James Martin was left “horrified” after a rugby fan reportedly pooed in the lift during his swanky event at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.
The TV chef, 53, hosted a £1,250-a-ticket hospitality suite alongside Celebrity Traitors star Joe Marler, 35, for England’s win over New Zealand on Saturday.
Martin was reportedly told someone had defecated in their VIP lift and handed CCTV footage to try to find the culprit.
The former Saturday Kitchen star, who cooks a four-course menu for the event, was “shell-shocked” as he announced the gruesome news to his and Marler’s paying guests, sources claimed.
“England had just beaten New Zealand and everyone was on a massive high and then, out of nowhere, James came on stage where Joe was chatting with rugby stars including Warren Gatland and he looked pretty shell-shocked,” a source told The Sun.
“He then announced that someone had done an enormous poo in the lift and that he had just been told about it. Some people were laughing their heads off but others looked horrified.”
He is thought to have initially joked that his co-host and former rugby star Marler was his main suspect, before revealing he has surveillance video and plans to find the culprit.
“[He] told everyone in the suite that he had been handed the CCTV footage and is going to find out who had the audacity to drop a log in the lifts,” the insider added.
Martin and Marler launched the suite in November 2024.
It includes a menu from Martin as well as unlimited Guinness and interviews with rugby stars after the game.
The Standard has contacted representatives for Martin and Marler for comment.
The alleged incident comes after Martin revealed his car was smashed up by vandals.
Thugs broke the rear windscreen of his car in “broad daylight” in central London in May, prompting the chef to say the city is “broken”.
Martin shared a photo of his car’s broken windscreen on Instagram at the time.
“So in a week, two of my friends' cars got stolen, one other mate got mugged and now I had this happen — all in broad daylight, all in central London,” he wrote.
“London is broken big time… Next time I’m bringing the Malis,” he added, in reference to his two Belgian Malinois dogs.
The ITV star stayed true to his word and brought his dog for “protection” the next time he visited the capital.
He shared a photo of his pet wearing a black “working dog” harness while sitting on the pavement and captioned it: “Protection.”
Martin later complained about the “unfriendly atmosphere” in London compared to Yorkshire, where he was raised on a 100-acre farm within the private Castle Howard estate.
The James Martin's Saturday Morning star joked that if you speak to a stranger in London they think you’re going to “mug” them due to the rise in theft.
“It’s the people that make the place,” he told Food and Travel magazine, while discussing his love of Yorkshire.
“They’re very honest and much friendlier. In London, if you speak to people they think you’re going to mug them.”
Martin currently divides his time among the Cotswolds, Manchester, and Hampshire.
His main base is a seven-bedroom home in Hampshire, where he films James Martin’s Saturday Morning in a specially constructed kitchen.
He also owns a restaurant, The Kitchen, at the nearby Chewton Glen Hotel and Spa in New Milton.
