Rylan Clark grew emotional in a new interview as he reflected on losing friends to ‘cancel culture’.
The former X Factor star, 37, has built up a huge circle of showbiz pals since breaking into the TV industry and regularly mixes with A-listers when hosting This Morning or presenting his BBC Radio 2 show.
However, those friendships can make headlines for the wrong reasons when one party faces backlash or scrutiny.
Most recently, it was reported that Clark was ‘devastated’ over Scott Mills’ scandal, which saw him fired from the BBC due to the discovery that the Metropolitan Police had investigated the 53-year-old in 2016 over allegations of serious sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000.
The investigation was closed in 2019 after it was ruled there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.
Mills, 53, is now keeping a low profile with his husband, Sam Vaughan, having only made one statement in which he recalled ‘fully cooperating’ with the initial investigation and refused to say anything more publicly.
Clark has worked with Mills numerous times in his career, most notably as commentators for the Eurovision semi-finals, a gig Angela Scanlon has since taken over.
And as he took part in ITV’s The Assembly, a series in which celebs are grilled by a 28-strong neurodivergent panel, with no question off-limits, the subject of scandals soon came up.
Stepping up with the mic, participant Jacob asked: ‘How do you cope when one of your celebrity friends is cancelled?’
The room filled with gasps, and mouths fell open as Clark gathered his thoughts and prepared an answer.
‘It’s really tough,’ he began before stuttering over what to say next.
‘Especially because some of them are not just my work friends – they’re genuinely, like, close friends.’
‘At the end of the day, if someone’s done something wrong, then I understand why they can’t carry on doing what they’re doing,’ the broadcaster continued, not mentioning Mills by name at any point.
‘But I do feel today that we live in a world where people will wanna go for you and cancel you for the sake of just doing it, because they can.’
He then urged people not to ‘always believe what you hear or read’.
‘Don’t be frightened to ask why,’ he added, the group then falling silent.
Jacob walked off, thanking him for his reply, with Clark starting to wipe his eyes and say: ‘God, this is like a lucky dip. You just don’t know what’s coming next, do you?’
His comments come after the likes of Clark and Mills’ other colleagues were reportedly left ‘shell-shocked’ when he was sacked.
A source also told the Daily Mail that he and Mills were ‘so close’, predicting that the aftermath would be ‘rough’ for the daytime TV presenter, who has since been called a ‘rock’ to his pal.
‘They have done a lot of work together, but see a lot of each other socially, too. They always had each other’s backs.
‘This will be rough for Rylan.’
Interviews on The Assembly are designed to be a mixed bag, with anything up for grabs, whether it be questions on Clark’s famous veneers and orange tan or more personal subjects like his divorce, infidelity, and family life.
Still, Clark was heard telling crew members that he was ‘so glad’ he did it, even though he was forced to confront difficult times, such as his mental breakdown after splitting from Dan Neal in 2021.
He also opened up about fame, admitting that it’s ‘not important’ to him now, despite being something he used to chase.
‘I’ve earned a lot of money over the years, and I’m grateful for that, but it became the one thing I hated the most,’ he admitted.
Elsewhere, Clark was asked whether honesty is ‘always the best policy’, given how his husband of six years left him when he confessed to cheating.
Standing firm, Clark insisted that it is.
‘I’m OK admitting when I’m in the wrong because, actually, I don’t deal well with guilt and I don’t deal well with secrets,’ he shared.
Do you think ‘cancel culture’ works?
‘It made me so ill. Like, so ill. And it sounds like a terrible thing to say, but I’m glad it happened.’
Probed further on whether he ‘misses’ anything about his ex, Clark dropped a stunning revelation.
‘I never think about him,’ he stated.
Clark then confessed: ‘I miss feeling like I’ve got it all. I thought I had life done. I’ve got the job, I’ve got the family, I’ve got the marriage, I’ve got the car, I’ve got the house… I thought I had it sussed. I didn’t have anything sussed.’
The Assembly is available to stream on ITVX.
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