TOWIE star Bobby Norris hits back at trolls who claimed Boris Johnson paid him £5,000 to fake coronavirus diagnosis
Bobby Norris mocked trolls who said Boris Johnson “slid into his DMs” to offer him money. (ITV)
The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) star Bobby Norris has mocked online trolls who claimed prime minister Boris Johnson paid him £5,000 to pretend he had COVID-19.
Bobby Norris tested positive for coronavirus at the end of last year, revealing on social media that he had “never felt so rough”.
The reality star has been the victim of relentless online abuse, and even appeared before parliament to discuss his experience and push for new legislation to make online trolling a criminal offence.
He said last year: “This is very much about me being a gay man. Most of them coming in are all about kill the LGBT+, gay this, gay that.”
But now, speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, Norris has revealed the most bizarre campaign against him – a rumour that the UK prime minister paid him to pretend he had COVID-19.
“It’s the madness that is social media,” he said.
“Everyone knows I love social media and 99 per cent of the time it is an amazing tool, when used correctly. But there is that dark side to social media.
“I was getting trolled on Christmas Day in bed with COVID, saying that Boris had paid me five grand to go on Instagram and pretend to have COVID.”
'I can assure you Boris didn't slide into my DMs and say Bob, fancy £5k.'
Bobby Norris opens up about being trolled online by people who accused him of faking his coronavirus diagnosis.
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— Loose Women (@loosewomen) February 11, 2021
“I can assure you,” he added, “I can assure you Boris didn’t slide into my DMs and say, ‘Bob, fancy five grand?’ If he did, he’s got the wrong sort code because no money’s gone in the account.”
Norris continued: “I can’t figure out how people think that anyone would do that, and portray that message to people. It’s just bizarre, but I got trolled quite heavily for it.”
Since recovering from COVID-19, TOWIE star Bobby Norris has trained as a volunteer vaccinator.
Since his battle with the virus, Bobby Norris has trained as a COVID-19 volunteer vaccinator.
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He revealed on Instagram: “Today I completed my training as a COVID-19 volunteer vaccinator.
“This pandemic has affected us all in one way or another and after contracting the virus myself over Christmas and finding out first hand just how awful it really is, I decided that once I was better I wanted to do whatever I could to help others.
“I’m really looking forward to getting out there and doing my part in supporting the NHS in the rollout of the vaccine.”
