DJ and presenter Katie Owen has posted on social media after she overheard her Valleys accent being mocked during a glitzy awards ceremony in London. The 25-year-old from Merthyr Tydfil said she was at "some business awards" when she says she stumbled across two women in the toilets "slagging her off" and saying her "jarring" accent was putting people off being interviewed by her.
"On a job tonight, doing interviews on the red carpet at an event," she tweeted yesterday evening. "Just walked into the toilets and heard two women slagging me off, saying my accent was jarring and they can’t do an interview with me because they hate Welsh people and don't want to hear my accent."
She added: "I don't know what business they were with or who they were because they refused to do an interview and speak to me.
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"I was also upset and tried to remain professional," said Katie, whose dad is actor, director and writer Jonny Owen, whose acclaimed football documentary Don't Take Me Home chronicled Wales' Euro 2016 story. However, she was also quick to stress that she didn't blame those who'd organised the bash.
"I just want to flag up that the company running the awards were absolutely lovely and a pleasure to work with. I don't want them to receive any negativity from my tweet.
"I was just venting about those two women and didn’t expect it to blow up." And blow up it did, with hundreds clamouring to declare their support for the presenter. "Thing is, our accent is the best one - everyone from 01443 and 01685 are blessed with the Lord's tones, so they just hate us cause they ain't us," tweeted Gav Murphy, a Maesycwmmer native and YouTube gamer, while BBC presenter Steffan Powell, from Glanaman, said: "Jealousy is an awful thing mate - don't waste your energy on thinking about it."
Another added: "How rude, we have the lushest accent in the world. Be proud, sister!" Someone else also said: "Honestly don’t sweat it - I’m from the Valleys and I've had to work in Saes (England) for a number of years now. I've always used my Welshness and accent as a badge of honour. Who wants to be boring and conform - just be you, cariad."
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