Some viewers were not impressed when they tuned into This Morning on Wednesday and heard Sir Bob Geldof repeatedly misgender Sam Smith.
Sir Bob was on the show to talk to ITV hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield about a range of topics including his Boomtown Rats bandmate Garry Roberts' death and the continuing impact of the Band Aid charity single over the years.
But it was the singer's inability to use the correct pronouns for the Unholy hitmaker - who goes by they/them - that really got people talking, as writes the Mirror
Sir Bob, 77, referred to the non-binary star as "he" throughout the chat.
Bob was speaking about the 40th anniversary of the original Band Aid and about Sam's role in a version of the famous song in 2014.
Bob said: "Sam Smith, I remember him at the microphone had his eyes closed, and he was singing away to the song, and I said 'Sam, they're not the words'. He goes, 'oh yeah, sorry'.
"Because we had re-written the words for I think the Ebola crisis in west Africa.
"And he says 'sorry', so off he goes, he closes his eyes again and he starts singing the original words. I said 'Sam', and he goes 'oh yes, sorry, every year in school I have to sing this song'". Phil, Holly and Bob share a laugh before Holly says: "It's go engrained".
And some fans were even more fuming that hosts Holly and Phil failed to pull him up on his mistake.
"Holly and Phil should have pulled him up on that. Ridiculous," one raged
One fumed: "He's on national TV and speaking about Sam Smith. You'd think someone would brief him on Sam's gender identity or at least correct him. Painful watch."
"Sorry but why didn't Holly or Phillip tell Bob he was misgendering Sam Smith," someone else asked.
While a fourth tweeted: "Disappointed to hear Bob Geldof misgendering Sam to be honest. People need to get with the times."
Bob's representatives have been approached for comment.
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