Richard Keys vows to take legal action against Gabby Logan over claims in her book that he and Andy Gray are ‘cruel dinosaurs’ who joked about refusing to have sex with pregnant women, while she was expecting twins
- Gabby Logan claims in her new book that Richard Keys and Andy Gray made comments in front of her about refusing to have sex with pregnant women
- The broadcaster, then at ITV, was seven months pregnant with twins at the time
- Logan also describes Keys and Gray as ‘dinosaurs, waiting to become extinct’
- Keys said the allegations were ‘wildly inaccurate’ aimed at ‘defaming him’
- Former Sky Sports presenter says he could take legal action against Logan
- Read the full extract on misogyny in sports TV from Gabby Logan’s book here
Richard Keys has vowed to take legal action against Gabby Logan after claims in her book that he and Andy Gray joked about refusing to have sex with pregnant women in her presence while she was expecting twins.
In the broadcaster’s memoir, serialised by the Mail on Sunday, she recounts a flight to Istanbul for the 2005 Champions League final, which she was covering for ITV.
Keys and Gray, formerly of Sky Sports and now with Qatari network beIN Sports, were sat in the row in front of her.
Logan writes: ‘I was seven months pregnant with twins, and I was huge. I looked like I’d swallowed a space hopper.
‘In full earshot of me – and anyone who might be listening in our business-class cabin – Richard said: “So, Andy, what do you think of pregnant women?”
‘”I’m afraid I don’t find them very attractive, Richard. In fact, I never slept with my wife when she was pregnant with our kids.”
Broadcaster Gabby Logan claims in her new book that Richard Keys and Andy Gray made jokes about refusing to have sex with pregnant women in her presence while she was expecting
Logan describes the pair as ‘dinosaurs waiting to be made extinct’ in her autobiography
‘”So you didn’t have sex, Andy?” Keys asked.
‘”No, I didn’t say that, Richard.”
‘Then they laughed their heads off at their little ‘comedy’ routine.
‘I was embarrassed, of course, and thought their comments were especially cruel, bearing in mind they both had children and wives of their own.’
Logan adds: ‘Keys and Gray were dinosaurs, waiting to become extinct.’
In response, Keys, 65, tweeted on Saturday night: ‘With reference to an article published by The Mail on Sunday written by Ms Gabby Logan. Ms Logan has made a number of wildly inaccurate allegations in the process of defaming my reputation.
‘I have referred the matter to lawyers with a view to proceeding with libel action.’
Keys has threatened to take legal action against Logan on the grounds of defamation
In the book, Logan says Keys tries to claim he ‘kick-started her career’ while righting to save his following sexist comments while working for Sky Sports
Elsewhere in the book extract, Logan writes: ‘I don’t really want to write a lot about Richard Keys; he was dismissed, along with Gray, when they were caught talking lewdly about the lineswoman Sian Massey, and after he was caught asking pundits in the studio if they would ‘smash it’, referring to another woman.
‘In one painful-to-listen-to monologue aimed at saving his UK career, he tried to argue that he couldn’t be sexist, because he’d helped get me a job and kick-started my career. He truly didn’t get it.’
Key left Sky Sports in January 2011 after the derogatory comments about Massey and after further clips emerged of him and Gray making sexist comments off-air.
Key apologised for his ‘prehistoric banter’ at the time, saying: ‘Such comments were made off-air to work colleagues, and were, of course, never intended to be broadcast.
‘If off-air conversations of television and radio presenters were recorded, there would be no one left working. That is not to defend what happened.’
In June 2013, Keys and Gray were hired by beIN to host Premier League and European football.
Share this article
Source: Read Full Article