She’s known for her outspoken views and controversial opinions.
And over the years Miriam Margolyes has landed herself in hot water with her remarks, recently sparking fresh outrage during an interview on This Morning.
During an interview last week, ITV bosses were forced to intervene after she referred to presenter Andi Peters as ‘high yalla’, when asking about his race.
The term, which can also be spelled ‘high yaller’ or ‘high yellow’ is an outdated and offensive slang term used in the US to describe a black person with a light complexion.
Miriam’s comments, which were removed from the ITVX recording of the show, have since gone viral, with many viewers taking to X/Twitter to express their outrage over Miriam’s comments.
Yet that’s far from the only time Miriam has caused a stir with her remarks.
Miriam Margolyes’ most controversial moments after she sparked outrage by referring to Andi Peters as ‘high yalla’ during an interview (pictured alongside Christine Lampard)
Miriam sparked more than 500 Ofcom complaints when she said she wanted former Prime Minster Boris Johnson to ‘ die’ from coronavirus
Boris Johnson death wish
Miriam sparked more than 500 Ofcom complaints when she said she wanted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ‘die’ from coronavirus.
The former Prime Minister was hospitalised after catching the virus back in 2020.
During an appearance on the Channel 4 show The Last Leg, Miriam spoke openly on her thoughts with how the government was handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said: ‘Appallingly, of course, appallingly. It’s a disgrace, it’s a scandal. It’s a public scandal.’
Miriam added: ‘I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die.
‘I wanted him to die. Then I thought that will reflect badly on me and I don’t want to be the sort of person that wants people to die.
‘So then I wanted him to get better, which he did do, he did get better.
‘But he didn’t get better as a human being. And I really would prefer that.’
Attack on ‘the new Jewish people’
Miriam launched a scathing attack on ‘the new Jewish people’ after claiming in an interview that their ‘essential decency and compassion has been squeezed out.. evaporated’.
Asked about comments made in 2024, in which she claimed the impact of Hitler on Jewish people could be seen in the way Israel had turned into a ‘vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation’, the Harry Potter star said she had no regrets, saying it’s ‘because I know I’m right’.
Interviewed for the Adam Buxton podcast, the star admitted that her outspoken views had led to her losing friends including ‘one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel’.
She continued: ‘I’m terribly sad that I’ve offended some people, but to me, they proved that Hitler had won, and that, for me, was such a shock that really hurt me, because I didn’t want to think that was possible.
‘But it’s true, the essential decency and compassion of the Jewish people has been squeezed out, evaporated, and it is a terribly sad thing.
‘But if I don’t speak out against what I think is wrong, who am I?’
Miriam was born into a Jewish family living in Oxford but has become increasingly outspoken in recent years as a result of her hostility to Israel.
She said she had been ‘deeply hurt’ at the loss of friends, who objected to her remarks, and her stance following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
She revealed ‘one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel’ had said, ‘I don’t want to be friends anymore, go well on your journey, don’t contact me again.’
‘He was somebody to whom I was very close,’ said Miriam
‘That was, and is a deep hurt, and that doesn’t go away, but I can’t help it because I know I’m right.
‘I don’t know that I’m right about everything, but I do know that I’m right about the immorality of the Israeli position on Gaza and the activities of the Netanyahu government. That I know for sure they have done wrong.’
‘F*** you’ comment to Jeremy Hunt
Miriam shocked BBC Radio 4 listeners by telling presenters what she had ‘really wanted to say’ to the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt
Miriam shocked BBC Radio 4 listeners by telling presenters what she had ‘really wanted to say’ to the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Jeremy had been interviewed by journalist Justin Webb about his plans for the government’s new economic strategy on the Today Programme, in the slot before Miriam’s.
The comedian had been on the show to speak about the passing of her friend, Harry Potter actor Robbie Coltrane, who died the day before.
But she went off-piste and decided to make her views about the Chancellor known.
‘I never thought I’d be sitting in the seat… [that Jeremy Hunt was sat in]’ she told Justin.
‘When I saw him there I just said ‘you’ve got a hell of a job, the best of luck’, and what I really wanted to say was ‘f*** you, you b*****d!’ But you can’t say that.’
Miriam told producers afterwards that she mistakenly believed she was off air, the BBC said.
This is despite being warned moments before by broadcaster Martha Kearney that they were still live.
Calling Charles Dickens’ Fagin ‘Jewish and vile’
BBC pulled a comment by Miriam from the radio after she said that Charles Dickens’ Fagin was ‘Jewish and vile’ (pictured: Ron Moody in character as Fagin in 1968’s Oliver!)
In 2024, the BBC pulled a comment by Miriam from the radio after the Harry Potter star said that Charles Dickens’ Fagin was ‘Jewish and vile’ on air.
The Jewish actor was speaking to Front Row about her earliest experiences with the novelist amid her Edinburgh Fringe run of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, in which she brings to life the author’s most colourful characters in a one-woman show.
And in a response to a question from BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Wark about the character that stuck in her head as a child, she responded with the Oliver Twist villain.
