Richard Madeley has disappointed some viewers of the breakfast show Good Morning Britain on over his 'insensitive' comment to fellow presenter Ranvir Singh.
The presenter was back on the ITV news programme today alongside his co-host Susanna Reid, while Ranvir was on screen to deliver the latest breaking news headlines.
The well-known panel, which also included Andi Peters, spent the programme discussing the torrent of racial abuse that has been targeted towards members of the England football squad following their Euro 2020 defeat to Italy.
Players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were all subject to vile and sickening abuse after they missed their designated penalties during the final on July 11, reports Manchester Evening news.
Susanna spoke on GMB of the racial content that is dominating social media: "It breaks my heart. My children saw it yesterday. It’s disgusting. It’s absolutely unacceptable that that had got through any social media filter.
"The reports from social media companies that say they take it down immediately is just rubbish. It hurts me as a mum that my children and my children's friends are seeing it…"
Andi Peters added: "We’ve all spent the last month willing on our team - our team - to do so well, so yesterday when I watched the show I didn’t realise this racial abuse was happening so I went online and had a look and genuinely for the first time ever, I was quite emotional.
"How a 19 year old boy who has done everything for his country can be abused online by people he doesn’t know. I pray that he never sees what was online yesterday."
Later in the programme, Susanna broke down in tears as she, Richard and Ranvir discussed Marcus' message on social media in which he apologised for missing the penalty but added he will "never apologise" for who he is.
"I'm Marcus Rashford, 23 year old, black man from Withington and Wythenshawe, South Manchester. If I have nothing else I have that," the Manchester United star wrote.
In response, Susanna said on GMB: "It’s incredibly moving… I hope that in all the sewer of nasty stuff that every bit of inspiration that he’s given - along with his colleagues - I hope they realise how many people love them, are proud of them and how many people they’ve inspired."
But the host then got emotional reading out one of the letters that 9-year-old Dexter penned for Marcus and which the footballer shared to Twitter on Monday night.
"Susanna, in tears, asked Ranvir - who was also emotional - on her thoughts. Ranvir said: "That’s England. Dexter’s England…"
Susanna agreed, adding: "And Marcus Rashford, and Tyrone Mings and Sancho and Saka and every single member of that squad…"
Still in tears, Ranvir continued: "It goes to the heart of my children, my son has talked about the racism that he’s faced… you think about it all the time.
"You’re privileged if you don't have to think about it. If you don’t have to think about it until one of your heroes is suffering - that’s the difference in privilege.
"Andi walks around with it all the time - you can’t shake it off. You can act like you’re functioning normally but all the time it’s there.
"Now we need to remove that privilege and we all need to think about it regardless of what skin we walk in."
But after Susanna turned to Ranvir, Richard said: "Now look here Ranvir, you’ve got to read the news. Dry your eyes."
And the comment didn't go down well amid viewers praising the women for their emotive message.
"Poignant and heartfelt, Reid and Singh visibly upset. Madeley reading the room there... 'Now look here Ranvir, you’ve got to read the news. Dry your eyes!'," tweeted one.
Another fumed: "Quite a moment on live TV there as @ranvir01 breaks down discussing the vile racist abuse that's been thrown about. @richardm56 'Wipe your eyes, you've got the news to read" Come on Richard....'THINK' @GMB @susannareid100."
"Shut up richard telling ranvir to dry her eyes #gmb #goodmorningbritain," a third raged.
A fourth added: "@GMB get rid of Richard Madeley! @ranvir01 truly emotional talking about racism and he says "dry your eyes you've got to read the news"!! Unbelievable! #gmb."
"Absolutely appalled at how insensitive @richardm56 is here. 'You’ve got to read the news, dry your eyes'," another said.
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