Danny Malin has slammed “racist” trolls branding his new fiancée “Yorkshire’s Meghan Markle”.
Romance blossomed rapidly between The Rate My Takeaway star, 43, and his partner Sophie Mei Lan, 34, after they first met in November last year. A month later, he proposed. They announced she was pregnant with his baby, earlier this month.
The pair have even launched their own Youtube channel called Mr and Mrs Yorkshire, where they try out new experiences together.
Read more: Danny Malin left 'blown away' by 'absolute dream' meal in Bradford
Danny said: “We called ourselves Mr and Mrs Yorkshire as that’s what people were calling us in the comments. But sometimes Sophie gets branded as Meghan Markle, the Yorkshire version of Meghan Markle. But do we take that as a good thing, or do we take it as being racist? I don’t know.
“Some of the comments are giving her stick like Meghan. She’s mixed race but she was born in Sheffield!”
While most of the response online has been overwhelmingly positive for the couple, Danny says people have been posting nasty comments about journalist Sophie, saying their relationship is “disrespectful”. As his first fiancé and mother of his three children Carrie Taylor, 40, died just 18 months ago.
They’ve falsely said his children must be "furious" with him about the news. The 43-year-old, born in Watford and raised in Barnsley, says his weight loss has even been used against him. With trolls saying that Sophie has been forcing him to eat certain things.
Trolls say my kids 'must be furious'
But none of this could be further from the truth. Danny has spoken out about how Sophie has vastly improved his life, after being “so miserable” following his late fianceé’s death.
Danny said: “I put a post out for Mother’s Day and I got a bit of stick about it. They were saying it’s disrespecting my late partner and the kids must be ‘furious’.
“What people don’t understand is that obviously my kids struggled ever since Carrie passed away. But Sophie coming into their lives has been such a breath of fresh air for them.
“Especially George, the bond he has got with Sophie now. They’re like best mates and on occasion, George has called her mum.”
Danny worries about what his children, Summer, 13, and George, 11, and Sophie’s children Jasmine, 11, and Arianna, eight, see online when people make these thoughtless comments. He says George was “over the moon” when he learned of Sophie’s pregnancy and cried seven times - “tears of joy!”
Danny went on: “People were criticising me, saying ’18 months isn’t enough!’ But try living ’18 months’!
“People have commented about me losing weight and some people have gone-in saying ‘I bet she’s making him eat this and making him do this’.
“Basically, I’d go out filming with a massive smile on my face, or I’d be shopping, but inside I was so miserable.”
In the time after Carrie’s death, Danny opened up about how he felt his life had become a “Groundhog Day” nightmare, where he was acting out the motions and neglecting his own health.
He’d make sure the kids were well provided for, always cooking them meals and making sure they had everything they needed. But afterwards he’d collapse on the sofa and sleep until his bedtime. Then the next day it would just be a repeat of the same.
He formed various “coping mechanisms”. He’d make home-cooked meals for the kids, but he’d buy himself takeaways. He also used to visit The White Rose Shopping Centre regularly to “clear his head”.
When he was there, he’d visit the Next store and buy the same t-shirt regularly, as it was the “only one that fit” him at the time. He says they came in eight different colours and realised it was a problem when he found he’d purchased “about 15 in each different colour”. He gave most of them to his mother, as she wanted the material to make ragdolls.
Danny said: “I’d cook the kids some tea but then I’d just get a takeaway, so I was eating junk. Since meeting Sophie, I’ve hardly been eating any takeaways, apart from the ones when I’m working and one I have every Saturday night.”
Ever since he met Sophie, who was interviewing him for the Yorkshire Post, he spoke about how much more active he has been and has enjoyed making home cooked meals again.
Danny and Sophie's Youtube channel can be accessed here.
Read next:
- Rate My Takeaway's Danny Malin 'let down a bit' by popular Yorkshire pie shop
- Leeds man forced to 'eat bread and butter and cook once a week' as council flat electric is '£10 a day'
- Free and cheap places kids can eat for free this Easter half term in Yorkshire
- Six Leeds fish and chip shops named among very best in the UK in prestigious awards
- New Greggs café set to open inside Leeds' Primark store