The broadcaster has now removed the comment from the programme – saying that it should have been challenged at the time.
The eccentric grandee sparked laughter among the audience as she said: ‘Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile.’
She added: ‘I didn’t know Jews like that then – sadly, I do now.’
One of English literature’s most despised characters, Dickens used anti-Semitic tropes of Victorian England to create the character of Fagin, the London crime lord who ruled over a band of child pickpockets.
The manipulative criminal is explicitly Jewish in the book, with Miriam saying in another interview last month that he is ‘not only extremely funny but horrible, evil, a complete a**e’.
Told to be ‘be quiet’ by Queen Elizabeth
In an interview The Times back in 2022, Miriam revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth told her to ‘be quiet’ during a meeting
In an interview with The Times back in 2022, Miriam revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth told her to ‘be quiet’ during a meeting.
Their encounter was many years ago, when Miriam was at Buckingham Palace for British Book Week.
‘The Queen told me to ‘be quiet’. It shocked me because I hadn’t quite realised how rude I was being. I was waffling on when she was talking to somebody else, and I was overriding that rudely,’ Miriam revealed.
She continued: ‘But it wasn’t deliberate – I wasn’t meaning to be rude. I say what I think and I don’t care how it comes out.
‘Sometimes it comes out in a way that people find very upsetting and offensive, and I’m sorry about that, but what I say is the truth.’
Controversial dating advice
During an appearance on This Morning, Miriam came under fire for giving some controversial dating advice.
As well as telling one caller to ‘lose weight’, she suggested that another should join a club to meet people.
‘Go volunteer at a centre for disadvantaged, poor people and cripples,’ she said.
‘You might meet another cripple, but that doesn’t matter,’ she added.
‘Lose a bit of weight and wash. Wash very carefully, all the crevices, all the bits you find difficult to reach. Wash!’ she also added.
Criticising Harry Potter fans
Miriam enraged adult Harry Potter fans by claiming they should be ‘over’ the book by now as it is ‘for children’
Miriam enraged adult Harry Potter fans by claiming they should be ‘over’ the book by now as it is ‘for children’.
The actress played Professor Sprout in the acclaimed film series, based on J K Rowling’s books.
Despite insisting it was ‘wonderful’ and she was ‘very grateful’ to the franchise, the BAFTA award-winning actress said adult fans should be ‘over that’ by now as it is ‘for children’.
In an interview with New Zealand television network 1News, Miriam admitted: ‘I worry about Harry Potter fans.
She went on: ‘They should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago and it’s for children. I think it’s for children.
‘But they get stuck in it and I do cameos and people say ‘Oh we are having a Harry Potter-themed wedding’ and I think ‘gosh what’s their first night of fun going to be. I can’t even think about it.
‘Harry Potter is wonderful, I’m very grateful to it, it’s over.’
Andi Peters race row
Miriam landed herself in more hot water this week when she addressed the backlash to her ‘racism row’ with Andi on This Morning last week
Miriam landed herself in more hot water this week when she addressed the backlash to her ‘racism row’ with Andi.
During the initial exchange, Miriam had impersonated presenter Christine Lampard’s Northern Irish accent, before turning to Andi and asking: ‘But what accent would be normal for you?’
‘This is normal. This is what I am,’ replied Andi, as Miriam continued: ‘Oh, you’re a mix, aren’t you? You’ve got a black daddy and a white mummy.’
‘No, no, no. Both my parents are black,’ confirmed Andi, before he joked: ‘What have they put on me, am I a lighter shade than normal?’
Miriam continued: ‘Both parents are I think you’re what I would call a “high yalla.” That’s what they call it in America. Oh, when someone isn’t deeply black, right?’
‘I didn’t even know there were shades,’ said Andi, as Miriam added: ‘There are shades.’
Worried about the direction of the conversation, producers are thought to have issued a warning to Andi through his earpiece – with him then saying out loud: ‘Oh, okay. They’re getting nervous now. They’re getting nervous now.’
‘Don’t be nervous,’ reassured Miriam, ‘We welcome everybody. That’s what I want to write about in my book. It’s about inclusion.’
She was then asked about the incident during an audience event to promote her new memoir, Miriam’s Full English, at Cliffs Pavilion in Southend.
In videos shared by audience members on social media, she insisted: ‘I didn’t want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice.
‘I’d never met him before; I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know he was black until I saw him. When you see someone, of course you know they’re black.
‘I wanted to know what he thought about it because that’s what interests me.’
Miriam then used an offensive term for disabled people as she continued: ‘How do black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do cripples feel? How do fat people feel?
‘You see what I mean? All of us feel something about who we are and how people see us, what they think of us.’
The host interjected to clarify that ‘in other words you wanted to discuss his identity with him’, to which the actress was in full agreement.
‘I am fascinated by other people,’ she continued. ‘They are the people that interest me, not the celebrities so much. It’s everybody. What their story is, what made them who they are, why you are the way you are.’
