Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson has branded Piers Morgan a “silly twat”, following his comments about their latest single campaign.
On Monday’s ‘Good Morning Britain’, Piers took aim at the group over their new music video, in which they appear nude with their supposed “flaws” written on their bodies in marker pens.
While they have said their aim was to encourage their young fans to embrace their appearance, Piers suggested they had an ulterior motive, claiming this was “baloney” and that they they were just “using sex to sell albums”.
Asked about this in a live interview with Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw on Monday afternoon, Leigh-Anne suggested they “didn’t want to give him anything” or even “say his name”, but Jesy clearly had other ideas.
“Of course [we’re not surprised],” she interjected. “He’s a silly twat.”
Unfortunately for Grimmy, Jesy’s comment went out at just after 5pm on an afternoon, prompting him to reprimand the singer, saying: “Language! You can’t swear Jesy! Apologies for the offensive language… on the BBC…”
Leigh-Anne then added: “The word she was looking for was idiot.”
She’s in no position to chastise, though, as just minutes later she was told off by Grimmy for saying that she was “pissed off” by the media attempting to “make negatives out of a positive”.
Piers was quick to respond on Twitter, writing: “If you’re brave enough Little Mix - come on ‘Good Morning Britain’ tomorrow & say when you’ve just been saying about me on Radio One to my face.
“Then we can debate your cynical exploitation of nudity to sell records.”
Explaining the motivation for their ‘Strip’ music video, Jesy told HuffPost UK last week: “It’s so real, like, you can’t get any realer than this video.
“Nothing’s been airbrushed, what you see is what you get, and it’s just about women owning it and feeling confident and loving every single part of their body.”
Leigh-Anne added: “We have all had so much fucking negativity thrown at us for different reasons. And now I think it’s so important and brave of us to come out and say all this stuff and help people.
“Because it will help people, think of all the people who’ll see that and feel inspired, and that’s exactly why we’re doing it.”