British actress Miriam Margolyes, best known for playing Herbology professor Pomona Sprout in the Harry Potter movies, turned her September 3 interview with This Morning host Andi Peters awkward after using a racial slur while discussing his skin color.
Social media users quickly voiced their disapproval, with some branding her a “vile human being” and “an awful woman.”
In light of the escalating outrage, Margolyes has now defended her comments and explained her choice of words.
Netizens, however, have doubled down on their criticism, pointing to a previous incident in which she made similar remarks.
“She does this to every non-white person, and I have no idea why people find it endearing,” one person said.
Miriam Margolyes claimed she didn’t mean to “embarrass or hurt” Andi Peters
Margolyes was discussing her new book, Miriam’s Full English, which explores Britain’s multicultural society, on This Morning when the conversation shifted towards accents.
“What accent would be normal for you?” the BAFTA winner unabashedly asked Peters, who was born in London and raised in Shropshire in western England.
As the host tried to explain that he was speaking in his “normal” accent, Margolyes expressed confidence that he was of a “mix” of races.
“You’ve got a Black daddy and a white mummy?” she probed.
Peters denied this, informing her that both his parents were Black.
Margolyes then proceeded to call him “high yella,” explaining that it was what Americans call people who aren’t “deeply Black.”
The term, also written as “high yellow,” is, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a dated and offensive racial term.
Margolyes was asked about the incident during an event promoting her book at Cliffs Pavilion in Southend on Sunday, September 6.
Addressing the audience, the actress said: “I didn’t want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice.”
Miriam Margolyes wanted to learn about Andi Peters’ identity because the subject “interests” her
“I’d never met him before. I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know he was Black until I saw him. When you see someone, of course you know they’re Black. I wanted to know what he thought about it because that’s what interests me,” Margolyes said.
She went on to use further offensive terms, this time in reference to disabled people.
“How do Black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do cripples feel? How do fat people feel?
“You see what I mean? All of us feel something about who we are and how people see us, what they think of us.”
She was cut off by the host of the event, who asked, “In other words, you wanted to discuss his identity with him?”
Margolyes agreed, continuing, “They are the people who interest me, not the celebrities so much. It’s everybody. What their story is, what made them who they are, why you are the way you are.”
Fellow presenter Jeremy Vine praised Andi Peters for the way he handled the situation
As Margolyes used the racial term, Peters touched his earpiece and joked that the producers were “getting nervous” about the conversation.
Resharing the clip on Instagram, Vine, the host of the eponymous lunchtime current affairs programme on BBC Two, wrote, “This is seriously nerve wracking. No filter. [Andi Peters] dealt with it brilliantly.”
Peters was quick to respond, replying in the comments section, “As you know, we have to be ready for ANYTHING!!!”
Despite Peters taking things in stride, ITV, the network behind This Morning, removed Margolyes’ remarks from the version uploaded to its streaming platform, ITVX.
Netizens resurfaced a two-year-old interview in which Margolyes appeared to make another non-white TV presenter uncomfortable
Margolyes’ appearance on the Australian talk show The Project in March 2024 left people shocked.
The actress was on the panel to discuss her three-part series Impossibly Australian when the conversation shifted towards the plight of the people of Gaza.
Margolyes, who is Jewish, said she felt a ceasefire was needed immediately, inviting applause.
However, things took a turn when she turned to host Waleed Aly and asked, “What are you, by the way? You’re sort of brown?”
The audience went silent before Aly burst out laughing and said, “This is a really interesting question, actually.”
He answered that he was Egyptian and asked Margolyes to decide what she wanted to call him.
“Lucky, I think,” she retorted.
As the segment finished, Aly told the camera, “Well, I think it’s safe to say that conversation did not go as predicted.”
Resurfacing the video, a netizen on X wrote, “She loves to advertise her racism at every opportunity.”
“She’s always been insufferable, but people pretend she is funny,” another added.
“Rude, crude and outrageous,” a netizen said of Margolyes
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