Category Entertainment News

Roger Waters has bluntly said he wouldn’t like to apologise to the Osbourne family after his scathing words towards the late Ozzy Osbourne following his death last summer

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A music star who shared a unkind outburst in the aftermath of Ozzy Osbourne’s death has blasted his wife Sharon in a new rant. Roger Waters said he “couldn’t give a f*** about Ozzy” last year after the Black Sabbath legend died aged 76.

His rant saw him say the Prince of Darkness had “been on TV for hundreds of years with his idiocy and nonsense” and now, he has been asked if he’d like to apologise to the Osbourne family for his previous comments.

While he said he would, he also went on the attack once more. The Pink Floyd star was challenged by Piers Morgan on his past words. The pair got into a heated debate and when Piers pushed for whether the musician would be apologising.

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Roger said:”Yeah, of course I will if I caused [offence]…not that I have any time for Sharon. She’s a raging Zionist.”

As he continued his rant, Roger went on: “In consequence, she’s not in my very…and she’s accused me of all kinds of things. She’s constantly accused. “

Piers pushed for an answer on whether he would like to apologise to the family, and bluntly, Roger said: “Not really.”

Earlier in the chat Roger had mistakenly called Sharon Karen, with some followers believing it was a slip up he did on purpose. He also said he doesn’t have to like every rock band and mocked Ozzy for biting the head of a bat.

He did say that he would happily talk to Ozzy’s son Jack if he wanted, after the I’m A Celebrity star was left raging at his initial comments. , Jack, Ozzy’s youngest son took to his Instagram Stories at the time to criticise the musician.

Jack raged: “Hey @rogerwaters f**k you. How pathetic and out of touch you’ve become. The only way you seem to get attention these days is by vomiting out bulls**t in the press. My father always thought you were a c***t – thanks for proving him right.” He later added: “#f**krogerwaters.”

Speaking of his late father, Jack said: “I haven’t really wanted to post anything since the passing of my father. My heart has hurt too much. I’m gonna keep this short because he certainly hated long rambling speeches.

“He was so many things to so many people, but I was so lucky and blessed to be apart of a very small group that got to call him ‘Dad’. My heart is full of so much sadness and sorrow, but also so much love and gratitude. I got 14,501 days with that man and I know that is such a blessing. I think this quote best describes my father.

“Hunter S. Thompson once said: ‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body… But rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!’ That was my dad. He lived and he lived his life fully. I love you dad.”

Former England cricket legend Graeme Swann has revealed the toughness of Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins took him by surprise as he opened up on being made a ‘scapegoat’ at the end of his career

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Graeme Swann has labelled Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins ‘disgusting’ – but admits he loved it. The former cricket legend, 46, was put through his paces on the brutal Channel 4 reality show and revealed it was so much tougher than he ever anticipated.

The Ashes winner might be known for aggressively tearing through batting orders as one of the best off-spin bowlers of his generation. But he admits he was surprised at how “mind-numbingly hard” the intense TV show is.

Graeme exclusively tells the Mirror: “It was way harder than I thought. I honestly thought because it’s television, I thought it’d be a bit watered down for what you see and a bit dramatised. It really isn’t. It is brutal.

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“I think Ben Cohen at one point said to me, this is disgusting. And that is a great adjective. It was disgusting. Like there’s some of those things you have to do and some of the cr*p you have to crawl through and swim through and just put your body through.

“It was way harder than I thought. I’ve got so much respect for those guys, for the actual guys. It was mind-numbingly hard.”

The former Nottinghamshire star admits he signed up for the show to prove to his kids that he is not a quitter following claims he “abandoned” England midway through their 2013 Ashes Tour. He fiercely rejects the claims, but sadly revealed he still gets abused about it to this day.

Explaining how he hit rock bottom at the time, Graeme tells us: “It was injury, unfortunately [that forced him to leave the series and retire]… They [the press] needed a scapegoat so they obliterated me in the press.

