Zack Polanski’s claim to have immediately apologised for offering hypnosis intended to increase a woman’s breast size has been cast into doubt by the emergence of a 2013 interview with the Green party leader.
In 2013, before he entered politics, Polanski was approached by a Sun journalist to see if a hypnotherapy session could make her breasts bigger. This experience was then written up as an article.
Polanski has repeatedly apologised for the episode, saying that while he was approached by the paper, it was entirely his responsibility for agreeing. He has also suggested that the work was more about improving body image than literally changing the body.
He said he used a BBC interview the day after the Sun article appeared, in June 2013, to apologise. But according to the BBC, the corporation has been unable to locate an interview with Polanski from that day.
The broadcaster has, however, uncovered an interview Polanski did with BBC Humberside six days after the Sun interview which did not appear to include an apology.
In excerpts from this interview, Polanski talks about “a successful project” with the Sun journalist in changing the size of her breasts, indicating that he had tried the technique with other people.
“We’ve done it a couple of times and there seems to be no shift, but actually, increasingly more and more as I work with people, there is starting to be anecdotal evidence at least of a growth in breast size,” he said.
“With her breast size, in the Sun article, she says that she grew four inches. It didn’t change her cup size, she stayed the same cup size, but she said it was a tighter fit.”
Pressed on whether he personally believed that hypnotherapy could increase breast size, Polanski replied: “I believe that it can happen in theory.”
He added that his preference was for someone to use a session with him to increase their body image or confidence, meaning they did not want to change the size of their breasts.
A Labour source said: “Zack Polanski’s ego might have got bigger, but nothing else has. It’s now clear that his pretence to have been misrepresented over his breast enlargement hypnosis scam was absolute nonsense – he got called out years later.”
Asked about the Sun article by the Guardian in May last year, when he announced his bid to lead the Greens in England and Wales, Polanski expressed regret, saying he was at the time “a young Londoner who was holding down four jobs”.
“I think I saw it as a way to talk about body image and work that can happen where people don’t go under surgery, but can actually feel better about themselves,” he said. “What I’m careful about, though, is that that is not justification … I’ve apologised for it, and I stick by that apology.”
A Green party source said: “Zack has repeatedly apologised for an interview he did with the Sun more than a decade ago. Now, Zack is focused on the issues that really matter to people: bringing down bills, protecting the NHS and rebuilding our public services.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
