Angel Strawbridge, the Escape to the Chateau star, has refused to apologise for a foul-mouthed tirade against a producer that was revealed in a leaked audio recording.
Speaking for the first time since the incident, she said there had been a “tsunami of untruths” surrounding the release of the tape.
The leaked recording showed Strawbridge calling one of the show’s producers a “f— up little c—” , and followed a bullying scandal which led to Channel 4 cutting ties with her and her co-host husband Dick.
The 45-year-old has now said that while she wished the incident had never happened, she would not apologise for what she said, claiming the producer’s behaviour towards her husband and children had been “completely unacceptable”.
Speaking on Elizabeth Day’s podcast, How to Fail, she said: “I was the one in the wrong for losing my temper, but do you know what, I will not apologise – he was so disrespectful in our house, he was so upsetting to me, my family, and I stand by what I did.
“If I was to apologise and say ‘I’m sorry for using bad language and chucking you out’ it would just be disingenuous to me.”
She added: “Would I like to erase that? Yeah, I’d love to. But I would also like to erase what he was doing because my rage just didn’t pop out of nowhere.
“It grew over time and it was provoked and therefore I’m not ashamed of what happened in the end, I just wish it hadn’t happened.”
It emerged in May 2023 that Channel 4 had cut ties with the couple, who became famous from renovating their home, the 19th-century Château de la Motte-Husson in Martigné-sur-Mayenne, France, over nine seasons of the show.
Giving her recollection of the events, which Strawbridge recalled happened about six years ago, she said: “We had so many amazing people filming Escape to the Chateau, but in this particular quite small time frame, we had someone that wasn’t particularly very nice.
“His behaviour was completely unacceptable, but it didn’t just happen in one little moment, it happened over lots of different occasions.”
She added: “He was not very nice, he was doing these weird pictures of Dick killing animals and posting them on his Instagram. He was so horrible with the children.”
She recalled one incident where the producer allegedly broke all of her children’s fishing rods.
“There was this one incident, and I actually truly believe that because he knew he was caught, I think in my heart that is why he set up this filming,” she added.
“Because the way that he was acting was how he’d never acted with me before. You don’t accidentally film someone when you’re not filming. Completely happened secretly and on purpose.”
Rant ‘makes me feel little bit sick’
Strawbridge said she had not listened back to the recording of her rant as it made her feel “a little bit sick”.
“But obviously all of my friends have, and they’re like ‘I can hear you gradually getting more angry, more angry, more angry’.
“And then I just say ‘get out of my f—ing house’. I can’t even remember what I said. I think I said a really bad word beginning with c, I think that’s how p----- off I must have been,” she said in the interview.
Strawbridge can be heard saying in the recording, which was obtained by entertainment website Deadline: “Who is that inspired by when you’re f—ing working at the chateau? Just tell me that and then you can f—ing leave and this is me f—ing angry because I think you’re a f—ed up little c—.”
Allegations of bullying by the couple towards producers during the first four seasons emerged in 2021 as a former crew member likened working with the Strawbridges to an “abusive relationship”.
Both Channel 4 and production company Two Rivers Media last year confirmed ties with the couple had been severed following an investigation into alleged bullying and concerning behaviour on set.
The couple has previously denied allegations that they bullied or were aggressive towards crew members.
Escape to the Chateau was aired on Channel 4 for six years before the ninth and final season concluded in 2022.
However, the couple are back on screens in a new travel programme, Secret France, on Channel 4, which was filmed before the station cut ties with them.
