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Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford interview woman on This Morning who won’t work with obese people

Viewers weren't happy

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Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford chatted to a fitness writer who wouldn’t work with obese people today.

It’s fair to say the controversial This Morning debate left viewers at home appalled as they lashed out at the woman’s strong opinions.

Samantha Yardley wrote in a recent blog that she felt ‘life should be made as difficult as possible for people who are obese’.

This Morning Eamonn Holmes Ruth Langsford Samantha Yardley ITV
Eamonn and Ruth weren’t impressed with Samantha (Credit: ITV)

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This Morning: Eamonn and Ruth aren’t impressed

Eamonn started the interview by saying: “I will pre-empt this whole conversation we’re going to have here that there will be a lot of people mortally offended by this and there’ll be people who’ll be hurt as well, but it’s this sort of medicine you think has got to be swallowed?”

Samantha replied: “That’s correct, yeah. I think if you’re obese you literally knock at least eight years off your life and that’s considered conservative.

“I think we’re all creatures of habit, we all take a path of least resistance, we need to make it more inconvenient to be obese.”

Eamonn and Ruth went on to question whether it was a case of people being lazy or, in fact, it could be as a result of illness, disability, or a mental health issue.

This Morning Eamonn Holmes Ruth Langsford Samantha Yardley ITV
Samantha Yardley’s opinion shocked This Morning viewers (Credit: ITV)

This Morning guest defends herself

Samantha defended her stance insisting: “I don’t think you necessarily have to have six pack abs or work out every single day, but it’s a lifestyle choice. You need to eat a little bit less, move a little bit more.”

She continued by saying people who are obese “take nearly twice as many days off than those people within a healthy weight range.” Samantha, who is now a size 10, also admitted she had been larger before and it made her “lethargic and lazy”.

Ruth took issue with the word “lazy”, but Samantha insisted it was from her own experience of being overweight.

Samantha also believes anything over a size 16 is too big, clothes in extra large sizes shouldn’t be readily available and inconvenient to find, and admits she’d choose a thinner person over a fatter person for a job.

This Morning Eamonn Holmes Ruth Langsford Samantha Yardley ITV
Samantha thinks we should ‘eat less and move more’ (Credit: ITV)

Eamonn shockingly revealed that it’s in fact not illegal to discriminate based on weight, unless it’s as a result of a medical condition.

When asked what she would say if she was in charge of the NHS, Samantha replied: “It’s a dificult pill to swallow, but take responsibility and start eating a little bit less and moving a little bit more and you will literally add years to your life.”

She added: “If that’s not enough motivation for yourself, think about those around you, if you have children, they want you around.”

What did This Morning viewers say?

Those watching at home were not at all impressed with Samantha and slammed This Morning for giving her air time.

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Did any This Morning viewers agree with Samantha?

There were a couple of people who agreed with Samantha though…

This Morning continues every week day at 10am on ITV.

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Carena Crawford
Associate Editor (Soaps)