“I should never have gone on that tour. I had nerve damage in my elbow, and that was the end of my career. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I was good enough [as has been reported]. It’s that I couldn’t feel the ball in my hand.

“When you’re bowling for England and you don’t know where it’s gonna go, that’s not the ideal place. And my hand has never recovered. So, unfortunately, I’ve had to just live with that. But yeah, it was a low moment.”

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And he admits it’s an issue that he still struggles with. “I can’t feel these two fingers for 90% of the time, the little ones, and weirdly it’s only when I bowl,” he said.

Opening up further on what happened, Graeme reveals he received a barrage of abuse by supporters saying he had “abandoned ship” and gone home. But in a staunch denial he continues to call out those criticising him, confessing it felt like it was the other way around.

“I was forced to retire and told to go home,” he continues. “The amount of people who just sort of abandoned ship and showed no support whatsoever. It was shocking. It included my employers. The ECB were horrific.

“I was just cast adrift. I didn’t hear from anyone for about two years. I mean it was in the days before anyone really took mental health seriously.

“I was depressed after that Tour. No one ever checked in. It wasn’t until I got started working… And I saw a team England doctor about two years later, and he said, oh, how are you, mate? Is everything all right? That was the first time anyone asked. It shows how far things ae hopefully coming. Because back then, no, you just got absolutely cast adrift.”

Graeme, who shares three kids – Charlotte, Wilfred and Jessica – with wife Sarah, was born in Northamptonshire and went on to become one of the greatest cricketers to play for his country.

The former Nottinghamshire star played in four Ashes series for England, winning three. In a history-making victory, he was part of an iconic win Down Under across Christmas 2010 and New Year 2011.

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The sports star has been open about mental health since quitting the sport and is an advocate for better psychological support for players in cricket.

“The biggest advice I can give anyone is to learn to be resilient,” he says. “Society now doesn’t teach resilience. It teaches everyone to be like, everyone’s okay…

“I think it’s good now that mental health is not seen as a stigma anymore, because everyone suffers from it at some point…

“But the very fact that I still get abused every now and again for supposedly abandoning the team shows the mental health issue is being absolutely poo-pooed by people who aren’t playing sport and just thinking they can say what they want and can be absolute a**holes and get away with it.”

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, stream or watch live on Sundays and Mondays at 9pm on Channel 4

Sherlock star Martin Freeman is now happily settled with his actress girlfriend who is 23 years younger than him but he was once in a long term romance with Amanda Abbington, who ‘he supported’ during her Strictly battle despite their split

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Renowned British actor Martin Freeman has enjoyed a highly successful, award winning career since shooting to fame as sales rep Tim in The Office alongside Ricky Gervais. Currently starring in Netflix’s new Agatha Christie murder mystery Seven Dials as Superintendent Battle, his high profile roles have led to great fame for the star both at home and in America.

Now 54-years-old, the TV and film talent prefers to keep his personal life as private as possible – particularly when it comes to romance. His girlfriend is a French actress and writer and although they have been together for over five years, the couple largely stay out of the limelight.

This wasn’t so much the case when he was involved in a long-term relationship with fellow Brit actress Amanda Abbington, with whom he shares two teenage children. Although their split left her in “a mess” mentally, it seems they have managed to keep relations very amicable after they both moved on with their lives.

It is believed Martin met his current love, French born Rachel Benaissa, well over five years ago. Although they aren’t often spotted in public together, she does support him at professional events, such as on the red carpet at last year’s Olivier Awards and at the premiere for Seven Dials.

Not much is known about Rachel, who is believed to be around 31 – making her 23 years younger than her famed beau. However she was born in Toulouse, France and is herself an actress who appeared as a teaching assistant in BBC smash Normal People, with Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones. She also featured in Netflix film Irish Wish with Lindsay Lohan and in commercials for Santander, Heineken and Dublin Airport.

As well as her fledgling acting career, Rachel is a writer. Her agency describes her work as blending “drama with dark humour” covering topics such as mental health, multi-heritage and the absurdity of everyday life. Perhaps a sign of their commitment to each other, Martin and Rachel recently set up production company One Trick Pone together. Their first two projects are feature film The Greatest, starring Freeman and a short called A Tiny Thing.

