpaste story is a bit harsh because he’d injured his arm at the time. I had a thumb injury a couple of years ago and had to get my husband to squeeze toothpaste for me, so I’ll give him a free pass for that one!

Flumpflimpo · 22/07/2025 21:28

OtherS · 22/07/2025 21:26

I've known a few people who have met Camilla too, and all have said she's lovely and very down to earth, and seemed very interested in having conversations with them. On one occasion she turned up unannounced to a small garden centre opening in the west country, and stayed for ages meeting with everyone. It never appeared in the papers, but I know it meant a lot to at least one person there (my aunt). Think this was at the height of the Harry/Meghan drama and it really brought it home to me that there are good and bad ways of being a royal...!

Never met anyone with a bad word to say about Anne, either.

Camilla can be nice and kind to people, but she definitely was ruthless and selfish in getting what she wanted.

I remember diana said that she went up and confronted camilla about her affair with charles, and camilla said "what are you upset about, you have two amazing sons". There was no empathy for diana at all.

MarxistMags · 22/07/2025 21:30

Who ,,?

ThatAgileLimeCat · 22/07/2025 21:32

TinkerbellStarbright · 22/07/2025 16:59

Julie Walters is an absolute darling and so friendly.
Johnny Depp is very humble, softly spoken and kind!
Ant and Dec and Peter Andre - all come across lively and friendly and bubbly and were all twats.

Met Ant on holiday and he was lovely. I was a bit surprised as had always assumed he must be an arsehole away from the camera. you have restored my faith 🤣

CoffeeCantata · 22/07/2025 21:33

OtherS · 22/07/2025 21:26

I've known a few people who have met Camilla too, and all have said she's lovely and very down to earth, and seemed very interested in having conversations with them. On one occasion she turned up unannounced to a small garden centre opening in the west country, and stayed for ages meeting with everyone. It never appeared in the papers, but I know it meant a lot to at least one person there (my aunt). Think this was at the height of the Harry/Meghan drama and it really brought it home to me that there are good and bad ways of being a royal...!

Never met anyone with a bad word to say about Anne, either.

My daughter worked for a designer who was a favourite of Camilla and said she was lovely. Arrived for fittings in an old Volvo and was utterly unassuming, kind, smiley and had time for everyone.

(i like her and I’m sad when people are vile about her. The whole marriage scenario was way more complicated and morally nuanced than people realise. Diana wasn’t a saint and Camilla wasn’t a devil!)

SisterTeatime · 22/07/2025 21:35

I have come across (not exactly ‘met’) Neil Tennant twice, in unrelated work settings, and he was very unassuming, polite, humble and lovely. I love the Pet Shop Boys so I’m pleased about this!

FridayFeelingmidweek · 22/07/2025 21:37

Flumpflimpo · 22/07/2025 19:48

If i wqs a celebrity i would probably be an asshole too.

It would be hard to be nice to every stranger that comes up to me.

Can you imagine having to be 'on' all the time to not seem like a dick. I couldn't do it. Thd thought of being well known makes me shudder.

Lucyintheskywithdiamonnds · 22/07/2025 21:39

GoodOldTrayBake · 22/07/2025 21:27

Nooooooo

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Tabby McTat though - he’s gorgeous and friendly!

NotCrazyAboutIt · 22/07/2025 21:40

HPFA · 22/07/2025 20:12

Do we count dead famous people?

My Irish grandmother knew WB Yeats as a child and said he was not friendly with children at all.

She was once pressed to do a party piece on the violin and he was horrible about it.

That’s no secret, though. Frank O’Connor once saw George Yeats beg WB to discipline the children when they were particularly out of hand. He said ‘Young pups are prone to bark and bite’ and left the room.

I can easily believe he was nasty about your granny’s violins playing!

Figcherry · 22/07/2025 21:42

Screamingabdabz · 22/07/2025 21:09

I met some posh neighbours of VW’s on holiday and they hadn’t got a good word to say about her either!

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I never met Victoria Wood.
However, I think she was a comedy genius but I never liked her. In Dinnerladies you could see her face, almost smug, when a particular line was delivered.
I also remember on Desert Island Discs she was asked what the trick was in writing comedy, how she went about it.
She was so definite that she wasn’t prepared to share any of her techniques, she really came across as reluctant to give anyone a leg up.
Selfish, imo.

BananaWoman999 · 22/07/2025 21:43

I fan-girled over Ewan McGregor in his Trainspotting days and he took it very well.

Peter Capaldi was an absolute gentleman. My interaction with him had finished but then needed to give him one more bit of info - he was on the phone. He asked the person on the phone to wait, put his phone aside and gave me his full attention.

Anthony Joshua - just after the Olympics. Had such a lovely energy and aura. I didn't actually know who he was but I knew he was someone. Everyone was in awe after he left (especially that I'd had a chat with him whilst totally clueless!)

Gethin Jones was also lovely. Very flirty. Later read an interview where he said he was terrible at flirting if he was really interested in someone 😅.

Kat from Eastenders had a right attitude!

Clive Owen was very polite and had a wonderful, deep voice!

CoffeeCantata · 22/07/2025 21:43

Re Victoria Wood, there are multiple reports of her unfriendliness and I share pps’ disappointment. I witnessed it (at a distance) myself once.

Maybe she was one of those celebrities who only like other celebrities? I love her work and she gave the impression of being very much “an ordinary woman’, but I get the impression she had an ‘us and them’ attitude to the public. Such a shame!

on that note, my BIL once had dinner with Michael Parkinson, another famous man and an ordinary Joe (4 men in total). He’s not a complainer but he said it was embarrassing the way MP would only talk to the other famous chap - just totally stared through the common folk. So weird!

Lucyintheskywithdiamonnds · 22/07/2025 21:43

Lily Allen - dreadful horrible person
Sandy Toksvig - as per Lily Allen
Schofield - awful

Lineker - nicer in person than he seems on tv
chris Martin - lovely
James blunt - lovely and humble
children's tv presenter tall bloke catch phrase, lovely

HarrietBond · 22/07/2025 21:45

I feel the need to put in a positive Victoria Wood story! A friend of mine is a theatre director and when she was younger VW gave her a lot of support, moral and financial, in getting work off the ground.

I also met her after a show when much younger and did embarrassing fan wibble at her, and she was very gracious about it and asked her PA to send me a poster that had sold out. Obviously a time when she was professionally ‘on’ though.

TeenLifeMum · 22/07/2025 21:46

FleurDeFleur · 22/07/2025 16:17

I met Gary Lineker and did not like him one bit. However, he could have been having a bad day, so I don't want to be negative about him just because of that.

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He’s a cheating lech if a man with super injunctions to protect him and prevent media reporting it. Such a disappointment.

weirdoboelady · 22/07/2025 21:56

I'd just like to say how totally amazing Vanessa Feltz was at a local Mind charity do I attended a good few years ago. She made a point of going round and saying hello to absolutely all the service users there - some of whom were visibly 'odd' and even scary looking to someone who didn't work in mental health. I think quite a few people's spirits were lifted that night, including mine to think that someone could be so generous with their time.