Gareth Cliff Responds To ‘Fallacious’ Reports About Marah Louw’s Spiked Drink

Update: 5/12/2016

The Sunday Times newspaper, who previously reported that Gareth Cliff spiked Marah Louw’s drink, have retracted their statement, saying: ‘The headline has been amended. In a previous version of this article we also incorrectly stated that Cliff admitted pouring Louw a drink spiked with vodka. We retract those comments and apologise to Cliff.‘

—

Update: 2/12/2016

Gareth Cliff has hit back with legal action after a Sunday newspaper reported that the Idols SA judge admitted to spiking his former co-worker’s drink. The Sunday Times report shares details on the TV and radio personality’s new tell-all book in which, according to the paper, Gareth reveals that he “spiked” Mara Louw’s drink with vodka, which led to her getting fired from the reality-TV show.

“The matter has been referred to his legal team,” according to CliffCentral.com’s Rina Broomberg. Gareth has publicly accused the newspaper of fallacious reporting.

Indeed! Matter in the hands of my legal team. #FallaciousReporting https://t.co/dpt2Bwq8UQ

— Gareth Cliff (@GarethCliff) November 28, 2016

A report that Idols SA judge Gareth Cliff passed a spiked drink to Marah Louw, a former Idols judge, has enraged many. Details of his upcoming book, Cliffhanger, were published on Sunday and the article describes how Gareth handed a drink that contained vodka to Marah while at work on the Idols set in 2010. This led to Marah slurring on TV and cost her her job.

According to the article, Marah describes how the incident ‘tarnished my reputation’. ‘That was a terrible time for me. I later learnt from one of the contestants and a production member that the drink I was given by one of my colleagues was laced with vodka.’

In Gareth’s book he writes, ‘The vodka incident was one of the more memorable Marah moments. It’s not common practice to have a drink on set, but that evening one of the crew brought a bottle of vodka for a pre-show celebratory drink. I passed Marah her drink and all was well until halfway through the show when she became a touch emotional, or maybe delirious. Needless to say, the press had a field day and I was the one Marah threw under the bus during a radio interview the next day.’

The radio and TV personality responded to the Sunday Times article, saying the headline is misleading and sensational.

Sensational and misleading headline @SundayTimesZA Read the book #Cliffhanger for the actual story pic.twitter.com/sjebWDCmhO

— Gareth Cliff (@GarethCliff) November 27, 2016

This is how Twitter users reacted to the news:

Imagine casually admitting to ruining someone’s career so you can sell books. Gareth Cliff is disgusting

— Third Force (@naledimashishi) November 27, 2016

Is it not a criminal offence to spike a woman’s drink #garethcliff

— Dominic Chimhavi (@DChimhavi) November 27, 2016

Mara Louw shouldn’t be forgiving, she must sue Gareth Cliff. Such nonsense shouldn’t be tolerated anymore

— SEFULARO KEAMOGETSWE (@Sefularo_Keamo) November 28, 2016

Gareth Cliff messed with a Black woman’s livelihood and has the nerve to laugh it off and profit from it. What a deplorable human being

— Slavet (@sthamancu) November 27, 2016

How many black people, black women have had their livelihoods sabotaged by white men like Gareth Cliff? Who else? His career won’t suffer

— Panashe Chigumadzi (@panashechig) November 27, 2016

The post Gareth Cliff Responds To ‘Fallacious’ Reports About Marah Louw’s Spiked Drink appeared first on Marie Claire - South Africa.