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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Rose Hill

Saira Khan blasts SAS star Ant Middleton for 'failing' son with 'sexist' parenting

Saira Khan has criticised Ant Middleton after the SAS Who Dares Wins star said he treated his son differently to his daughter.

The 48-year-old panelist accused him of being "sexist" by not allowing his son to cry.

Ant said that he wanted his son to adopt a "stiff upper lip" attitude, but admitted that he was quick to comfort his crying daughter.

During an interview on Giovanna Fletcher's podcast Happy Mum, Happy Baby, he said: "That’s life. It’s not being sexist, it’s not being non- PC. I’ll say it how it is and, in my heart of hearts, I think I’m doing the right thing."

Saira Khan has criticised Ant Middleton over his 'sexist' parenting (ITV)
Ant and wife Emilie are proud parents to four children (and he has one more from a previous relationship) (Instagram)

Saira Khan says she needed public humiliation to get sex life on track

But Saira disagreed during a discussion about his comments on Loose Women today and passionately said that he was "failing" his son.

She said: "I've got a son and he is quite sensitive and I don't ever say to him, 'Oh stop crying! Man up, grow up!' or anything like that.

"The suicide rates for men in this country are very very high. And when you look back at what they're linked to it's because they don't talk about their feelings because they were brought up to not show their emotion.

Saira accused him of failing his son (ITV)
She said she would never tell her son to stop crying (ITV)

"I'm sorry, I'm really passionate about this but I feel that he's a great role model for many things but when it comes to this particular issue of parenting, I'm sorry but I think he's really failing."

Meanwhile Coleen Nolan said that she could understand where Ant was coming from because sometimes she felt as though she treated Ciara differently to her sons and was more nervous about her going out.

Janet Street-Porter also insisted that children needed to be taught to be resilient.

"We've got to show them that it's ok to be tough as well," she said.

*Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV

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