Jonathan Ross now attempting to distance himself….

[Piglet89]

Jonathan Ross 'horrified' by Walliams allegations and Brand conviction https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmwy9jl18840o

Pull the other one, Wossy - it’s got bells on.

No-one's convinced. Walliams reputation as a predatory man has been floating about for years. It's simply not possible that Ross knew nothing.

I can still remember that phone call that Brand and Ross made to Andrew Sachs about Sachs's granddaughter, in the name of entertainment. It was horrible.

He’s better off saying nothing… But I suppose his agent is very keen on damage limitation.

Indeed - The Telegraph have been showing the clip with JR hosting a 2004 comedy awards show - he jokes that DW would be taking a drunk 15 year old home with him. Disingenuous to claim he knew nothing.

He contradicts himself by saying Walliams was publicly in a relationship with a 15yo and then says if he had "suspected" there to be any truth he wouldn't have said the joke. Was it public knowledge or not Ross?

Another man who doesn’t think consent is important. I’m betting his lawyer is having him go through every single interaction with women he’s had in his past. He must be bricking it at the moment.

I think he was right to make a statement, but he should have at least made it somewhat believable. He saw how they were, he heard the rumours, he was close with them. Are we to believe he had no idea whatsoever? Or is he actually saying “I saw it and am shocked it turns out to have been problematic” in which case do we deduce he thinks what they did was fine? Wouldn’t a better statement have been, “I saw things I now realise were not acceptable. In the context of the culture at the time, it seemed ok, I knew nothing about any illegal behaviour”. It would still show him as being an enabler of the behaviour, but given the current narrative about the FHM lad/ladette culture that is being linked to all of this, it at least would be closer to being believable. Still makes him a sleazy fucker but gives him more of an out.

There isn’t anything on Jonathan Ross, is there? He hasn’t done anything (that we know of) other than be part of the media-scape of the time. His jokes were crass, for sure. Okay, he was a big player & helped set the tone. But will he be brought down? And by who?

Remember when Gregg Wallace was cancelled? John Torrode didn’t publicly support him. In fact his wife dissed GW on X (or wherever). Next thing JT is in trouble over something minor (he sang the words of a song). I’m convinced GW was behind that…

Such bullshit. He made a joke at an awards ceremony about a 15 year old who was drunk- ideal for David Walliams. What did he think the joke was about????

Bossy who started dating his wife when he was 26 and she was 16? I cant imagine for one minute that he didnt know, and clearly he would have clearly thought it was perfectly fine for an adult man to date teenagers anyway.

Jonathan Ross went along with the whole thing because he thought it was funny. He was not outraged at all or else he would have not used the material for his crass jokes.

He is part of the problem why this abusive behaviour carried on for so long. He knew about it. He joked about it. But did nothing. And now he is trying to save his reputation by this statement.

Too little too late.

Holly Willoughby also suffered by association with Phillip Schofield (queue-gate notwithstanding). Only for her husband being in big in TV, she could have been totally finished. All of the back-stabbing, who knew what, when etc… The papers love it.

I don't believe Ross.

They were close friends, went to the same parties, had many friends in common.

Also he made that 'joke' about 15 year olds and Walliams at an award ceremony.

Now he is trying to say he did not write that joke. Regardless he must have read his material before the event and if he did not know about Walliams behaviour, he would have questioned the meaning of the 'joke' at that point and then said he was not going to read it as his friend was not like that. He knew, they all knew and this has been an open secret with rumours circulating online for years.

It's a bit feeble that statement isn't it ? He was appearing with these men making sexually inappropriate and crude jokes with them and about them, he participated in rape jokes . He should have been stronger and put out a statement like @BoredZelda suggested, but that would look bad on him.

”Ross acknowledged the controversial quip and described it as "tasteless".
He added: "This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards script writing team and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.”

this sounds so far fetched to me - not only because it’s so pointed but would you really just wheel out a joke on stage about a man having a sexual relationship with a child… because it was written for uou?!

Exactly, then he goes on to say if he even suspected it were true he wouldn't have said it! It was either public knowledge which is why it was funny or Ross made a random joke he had no point of reference for.

I think that was the point at which I fully realised Ross was a despicable person.

He can try as hard as he likes to distance himself from Brand and Walliams but no-one is going to believe he didn't know what was going on. He was in the very centre of that culture. He may not have taken part in it but that doesn't mean he didn't know what was going on. That makes him complicit.

He may have "looked away" but I think there's very little doubt about his knowledge of what his friends were getting up to. He made that quip about Walliams and 15 year old girls. He didn't think to question the morality of making a "joke" like that? Of course he knew.