‘Grotesque’ documentary on Charlotte Crosby pulled from air amid thousands of complaints

A “vile” TV show about reality star Charlotte Crosby left its subject in floods of tears and attracted thousands of viewer complaints.

A controversial UK documentary examining reality star Charlotte Crosby’s “changing face” has attracted thousands of viewer complaints and left its subject in tears.

Former Geordie Shore and Celebrity Big Brother star Crosby, who also competed in the 2020 season of Aussie I’m A Celeb, slammed the “immoral and insensitive” program and revealed she had privately begged for it to be axed.

Titled What Happened To Your Face? Charlotte Crosby, the doco – which aired on UK’s Channel 5 – saw plastic surgeons dissect Crosby’s cosmetic procedures, calling her names like “plastic” and “rubber-lipped” as they theorised about what work she’d had done.

Viewers slammed the show.

As it appeared on UK TV guides.

RELATED: Charlotte Crosby poses naked to show off new tattoo

The program – which has now been pulled from Channel 5’s catch-up streaming service – elicited 7082 complaints to TV regulator Ofcom, The Sun reports.

In a statement posted to her Instagram after the show aired, Crosby revealed the episode had been commissioned back in March 2020, and her agent was “appalled” when she found out.

“She clearly outlined … not just how immoral and insensitive it was but how detrimental this would be for my mental health. They ignored her, despite repeated correspondence, ran with it regardless. We only found out this week when it was in the TV listings that it was still going ahead – unbelievable,” the agent said.

Crosby slammed the content of the program, with its focus on “rubber lip Charlotte”.

“Their ‘experts’ dissected my ‘plastic face’ with disgust, discussing my fluctuating weight (with images), and then decided to flash up the worst troll comments from the past five to six years,” the reality star said.

Later on, Crosby broke down in tears as she thanked fans via Instagram for their support.

Crosby broke down as she thanked fans for their support on Instagram.

RELATED: Charlotte Crosby explains why she got breast implants

“Honest, I’m so strong, and I’m sitting here crying now,” she said. “But I’m not crying about the negative things, I’m crying about the support.

“I’m crying about how many people have been so kind. I just want to say thank you because you’ve actually made us feel like I’ve got a self-worth. Like I’m worth something. That’s how all of this support has made us feel.”

She revealed that, at first, she thought the program was justified because of her position in the public eye and her well-documented cosmetic procedures.

“You do feel like you kind of deserve it. You’ve got so little self-worth, when I get troll comments I just think ‘Oh well, what can I expect? I deserve this. I put myself in the public eye. If people have got an opinion, they’ve got an opinion.’

Crosby in 2013.

She revealed her agent had begged to have the program pulled.

RELATED: Charlotte Crosby reveals truth about her I’m A Celeb romance

“All week I told myself, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve had my lips done, I brought it all on myself.’

“That’s how little self worth you have. That’s how you become so strong. ‘I’ve done this to myself, I deserve it.’ That’s honestly how you start feeling.

“To the point I wouldn’t have even made a big deal about it if it wasn’t for my amazing agent who was like, ‘It’s so wrong,’ and then I was like, ‘It actually is so wrong.’”

Viewers agreed, labelling the program “disgraceful” and “grotesque”:

@channel5_tv what the hell is this "New Celebrities-what happened" programme? Have you not heard of #BeKind? A load of people scrutinising what "work" Charlotte Crosby may or may not have had done to her face. Ive watched 2 minutes of it, absolutely disgraceful. #charlottecrosby

— Nicola (@justmeNicKnox) April 22, 2021

Channel 5 should never have made the doc about Charlotte Crosby's cosmetic work when she and her team originally asked producers not to because it would be detrimental for her mental health. I feel sad for her. It was genuinely grotesque programming.

— Hannah Ewens (@hannahrosewens) April 28, 2021

Channel 5 promoting mental health then showing a documentary, ripping apart Charlotte Crosby for her appearance.. it’s sad that after what happened to Caroline Flack, nothing seems to have changed 😖

— ᴛᴀꜱʜᴀ ʟᴏᴜɪꜱᴇ ✨ (@eds_afterglow) April 23, 2021

Whatever opinions you have of Charlotte Crosby doesn’t matter, this is absolutely disgusting and I don’t know how Channel 5 can get away with this??? This doesn’t just affect her, it can affect so many people in regards to body image and mental health. Boycott @channel5_tvhttps://t.co/oPqPWFb0Vo

— Ellen (@ellen_cottis) April 24, 2021

My heart goes out to Charlotte Crosby after Channel 5’s vile documentary! Disgusting picking on someone’s appearance 🥺

— Karly (@karlydouglasx) April 23, 2021

In a statement, Channel 5 apologised for “any upset caused” and said that Channel 5 and the show’s producers, Crackit Productions, “take duty of care very seriously”.

“While we acknowledge that the programme was Ofcom-compliant, we have taken on board Charlotte’s feedback and removed the episode from our streaming platform My5,” the statement read.

Crosby, meanwhile, this week revealed she plans to relocate to Australia at some point in the future.

“I think I will live in Australia in about 10 to 12 years,” she told WHO.

“I have two online businesses that I started about two years ago and I want to get them to the point where I can sell them for a lot of money and I think I’ll give myself a 10 year limit for that so it’s all based around that. But I need to be in England while I’m growing them both to be big enough to sell or get huge investors and not have to do all the front work for myself.”

Originally published as ‘Grotesque’ documentary on Charlotte Crosby pulled from air amid thousands of complaints