Entertainment

Katie Price's use of N-word on This Morning not investigated by Ofcom

The star triggered a backlash on social media when she used the word to raise awareness of the sort of abuse her disabled son faces.
The star triggered a backlash on social media when she used the word to raise awareness of the sort of abuse her disabled son faces. The star triggered a backlash on social media when she used the word to raise awareness of the sort of abuse her disabled son faces.

TV watchdog Ofcom has announced it will not investigate This Morning after Katie Price used the N-word.

The star, 39, triggered a backlash on social media when she used the word last month to raise awareness of the sort of abuse her disabled son faces as she discussed online bullies targeting teenage son Harvey.

Ofcom said the language was sufficiently contextualised as it was used to describe the racial abuse directed towards Price’s son.

 Katie Price (Charlotte Ball/PA)
Katie Price (Charlotte Ball/PA)
Katie Price (Charlotte Ball/PA)

A spokesman said: “We considered a handful of complaints about potentially offensive language in this mid-morning magazine programme.

“We found it was used in a descriptive manner to illustrate the nature of online abuse and the presenters issued an apology immediately after the broadcast.”

Price’s son Harvey is partially blind, autistic and has Prader-Willi syndrome.

Katie Price with her son Harvey and husband Kieran Hayler (Yui Mok/PA)
Katie Price with her son Harvey and husband Kieran Hayler (Yui Mok/PA)
Katie Price with her son Harvey and husband Kieran Hayler (Yui Mok/PA)

The regulator also announced it has assessed, but decided not to investigate, controversial episodes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

It received complaints that a storyline involving the grooming of Bethany Platt on Coronation Street was not appropriate.

It said: “We assessed six complaints about this storyline. We concluded the content was neither graphic nor violent and took into account Coronation Street’s history of confronting distressing issues in society.”

Coronation Street Bethany Platt
Coronation Street Bethany Platt
Bethany Platt (ITV)

It also assessed 101 complaints that an Emmerdale scene depicting rape was unsuitable for pre-watershed broadcast.

“We took into account that the broadcaster had issued a warning and the scene was limited,” an Ofcom spokesperson said.

“It was also the culmination of a long-running storyline and so was likely to have been in line with what most viewers were expecting. Emmerdale is known to have covered many challenging social issues.”