Radio host Ben Fordham makes bizarre claim about sacked shock jock Marty Sheargold

On Thursday, Ben Fordham went into bat for Sheargold with a bizarre argument for the ‘comedian’.

Australian radio host Ben Fordham has made a bizarre claim about sacked shock jock Marty Sheargold after his misogynistic comments about the Matildas cost him his job.

Sheargold came under fire after voicing his disinterest in the Australian women’s team and women’s sport in general, with the 53-year-old’s remarks labelled “disgusting” and “a f**king joke”.

Sheargold, a regular member of Network 10s Have You Been Paying Attention show, said during Monday’s edition of The Marty Sheargold Show the women’s national team reminded him of “year 10 girls”.

Among several other comments, Sheargold went on to say: “Now I’m sorry to undermine the whole sport, but that’s what I think of it so you can stick it up your arse.”

On Thursday, Fordham went into bat for Sheargold with a bizarre argument, saying the ‘comedian’ “says things like this all the time”.

“He knows that the joke didn’t land, he knows that many people viewed it as him punching down, but look, there’s something that you need to know about Marty Sheargold’s style of comedy, and I know this because I’ve listened to his podcasts for a long time: he says things all the time that he does not mean,” Fordham said.

“That’s not me defending him, he knows that he’s made a mistake, he’s acknowledged it, he did the wrong thing.

2GB presenter Ben Fordham in his studio. John Feder/The Australian.

“You know, jokes are funny when they land. And if they don’t land, I think it’s Jerry Seinfeld who said at one stage it’s a bit like a soccer goal … if you miss, you miss - and this one missed.

“But that’s what Marty Sheargold does all the time.

“So, I think to listeners, regular listeners to Marty Sheargold, they’ll say ‘but he does this all the time’ because he rips into his colleagues, his bosses, his fellow comedians who are mates of his, even his own family. He says extreme things about them.

“He doesn’t say these things because he truly believes them. He says them for shock value, and he says them to get a laugh.

“And I suppose - and Marty knows this better than anyone - in 2025 comedians have to walk the tightrope between getting laughs and not getting cancelled.”

Fordham was right in some respects, Sheargold does often say “things like this”.

On Tuesday, only a day after making the Matildas comments, Sheargold said live on air that endometriosis was “fake”.

He began comparing his ability to cope with a back injury with that of women who suffer from endometriosis - a medical condition that causes tissue to grow abnormally outside a woman’s uterus instead of inside, where it would usually break down and leave the body each period.

The Matildas. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

It can cause pain in the pelvis and can cause challenges with fertility.

“I’ve done me back. It’s no secret over the last couple of days, I can’t hide it anymore,” Sheargold said during Tuesday’s show.

“I’ve got a heat pack behind my back, which is very comforting, and thank you to (executive producer Whitney Plowman) for bringing her period heat pack here because, God, don’t ladies carry on?

“Jesus Christ, there is no end of it. Honestly, endometriosis — and this is controversial...”

His comments have been widely condemned.

When asked about his thoughts on Sheargold’s comments on Thursday, the Prime Minister did not hold back.

“They were just shocking comments that anyone could think it, let alone say it. Completely unacceptable,” Anthony Albanese told Nova 100’s Jase and Lauren on Thursday.

“The Tillies are just legends. They excited and brought together the whole country.

“The whole country was united in cheering for them. Women’s and girl’s sport has been a revolution in my lifetime, in football, as in soccer football, AFLW has a Governor-General, Sam Austin was the first woman appointed as an AFL Commissioner, and she really drove the creation of AFLW, that’s fantastic.

“ … These are great athletes, like (the Matildas) performed so well to get to the semis in the World Cup, but even if they didn’t, so what! They’re doing their best, and they’re great athletes, and they’re better footballers than all the blokes who’d be critiquing them, frankly,” he said.

Former Triple M breakfast host Marty Sheargold. Picture: Supplied/Triple M

“Remember the Olympics. Remember, as the gold medals came through, they had something in common. They were all women! … And certainly, the Matildas are … more successful historically than our men’s team has been.

“Ellyse Perry, statistically, is probably the greatest cricketer – maybe Bradman but he didn’t bowl – the greatest cricketer that Australia has produced.”

Albanese also took exception to Sheargold claiming endometriosis isn’t real.

“You know, we need to respect each other, and disrespecting more than half the population is not on,” Albanese continued.

“It’s just not funny. It’s offensive.”

Albanese is just the latest in several high-profile Australians to condemn Sheargold’s actions, with Olympic great Cate Campbell speaking out about just how damaging the rhetoric he used is on Thursday morning.

“Women have been fighting for generations to be seen as equals in sport,” Campbell told the Today show on Thursday morning.

“Can I just say that Australia had our most successful Olympic Games in Paris 2024 … We won 18 gold medals, 13 of them were won by women. Let me just say that again.

“It is a huge proportion of Australia’s global sporting success that comes off the back of women. These women are underpaid. They’re under-represented, they’re undervalued, they’re misrepresented in the media all the time, and yet they are the ones who are often doing the heavy lifting on the world stage.

“We deserve better. We need more recognition. I feel really, strongly that these comments are unacceptable.”

Originally published as Radio host Ben Fordham makes bizarre claim about sacked shock jock Marty Sheargold