Exposing my Private Parts

I’m always talking about my time on newspapers and magazines during the height of celebrity. Here’s why I will not be shutting up.

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A few weeks ago, a newspaper editor I had once worked for approached me at a party and said I’d been, and I quote, “fucking out of order” with the interviews I’ve been doing surrounding my time at the papers.

He was referring to an interview I’d done for Sky News with Sarah-Jane Mee a while back where I was honest about my time as a showbiz journalist playing out the phone hacking years.

He was angry. I’d never seen him angry like that. I was taken aback. But I wasn’t scared about it. I just tutted and walked away. I definitely don’t owe him anything.

Truth be told, Sky had warned him about the interview coming out and he’d obnoxiously said he wasn’t bothered and that it could run. Gonk.

I guess from the outburst, it meant he was very much bothered by my honesty surrounding my time at the papers and some of the, quite frankly, illegal and crazy things I’d been asked to do by my bosses at the time.

It got me thinking about those days. What I’d witnessed. What I’d said “fuck no” to doing. And how I’d held myself in those crazy days of tabloids and celebrity.

I was blessed with morals and a positive mental attitude, but I knew when the line was being crossed, and we were delving into the remit of fucking up people’s lives. Phone hacking, private investigators, newspaper sources and bizarre spy-like practices really hurt a lot of people.

When I left the Sunday Mirror after 13-or-so years on the showbiz beat at various titles I didn’t realise the effect those shady antics of the newsrooms had had on me. I didn’t realise I’d carry so much weight on my own shoulders about those times. But I did.

I never hacked a phone, so it’s allowed me to feel free from much of the guilt that plagued the noughties and all the venom that came with that time period. I’ve not felt like I must admit anything illegal – because it didn’t happen. Well, it did. I just wasn’t doing it or involved. Ever.

And with freedom from the narrative comes great power. Well, at least that’s how I feel. I think it’s important for the press industry to be accepting responsibility for its actions. I’m, quite frankly, stunned that so many have remained silent, moved on with their lives to such great success and never felt they need to carry embarrassment for what they did.

So, when a former editor approached me and tried to start an argument it’s safe to say it rattled me initially. I don’t like to feel rattled.

It made me think about THIS piece I wrote on here a while back regarding my time at the Mirror Group. It was very well read – nearly twice my usual reader figures. But there were no comments. There were hardly any shares. And I received no messages from anybody in the industry about the piece. Strange. I would have thought I would have had a deluge of messages from former colleagues saying well done.

Sure, I had the inevitable Hugh Grant DM and the Byline Times got in touch. But I’m not on some weird ego trip of a mission to make my name within that pocket of journalism. I just hate the fact people are so reluctant to take any responsibility for their actions. The newspaper companies just continue to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to those who were hacked. I guess they can be easily bought off (who doesn’t like receiving a huge lump sum from a newspaper group, eh) but the reality is why is more not being done and why is everyone refusing to admit what they did was wrong?

That’s why I won’t shut the fuck up. That’s why I will continue to discuss that period in my life with my anecdotes from, what many deem, the height of celebrity journalism in the UK. I stayed quiet for a very long time. I didn’t mention the fact I was asked to bug flowers, deliver them to a celebrity and record and transcribe everything that went on in their hotel room. I didn’t mention the fact I witnessed phone hacking happening right across much of the outlets I’d worked on. I didn’t talk about the fact I was on a magazine run by women that slated women week-in week-out. I was silent.

For me, my own personal silence was deafening. It had to change.

This week I’ve sat down with Olivia Bentley for her Private Parts podcast. I don’t guest on pods that often – but I liked how she worked and she’s a good interviewer, so I thought why not.

It’s a proper chat about the glory days of celebrity journalism and I think it gives a good look about how fun, shady and exhausting my writing career was. Hopefully it gives you a real insight – from the horse’s mouth – of my time as a writer.

It’s not all doom and gloom too – parts of it were fabulous…and I hope that comes across also.

You can check out the two delightful dollops of Private Parts below. Do let me know what you think!