'James Martin will bounce back from bullying claims as ITV learn from Schofield'
James Martin's reputation as one of the nation's favourite TV chefs will withstand the bullying allegations against him thanks to his 'robust apology', according to a crisis management expert.
The TV chef has had a tumultuous past week that has seen him accused of 'bullying and intimidating behaviour' by crew members.
The 51-year-old This Morning star can be heard swearing 41 times during a furious rant in a leaked audio snippet from a tense Zoom call with staff after the drain at his home was blocked during filming for his ITV show, James Martin's Saturday Morning, in 2018.
Amid the allegations and audio leaks being made public, James addressed the accusations and apologised for his actions as he opened up about one of the 'most fraught and difficult periods' of his life - revealing a cancer diagnosis.
Despite coming under fire by many viewers online, he may well be forgiven by his loyal fans on this occasion, according to PR and crisis management expert, Edward Coram-James.
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James Martin apologised over the 'incident' (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)In the leaked tape, obtained by The Sun, James can be heard saying: "I am absolutely furious, beyond belief. It's my home, it's my house. It's my f**ing house. Nobody listens, nobody f**king listens do they. I will not put up with this, this is b*llocks. A driveway that cost me £26,000 is f**ked because somebody put a load of oil in the f**king bin that's now dripped everywhere and f**king ruined my driveway. If this was somebody's house you would end up with a massive bill.
During the 10-minute tirade, James asks the crew show his property "more f***ing respect", before warning "senior members of our staff will get f**king fired because I'm sick of it". Despite the seething rant, PR pro Edward says that the public will forgive 'isolated' incidents.
"I don't believe that this will cause any long-term damage to his career," Edward, CEO of Go Up, told the Mirror. "He's issued a strong and robust apology while providing humanity and context. That is textbook crisis comms and is exactly what he should have done."
Taking to Twitter last Thursday evening, James addressed the allegations made against him and offered an explanation for his actions - opening up about struggles in his private life. He wrote: "Firstly, I would like to publicly and sincerely apologise to the crew involved in this incident, as I did at the time. I have always strived to keep my private life private.
"However since details of a conversation, which was secretly recorded in January 2018, are now five years later being made public by a former member of our production team, I have decided to make a statement." He explained: "The end of 2017 was one of the most fraught and difficult periods of my life.
"I was dealing with the death of my last living grandparent, my grandfather, and on account of work commitments, I could not attend his funeral. Later that month I was burgled at night by a team of masked men, who entered my house while my partner Louise was at home alone and I was away working. I was devastated that she had to go through alone."
He went on to discuss his cancer diagnosis for the first time, telling fans: "I was then diagnosed with cancer on my face and I had to have surgery, which I couldn't do until two days before Christmas when we had finished filming. Since then it has returned on several occasions and I have to have regular treatments.
"After all this stress I was in a very emotional state, and when after filming in early January 2018 I discovered my home had been flooded while filming, I was extremely upset. I can only say I am human and following a build-up of personal life pressure, I admit that I overreacted regarding the damage to my home."
Commenting on the lengthy statement, Edwards said: "He has neither diminished the level of crisis (which always risks making you look like you can't take accountability) nor has he made it out to be bigger than it is. To be clear: he needs to learn from this. And the pattern of unreasonable outbursts needs to stop."
PR expert Edward Coram-James (Go Up)
James Martin opened up about one of the 'worst periods of his life' (Getty Images)Edward says while there is a tendency in the UK to put celebrities and famous figures on a pedestal, he argues that there is a growing sense of 'enough is enough' when it comes to the scrutiny some stars have faced in recent times. "The backlash against the BBC and The Sun against their handling of the Huw Edwards issue, in which many felt that Huw's privacy was unjustifiably infringed upon, and the fallout from Schofield who, accused of similar things to Edwards, saw his career and reputation ruined in spite of no allegations of illegality, seems to have led to a slight improvement in the ability for the big UK TV networks to find balance and nuance in their approach to complaints," he added.
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"They can also be very understanding when it comes to stress caused by problems in the private life manifesting in inappropriate ways. Look at how the public rallied around Huw Edwards as a result of his known mental health struggles.
"But, whereas they are willing to forgive this kind of semi-isolated event, there is a bit of a three strikes and you're out rule. Martin will get away with it this time. But, if this kind of behaviour is repeated by him in 2023 or 2024, the public will be less forgiving and then ITV may be forced to take action."
In a Deadline report, it was claimed James Martin 'berated' staff and 'reduced them to tears' in front of other colleagues. The This Morning favourite James also allegedly changed schedules at the last minute, which left the team with just a few hours of sleep before the next day's shoot. Following the accusations being published, ITV released a lengthy statement about the actions taken to resolve the matter.
A spokesperson for the channel said: "At ITV people and their welfare are our highest priority. The production companies who make shows for us have primary responsibility for the duty of care of everyone they work with, both on and off screen. We make clear our expectations in this regard as part of our pre-greenlight duty of care processes.
"This includes having appropriate independent controls in place to enable everyone who works on their shows to confidently and confidentially raise concerns. Following a complaint we received in May from members of the Blue Marlin production team about the filming of James Martin's Spanish Adventure, we contacted Blue Marlin to discuss these concerns and to understand how the issues raised were being addressed and what actions were being taken. As a result, we made a number of recommendations for Blue Marlin to implement as soon as possible, sharing best practice of some of our own relevant procedures around staff welfare and reiterating our Supplier Code of Conduct."
Speaking in a statement issued the same day, Blue Marlin TV addressed the claims made against the TV chef from 2018 when filming at his home and shared an apology on behalf of the ITV star.
ITV said their 'people and their welfare are their highest priority' (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Edward says that ITV has 'learned some lessons' following the fallout with long-standing presenter Phillip Schofield - who quit the channel earlier this year after admitting to an 'unwise but not illegal' affair with a younger colleague. "When it comes to Martin, ITV has shown that it is learning," Edward continued.
"You don't always need to respond to the public outcry from a minority on social media, who are known to respond to a 3 with a 10 (on the crisis scale). I think ITV may well have had a knee-jerk reaction to the Martin incident and treated his outburst like a more serious offence than it actually was - here they seem to have accurately matched the grade of response to the grade of the allegation (about a level 3 crisis).
"However, whereas they seem to have matched the grading correctly, in typical ITV fashion, they've still managed to bungle the statement. They just can't seem to release strategic, balanced, coherent messaging. No one cares about the complaints procedure at ITV and them going into such detail about that process, instead of on the allegations themselves, is quite transparent deflecting."
*Edward Coram-James has no connection with either James Martin, Huw Edwards or Phillip Schofield and has never represented them in any capacity.
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