Rylan Clark grows emotional as he opens up about losing friends amid the cancel culture debate

Rylan Clark is a well-known television presenter and radio personality best recognised for his work on 'This Morning' and his Radio 2 show. The 37-year-old has built a massive circle of celebrity friends throughout his career in the entertainment industry and regularly mixes with A-listers through his various presenting gigs. Now, the former 'X Factor' star opens up about the emotional toll of seeing those friendships become casualties of cancel culture.

During an appearance on ITV's 'The Assembly', Rylan Clark reflects on losing friends to cancel culture. "It's really tough," he says. "Especially because some of them are not just my work friends, they're genuinely, like, close friends." His comments come months after Scott Mills is fired from his broadcasting role due to allegations that the Metropolitan Police investigated the 53-year-old in 2016 over claims of serious sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000. The investigation is closed in 2019 after it is ruled there is insufficient evidence to bring charges.

Rylan Clark opens up about cancel culture

'The Assembly' is a series in which celebrities are grilled by a 28-strong neurodivergent panel with no question off-limits. When asked how he copes when one of his celebrity friends is cancelled, Clark gathers his thoughts and prepares an answer.

"At the end of the day, if someone's done something wrong, then I understand why they can't carry on doing what they're doing," the broadcaster continues, not mentioning Mills by name at any point. "But I do feel today that we live in a world where people will wanna go for you and cancel you for the sake of just doing it, because they can."
He then urges people not to "always believe what you hear or read." "Don't be frightened to ask why," he adds, the group falling silent.

Rylan Clark and Scott Mills' close friendship

Clark has worked with Mills numerous times in his career, most notably as commentators for the Eurovision semi-finals, a gig Angela Scanlon has since taken over. Sources report that Clark and Mills are "so close", with colleagues describing the aftermath as "rough" for the daytime TV presenter, who has since been called a "rock" to his pal.

"They have done a lot of work together, but see a lot of each other socially, too. They always had each other's backs," a source shares. Mills, 53, is now keeping a low profile with his husband, Sam Vaughan, having only made one statement in which he recalled "fully cooperating" with the initial investigation.

Rylan Clark opens up about personal struggles

Clark opens up about his mental breakdown after splitting from Dan Neal in 2021 and admits that fame is "not important" to him now, despite being something he used to chase.

"I've earned a lot of money over the years, and I'm grateful for that, but it became the one thing I hated the most," he admits.

When asked whether honesty is "always the best policy", given how his husband of six years leaves him when he confesses to cheating, Clark stands firm. "I'm OK admitting when I'm in the wrong because, actually, I don't deal well with guilt and I don't deal well with secrets," he shares. "It made me so ill. Like, so ill. And it sounds like a terrible thing to say, but I'm glad it happened."

Probed further on whether he "misses" anything about his ex, Clark drops a stunning revelation. "I never think about him," he states. "I miss feeling like I've got it all. I thought I had life done. I've got the job, I've got the family, I've got the marriage, I've got the car, I've got the house... I thought I had it sussed. I didn't have anything sussed."

He continues his ongoing role on ‘BBC Radio 2’ and remains active with television presenting projects and media appearances.