Jack Whitehall has admitted he has apologised to Becky Hill after his viral dig about her. The comedian, 37, called singer Becky, who shot to fame on The Voice and then enjoyed hits like My Heart Goes (La Di Da), the "Wetherspoons Whitney" at the BRIT Awards last year.
In response, Becky released the track Daddy's Range Rover, which makes reference to the fact that privately-educated Jack is the son of Michael Whitehall, a showbiz talent agent who has represented a slew of Hollywood stars like Colin Firth, Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis as well as heading up two production companies.
Speaking to the audience at a recent gig, Becky said: "I've had enough of all this s*** so I wrote about it. This song, I'm affectionately calling Wetherspoons Whitney, but you lot will know it as Daddy's Range Rover. This one's for you, Jack."
But when asked about the dig in a new interview, former Bad Education star Jack admitted that, as a comedian, he was "surprised" something like this hadn't come his way before now and admitted he had apologised to Becky when he saw her recently.
"Do you know what? Genuinely, I think my biggest surprise is that it's taken this long for someone to write a song or a diss track about me. I've made so many jokes about so many people."
Speaking to The Times, Jack then explained that they had "had a laugh about it. And I was like, 'I'm sorry.' And we had a chuckle about it." It comes just days after Midlands-born Becky decided to jump on Instagram quipping: "Remember not to be out of touch today kids, even if your daddy is rich. Shout out to Jack Whitehall for the fuel to my fire."
Jack presented the BRITs again this year, but some viewers were less than impressed with his performance. While he appeared to fire off his one-liners effortlessly, the actor was accused of making digs aimed at the working class during the ceremony, including claiming one audience member's suit was made of low-quality material.
Accepting he'll "always be posh", Jack previously admitted to putting on a mock-Cockney accent on stage when he did stand-up comedy. The dad-of-one first found fame as a presenter and comedian in 2008 and soon became known for his accent. In an episode of his Audible podcast Jack Whitehall’s Safe Space, the comedian recalled how he used to wear a parka and "talk like Danny Dyer" during his early stand-up career, out of fear of sounding like a "posh t***".
"For the first couple of years, [I] was doing an act where I was in-between styles," Jack told guest Russell Howard. "I used to go on and talk like a Cockney because I was very worried about the first impressions I would have on-stage with an audience. I was worried about being posh, so I would go on and talk like Danny Dyer."
Almost as soon as Jack's initial dig about Becky went viral, the singer was quick to hit out. She said: "Imagine being called a 'Wetherspoons Whitney' by some privately educated nepo baby who has a TV show with daddy the showbiz agent on national TV. My parents worked so hard to provide the middle class life for me, even though they couldn't afford it, no one gave me a leg up, I wasn't close to London so couldn't go to @brits school. So if you associate a midlands accent with a Wetherspoons that says more about the silver spoon in your mouth jolly ol' boy."
