Comedian Katherine Ryan is known for speaking her mind, and we absolutely love her for it.
The latest subject Katherine is taking issue with? Famous men dating women much younger than they are. Speaking to the Daily Mail, the comedian said she had absolutely no problem calling these men out for being "gross or weird."
This interview comes after Katherine posted a selfie of herself looking unimpressed on her Instagram Stories, which she captioned: "Me - a mother - finding out a 35 Towie star has an 18 year old girlfriend."
This message was aimed at The Only Way Is Essex's James Argent, 35, whose girlfriend Stella Turian is 18.
"I don’t care at all about backlash or cancel culture. I do care about hurting people’s feelings, believe it or not," she told the Mail.
"I know that James Argent has had some rough times and I don’t want to heap criticism on someone who’s vulnerable.
"But at the end of the day, I have somehow become the poster woman for rallying against grown men, powerful men, famous men dating teenagers. I didn’t choose that life, that life chose me.
"I don’t think it's controversial to say that’s gross or weird and I’m very happy to continue beating that drum for as long as it takes."
Katherine also made it clear that this is not about her, or about the men she's calling out: it's about protecting the women, she said.
She continued: "And I’m not speaking to the men, because that’s who I get the backlash from, I get all these men in my messages going, 'Oh sorry he’d rather date a Ferrari than an old banger and he doesn’t want you', like I would ever give them the time of day!
"But I’m not speaking to the men at all because I understand that there are a lot of people that find that age group attractive — I’m not going to solve that problem.
"I’m speaking to the young women because I happen to have the ear of a lot of teenage girls and young women.
"I look out at my audience and I have people my age, I have couples but I also have a lot of teenagers so even if one of them hears what I’m saying and goes, 'Ew maybe that man is interested in me because he wants to boss me around or because women his age don’t talk to him, maybe I will give that a miss.'"
She concluded in classic irreverent Katherine Ryan style: "I’m basically Leonardo DiCaprio trying to get to as many young women as I can."
This isn't the first time the Duchess star has called out Leo specifically. Back in February, she tweeted: "This year, Titanic became too old for Leonardo DiCaprio to be in it."
Titanic turned 25 in December, meaning the cult film is now in its 26th year. Meanwhile, Leonardo is repeatedly criticised for apparently never dating a woman over 25.
This year, Titanic became too old for Leonardo DiCaprio to be in it.February 6, 2023
The straight-talking comedian is one of Marie Claire's longtime faves. In 2017, we interviewed Katherine, and she revealed that she's not actually that funny in real life (not that we believe her).
She told us: "I’m totally a comedian by accident and I’m not that funny in a group setting. I was never a class clown. I meet all kinds of people who go, 'Jamie here, he should be a comedian, he’s funny.' But I’m like, that’s not the guy who ends up being a comedian. It’s actually that strange, weird, introspective person who has a funny way of looking at things."
