Television presenter Alison Hammond has been left stunned after receiving a vicious message on social media from a 77-year-old user who launched an unprovoked attack on her appearance.
The X user typed the unprovoked and horrible message to the This Morning star after she’d shared a jokey video of her on board a mower. The video was published back in 2021.
She captioned her initial and light-hearted post: “Rolling into My Holidays !!!” followed by a sunglass-wearing emoji.
The user, who described himself as a “single, 77-year-old” golf enthusiast, harshly replied to the post: “Any time we see you are on TV, we switch channels as you turn our stomachs being so fat and repulsive with a huge mouth.”
The This Morning host, 50, discovered the abusive comment several days after it was posted in response to her pinned video from 2021.
Hammond’s reaction was brief but telling, as she quote-tweeted the message with just “Wow!” to express her shock at the cruel remarks directed at her.
The presenter’s 400,000+ followers quickly rallied to her defence, flooding her mentions with messages of support and condemnation of the troll’s behaviour.
One supporter wrote: “I’d just laugh at them, babe, you’re beautiful and they obviously are ugly on the inside.”
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Meanwhile, another added: “What a horrible nasty person. How he can say that about you is beyond me, you never fail to make me smile even when I’m feeling low so thank you and keep being you xxx”.
Fans branded the remarks “extremely mean and rude”, with one urging Hammond to “keep on flooding his TV, WE LOVE YOU”. (sic)
Others questioned why the individual was targeting Hammond at all, noting that his original tweet was replying to her pinned video from 2021.
The Big Brother star has faced persistent online abuse throughout her career, particularly targeting her weight and appearance.
Speaking on Lorraine Kelly and daughter Rosie’s What If? podcast in 2022, Hammond revealed: “Oh my gosh, like every day.
“Literally, I’m sure there’s a tweet or a message. I think I saw a message yesterday from someone, something along the lines of, ‘[You] need to lose 40 stone,’ I’m thinking, ‘I’m not even 40 stone!'”
She also faced backlash after taking over presenting duties on For the Love of Dogs following Paul O’Grady’s death, with critics questioning how she could host a dog show without owning a dog herself.
Hammond has previously spoken about the positive impact her work has on viewers, telling The Times: “I get letters from people saying that they were on the brink of suicide before they watched one of my interviews.”
When addressing trolls in the past, she has maintained a direct approach, previously responding to one critic with: “Don’t @ me keep your nasty comment to yourself #bekind always.”
The presenter has focused on her wellbeing through exercise, revealing she can deadlift 65kg and has been weight training for a decade.
She declared that she likes “taking up a little bit of space” and is “OK with it” as she isn’t “hurting anyone.”