Jonathan Ross has been branded a "gutless piece of work" by columnist Carole Malone, who says his attempts to distance himself from Russell Brand and David Walliams reveal everything about his character.
Writing for the Daily Express, Malone says Ross has been telling anyone who will listen that he had no idea what either man was really like, despite moving in the same celebrity circles and being friends with both for decades. She notes that Ross even attended two of Brand's weddings, to Katy Perry in 2010 and Laura Gallacher in 2017.
Ross's knowledge of Brand and Walliams
Malone argues that even people who did not know Brand knew what he was like because he kept telling them. "He told us he was a sex addict, that he loved f***ing. He even wrote a book about it," she writes. "So if we all knew what he was, how come his very good friend Jonathan didn't?"
She also questions why Ross told a joke at the British Comedy Awards in 2004 that talked about Walliams going home with 15-year-olds if he did not know what it alluded to. Ross's defence was that he did not write the joke, but Malone points out he was 43 years old when he told it and could have refused, not least because he is a father of two daughters.
Sachsgate and personal experience
Malone also recalls Ross's role in the Sachsgate scandal, noting it was him who screamed down actor Andrew Sachs's answerphone: "He f***ed your granddaughter," and it was him who egged Brand on.
She adds that Ross began dating his wife Jane Goldman when she was just 16 and he was 26, marrying her when she turned 18. "Obviously, there was nothing whatsoever illegal about that, but it was still pretty unusual at the time," she writes.
Malone recounts her own experience with Ross at a Christmas event in Hampstead a few years ago, where he shouted at her and another woman friend: "They don't let dogs in here." She says this made clear exactly what kind of man he is.
A different person now
Malone says she has no doubt Ross is a devoted husband and father who has never indulged in anything like Brand has done and Walliams has been accused of. "But there are two sides to him," she writes. "And one of those sides is that for years he looked like he enjoyed being in the slipstream of Brand and Walliams' fame."
She notes that one journalist called him a "Forrest Gump for creeps", which she says sounds about right. Ross recently said he is a different person now, to which Malone responds: "Good! Because that other person was a bit of a dickhead who had toxic friends – one of whom's now a convicted rapist and the other stands accused of grooming young girls."
