Bolton-born TV and BBC Radio 2 presenter Vernon Kay awkwardly misjudged his co-star’s fashion choices – and was forced into an embarrassing climbdown live on air
Hosting a live BBC Radio show has its downside. While Vernon Kay earns around £390,000 a year from the BBC, filling the airwaves with seamless chat is harder than it might sound. It’s easy to say the first thing that comes into your head, only to realise you’ve made a terrible faux pas.
Over six million people listen to Vernon’s show every week, so a careless offhand remark can go a very long way. That, unfortunately, was the case yesterday when BBC Radio 2 travel reporter Ellie Brennan turned up for work.
Ellie thought she was just getting into the Eurovision spirit with some fun make-up, but Vernon misread the situation entirely: “I don’t know whether you’ve come as Ziggy Stardust, or whether you’ve come as a Harry Potter character. You’ve got a star over one eye and you’re wearing what looks like a Harry Potter school scarf.”
Ellie firmly corrected him, explaining: “The scarf is just my outfit, so thank you for that… and then star is for the Austrian Eurovision entry this year, COSMÓ, who also wears a star – we spoke to him this morning.
“I thought you’d been to the Harry Potter fan store on Regent Street,” an embarrassed Vernon responded, before quietly adding: “I just want the ground to swallow me up.”
The Bolton-born presenter wasn’t too embarrassed to return to his Hogwarts-themed joke later, though, introducing Ellie’s travel segment by announcing: “Here’s Harry-Ellie Potter with the travel!”
Ellie took Vernon’s ribbing in good spirits, but still complained: “Who needs enemies when you’ve got friends like these?”
Vernon’s schoolboy humour also reportedly led to differences of opinion in his marriage to former Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly, despite the two having a shared history, both starting out as models before making their way into TV.
But lately, friends say, the couple have grown apart with Tess acting and feeling every bit of her 57 years while Vernon – a few years younger than his wife – “is still a big kid”.
A friend of the couple claimed to the Daily Mail that Vernon and Tess’s interests are very different these days. Vernon prefers to spend his free time going gigs and watching American football. In the last year alone, he went to see Oasis five times during their reunion tour – but not once with Tess.
Conversely, Tess is said to prefer to relax on ‘girls weekends’ and is ready to be ‘selfish’ herself now that she has left Strictly Come Dancing.
The source said: “They are totally different people now. They used to have so much in common but things have changed. They have changed. They have aged differently.
“Tess needs to find a rich, older man with a yacht, while Vernon is still a big kid. He loves going out and having a good time, he loves to have a drink and a laugh. He loves the ’90s disco nights that he puts on. He loves football, American football and Oasis. Tess isn’t interested in any of that.”
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