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Although Martin has stayed relatively tight-lipped on his relationship with Rachel he did let slip a few details about their home life last year. Appearing on Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast, Martin revealed he and his love adore cooking together in their spare time. Because of Rachel’s heritage, Lennie asked: “She’s French. Is she Cordon Bleu?”

Martin replied: “She’s not a Cordon Bleu… she’s a massive cheese and wine w***e. That’s what she would say about herself. She says that about herself, ‘I’m a cheese and wine w***e’. It’s not all she is, but no, she loves all that stuff. We like cooking.'”

In a separate interview the star, who played Doctor John Watson in Sherlock, also told Jonathan Ross that he and Rachel had visited a Sherlock-themed escape room with his two children. He shares Joe, 19 and Grace 16, with Amanda but he described going to the venue with his “other half and my two kids”. Daughter Grace has also posted a TikTok video of Rachel with her brother Joe dancing along to She’s The Brightest Star from Martin’s Christmas movie Nativity.

The Hobbit actor and Amanda first met in 2000 on the set of the film Men Only and went on to collaborate on several projects over the years, including The Debt, The Good Night, and The Robinsons, with critics hailing their dynamic onscreen chemistry. They also starred as married couple Dr John Watson and Mary Morstan together in the BBC’s acclaimed series Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch taking on the iconic role of the modern-day sleuth, Sherlock Holmes.

But it was during filming that they realised they had to call time on their real-life relationship because “they just couldn’t live with each other anymore.” Amanda admitted the split took a huge emotional toll on her but said they managed to hide their turmoil on set and maintain their professionalism.

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In a searingly honest interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, she revealed: “When we broke up nobody knew, we didn’t tell anybody except for a few key people because they had to know, because of the logistics of hotels and stuff. It took six months for it to get out and a lot of that was while we were working on Sherlock… We were professional and we were going to get on and make a show and be civil to each other.”

She added: “We still get on really well, we still really both admire each other as actors… he’s a great guy, but we just couldn’t live with each other Amanda, now 51, also told the Full Disclosure podcast what a damaging impact their break-up had on her mental health, revealing she experienced intense self-loathing. It even reached a point where she considered taking her own life. “It was breaking up with Martin and then realising I needed to sort myself out because I was a bit of a mess. I hated myself,” she said.

Explaining how her despair led to suicidal thoughts, she said: “That was a genuine option for me, quite a few times in my life. Then I don’t have to be this bad person because I don’t have to be here anymore.”

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Amanda, who is now engaged to former Britain’s Got Talent star and escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, was partnered with Giovanni Pernice on 2023’s series of Strictly Come Dancing but withdrew mid-way through the season – later lodging a complaint against the Italian dancer.

Speaking to The Sun, Amanda recalled how her ex Martin apologised to her during her time on the BBC talent show and was furious over her alleged treatment. She told the publication: “Martin said, ‘I’m so sorry that you’re having to go through this. This is awful. You don’t deserve it. I want to kill him’. Martin said to me, ‘It’s so unfair, Amanda, because you would always be like, ‘I want to be in that show’. You were so good in it.”

In 2024 the BBC’s internal investigation into allegations about her dance partner’s behaviour in rehearsals upheld six of Amanda’s 17 claims, all of which Giovanni strongly denied. The six-month probe uncovered moments of “inappropriate behaviour of sexual banter in the workplace” including an incident where he made an improper gesture in clear violation of the corporation’s codes.

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The BBC commented at the time: “Strictly Come Dancing is a family show and we rightly expect very high standards. While competition can be tough, rigorous and demanding, we want the show to ultimately be a joyous and transformative experience. It is a great shame if this hasn’t been the case for everyone who has appeared on the show.

“We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all. We want to apologise to Amanda Abbington and to thank her for coming forward and taking part. We know this would not have been an easy thing to do.”