Aussie radio host Ash London has been forced to take a break from social media after the notoriously vicious One Direction fans barraged her with death threats and hate messages.
On the show she hosts with Ed Kavalee and Ash Williams on 2DayFM, the trio joked about the singer while introducing his prerecording interview.
“Just so we’re clear, because I’m a very visual guy, Ash – he’s the guy with the smaller face with the short brown hair?” Williams asked her.
“Kind of like ratty facial hair …” London replied.
“He’s not Harry Styles basically,” chimed in Kavalee. “He’s the least popular one.”
Notably all three hosts made a slightly disparaging comment about the singer, but only the female is being attacked…
The wave of abuse was immediate and unrelenting.
Some of the tweets were bizarrely reminiscent of mob threats honestly.
Ash responded to the onslaught with a message of her own.
“I am a music fan. I love that it brings so much passion out in people,” she wrote.
“This morning on air we had a great interview with Louis. As always – he was a total legend. I loved talking about how far he’s come, his new music and his future which looks so bright.
“We love Louis and will continue supporting him and his new music as we have always done.”
Rather than diffuse the situation, Louis fuelled the fire.
London retaliated with another tweet.
“Tough day. A lot of people claiming I said some things which in reality I simply didn’t,” she said.
“What I can apologise for, is describing the quality of someone’s facial hair in a lighthearted chat with my two co-hosts. For that I’m sorry. All the other stuff? Simply not true. Not me.
“I’ll be off socials for a bit – the abuse and threats are a little much for me right now. I won’t go on private because I don’t have anything to hide. In future I’ll do what I always do – stick to the music and leave any mentions of facial hair out of it.”
Look, having people constantly comment on your talent and how you look in such minute details can’t be easy and that sucks for Louis.
But wow, who could ever predict fandoms could be so aggressive. We’re lucky we didn’t have Twitter went Beatlemania was in full force.
