BBC presenter Ashley Cain, lauded by the corporation for his appeal to young male audiences, has a history of making abusive and misogynistic remarks about women, whom he has variously called "slags", "sluts", "psychos" and "bitches", the Guardian can reveal.
Cain's Controversial Background
Cain is the presenter of the BBC Three documentary series Ashley Cain: Into the Danger Zone, which was filmed on location earlier this year after the BBC commissioned a second series. A former footballer turned reality TV star, Cain travels to the world's most dangerous places, interviewing young men who live on the fringes of society.
Before Cain began working with the BBC, he was a prolific user of X, formerly Twitter. He frequently referred to women in tweets using abusive terms, making jokes about hitting women and degrading sexual practices. He also sent female users abusive messages with offensive sexualised language.
In 2014, in response to a since-deleted tweet he perceived to be homophobic, Cain tweeted that one female user should "go and choke on a cock you slut". To another female user in 2015 he wrote: "The only thing that's desperate around here is your pictures with your shit tits. Now suck a dick, and fuck off."
These and dozens of other similar posts, all publicly available, raise questions for the BBC about what, if any, vetting was conducted before his appointment. Late on Wednesday, Cain's X account appeared to have been removed from the platform.
BBC Response
Cain did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A BBC spokesperson said: "We are very clear we expect the highest standards of behaviour from everyone who works with or for the BBC. When allegations are brought to our attention we take them seriously. We will consider this information carefully and do not intend to comment further at this stage."
A source at the BBC said the corporation had been unaware of Cain's social media posts. The revelations could pose the first big test for the BBC's new director general, Matt Brittin, who joined the corporation last month after a string of scandals related to misconduct by BBC presenters.
BBC executives have in the past praised Cain's "exceptional" ability to connect with young men, and promoted him on the broadcaster's youth-focused channel, describing him as "what BBC Three is about". He also appeared on the BBC's flagship Celebrity MasterChef in 2025, reaching the semi-final.
Previous Warnings
When Cain was first commissioned by the BBC for Into the Danger Zone, filmed in 2024 and aired in 2025, there were ample warnings in the public domain about his controversial background. He had previously appeared on an MTV reality TV show, where he was known for using the phrase "you can't turn a hoe into a housewife".
A newspaper article from 2015, easily discoverable online, reported an incident in which a woman alleged that he uploaded footage of them having sex onto Snapchat without her consent. At the time, Cain said the woman consented to the footage being shared, saying: "Everyone knows what happens on my Snapchat."
Misogynistic and Sexualised Language
Around the time of the Snapchat incident, Cain frequently tweeted abusive jokes about hitting and slapping women. While watching an episode of the ITV reality show Love Island in 2015, Cain tweeted that if he were a contestant he "would have to choke slam" the female contestant Jessica Hayes "real quick".
On another occasion, he abused Hayes again, saying he would like to "dick fuck her and her big mouth, spit in her face and then fuck her off". While watching a 2012 Channel 4 documentary, Cain tweeted that he wanted to "talcum powder pimp slap these bitches already!"
Cain also posted about sexual practices that blur the boundaries of consent. In 2011, he joked about an extreme sex act involving semen. In 2013, he posted a tweet joking that "eating bad food at weekends is like when a girl says, 'Don't cum in me', but you do it anyway, then think 'shit'".
In 2014 he tweeted: "A girl bangs 100 guys = Slag. A guy bangs 100 girls = Ledge." The same year he tweeted: "I DO NOT.. I repeat I DO NOT think EVERY girl is a slag! There are some absolute PHENOMENAL women out there.. They're just a rare commodity."
In 2015, he wrote: "I know some sluts that think they're not sluts cuz they slut discreetly. Lol." In 2017, he wrote: "You'll never see a good girl trying to prove to you she's a good girl, she's naturally different."
While the comments are several years old, the fact most have been available on Cain's public X account for more than a decade raises questions about the BBC's vetting procedures.
Background and Fundraising
A former reality TV star with 2.1 million followers on Instagram, Cain came to prominence through the MTV reality show Ex on the Beach, leading him to adopt the moniker "[the] bad boy of MTV". During its first season in 2014, Cain twice tried to attack male contributors, being sent home early due to his second attempted assault.
Since the death of his daughter Azaylia in 2021 from leukaemia, he has become a prominent fundraiser, setting up a foundation in his daughter's name and taking part in extreme physical challenges to raise money for childhood cancer research.
BBC executives perceived Cain as someone who could appeal to younger male audiences, particularly on Instagram and YouTube. In a press release announcing season one of Into the Danger Zone, Ricky Cooper, a BBC commissioning editor, described Cain as someone who "connects with young men in a truly exceptional way".
Allegations of Non-Consensual Recording
Speaking to the Daily Star in 2015, the woman, Rachel Roftis, said she "definitely didn't give him permission to take photos of me or film me at all" and that she had been abused online after Cain uploaded the footage to Snapchat.
Contacted by the Guardian this month, Roftis, 33, who lives in Bexley, south-east London, said she met Cain on 27 March 2015, after he made an appearance at Pure-bar nightclub in Bexleyheath. Roftis said they had consensual sex at a local hotel. She said she only discovered later that Cain recorded videos and took photos of her naked without her consent, and uploaded these to Snapchat.
The following morning, Roftis received calls and messages from friends and family. In one, a friend wrote: "Rachel I know it's none of my business, but do you know there's videos of you on Ashley's Snapchat of you having sex? And videos of your vagina?"
Roftis said that upon learning this, she "screamed" at him and made him delete the images and footage, but by then they had gone viral. Posts still available on X show users using the hashtag #Room303, an apparent reference to Cain's hotel room number that night.
Cain made light of the events on 28 March 2015, tweeting: "Some of the explicit Snapchats had to be removed ;(" and replying to a user that "that's why they call me the Snapchat king". Later that day, Cain himself tweeted "#Room303🔞."
Roftis recalled receiving online abuse, including death threats, and in-person harassment at the bar where she worked. She said: "I went into work the next day and I had people coming in there, basically shouting abuse at me, throwing things at me."
After the Daily Star story was published, Cain denied the footage was recorded and uploaded without consent. In posts that tagged her on Twitter, Cain said she "tried to get her 5 mins of fame by selling a story claiming she was unaware" and that "she knew about it…she consented to it…& she fucking loved it!" He offered to pay her a grand.
Roftis told the Guardian that she was not paid by the Daily Star for the interview. The experience was traumatic, she said: "I was made out to be this horrible person, that girl, a slag."
Roftis added that no one from the BBC had ever contacted her in relation to the incident. When she sees Cain on TV, she said she "can't physically watch" and gets angry that TV producers "are either not doing their research, or they just don't care."
