Eamonn Holmes has taken to Twitter to slam various news outlets and “trolls”, following a backlash over comments he made during an interview on Thursday’s (3 August) ‘This Morning’.
Eamonn and wife Ruth Langsford were interviewing the parents of one-year-old Dawson Willcock, who has been diagnosed with an extremely rare type of liver cancer.
Wendy and David are hoping to raise £500,000 so that he can receive life-saving treatment in the US and at the end of their chat, Eamonn said: “Dawson, come back and see us when you get all your hair back, yeah? When you get better, and well, and lovely.”
While the comment was said with good intentions - and came after a discussion about Dawson’s hair - a handful of Twitter users interpreted it differently, accusing Eamonn of being insensitive.
A number of news outlet then led their coverage of the interview with the negative tweets, instead of the family’s campaign.
Eamonn later took to Twitter to address the furore, stating that he “pities” his critics and labelling the stories “fake news”:
Eamonn also retweeted a selection of the positive messages he had received, including one from Dawson’s dad, who gave the presenter his full support:
Dawson’s parents have launched an #adollarfordawson campaign to help raise funds and are asking people to donate just $1 or £1 to the cause on their JustGiving page.
Eamonn and Ruth are currently hosting ‘This Morning’ for the summer, while regular presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby enjoy some time off.
The pair are at the helm between Mondays and Thursdays, with various guest presenters stepping in each Friday.
‘This Morning’ airs weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.
