Come Dine With Me contestant who crammed entire whisk in mouth finally explains why it happened

Kev Riley says crew ‘absolutely wet themselves laughing’ when it happened

In 2012, a Come Dine With Me contestant named Kev Riley went viral after cramming an entire whisk into his mouth.

The fan favourite from the Channel 4 series has finally, nine years later, revealed why he did it.

Speaking on the Curios Cast podcast, Riley said: “It was just something I did to make her [the producer] laugh really. And I knew at the time that I did it – because they all absolutely wet themselves laughing. I thought, ‘That’s definitely gonna be in the show.’”

Talking about the moment becoming a viral sensation, he added: “It never dies. It’s a strange thing – just when I think it’s done now, I don’t think anyone’s shared it for a bit, then all of a sudden Lindt the chocolate company will have shared it, or Lee Evans shared it once, then there’s some bloke that goes in the Capitol building in Washington that looks like me.

“It seems whatever the news is at the time, it gets applied to that and re-shared.”

Riley said he is “disappointed” not to have made any money from the whisk incident. “There’s people who have sold T-shirts, merchandise, people have sent me WhatsApp messages where their Mrs has bought them a Valentine’s card with it on. It’s gone crazy but I’ve never made a penny out of it. I don’t think Channel 4 have really, or Come Dine With Me.”

Another moment that went viral from the Channel 4 show was Peter Marsh’s “sad little life, Jane” rant.

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the episode earlier this year, The Independent’s Louis Chilton interviewed Marsh. Read the full piece, here.