EastEnders star Adam Woodyatt reveals brutal response to people who bodyshame him in public

Actor shared two recent fan encounters that left him furious

EastEnders actor Adam Woodyatt has revealed he will be just as “rude and offensive” to people who bodyshame him in public.

Woodyatt, who has played Ian Beale on the BBC soap since its very first episode in 1985, said he “[tries] to avoid attention”, but does not mind engaging with fans if they are polite and kind.

However, a recent experience left him furious. He told ‘How Do You’ podcast: “One of the best examples of somebody being rude is when we were at BBC Good Food.

This woman looks at me and says, ‘You’re fatter than you are on the telly’. I said to her, ‘If I had said that to you, you could go to the papers and say I was being rude, this and that. I’m sorry, I don’t like the way you spoke to me’. She said ‘I didn’t mean it’ and went off.

Woodyatt continued: “A little while later a bloke leaned across the stand and literally patted my stomach and said, ‘You’ve put on some timber’.

“Because of what had happened with this woman, I turned around and said, ‘You’ve lost all your hair, haven’t you?’ and walked off.

“What gives somebody the right to say that to someone just because you’re on TV? If somebody comes up to you and they’re nice, I’ll be nice.”

He also urged fans to “have some manners” if they see him eating and to wait until he’s done before they ask for a selfie.

“If I’m having a meal, I’ll ask someone to wait until I’ve finished eating. At this point it usually turns to, ‘You’re just like your character, you’re rude’.

“Actually no, you’re the one who is being rude. You’ve come up and interrupted somebody while they’re in the middle of doing something.”