Brian Dowling has slammed online trolls, after receiving “vile” messages.
The presenter, who shot to fame after winning the second series of Big Brother, and his husband Arthur Gourounlian are Goss.ie’s first Spotlight On cover stars of 2023.
In our exclusive interview, Brian said: “People seem to think that if you’re willing to put yourself out there on social media, you can be criticised. I see people online that I don’t like, but I don’t troll them.”
The 44-year-old continued: “I see people online that I don’t like, but I don’t troll them. I don’t know why people think they have the write to comment something nasty just people we posted a reel of our daughter, who we are so happy to have and so proud of.”
“People think, ‘Oh well they put themselves out there, they deserve criticism.’ No. The person who is criticizing, the problem is with them. And I think a lot of it stems from homophobia.”
“I do snap back at trolls now. I’ll screenshot the ridiculous messages and put them up for fun. I think when you have a child, you’ve a duty to protect them. So I do snap back because I’m not taking it.”
“And sometimes they’ll reply and be like, ‘Oh I’m so sorry, I misjudged you.’ Especially if you kill them with kindness.”
Brian went on to say: “I’ve been in this industry a long time, so I’m used to being trolled which is sad to say. I think anyone in the public eye is used to it now. It’s part of what you do which is really sad but coming in 2023, trolling it what you expect.”
“If you put anything up, you are going to get trolled. That’s the world we live in. Sometimes you do have to talk about it when it’s really vile. Sometimes it just crosses a line.”
The presenter recalled a cruel comment he received about his sister Aoife, who was the surrogate of his and Arthur’s daughter Blake.
He said: “There was one comment saying they hoped Aoife didn’t die of cancer from the hormones we were ‘forcing’ her to take. Stuff like that needs to be called out.”
Arthur added: “You can’t make everybody love you. So we just go with the flow. We love our lives, we love what we do, and 99% of people are supportive of us. That 1% are always going to be there, and we’ll never change their minds.”
“We just have to stay positive. I don’t give a s**t about what people have to say anymore. We just move on from it. So that 1% can f**k off basically. You always have to stay positive and don’t let them get you down.”
Read our full exclusive interview with Brian and Arthur here.
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