Rylan Clark has opened up about filming his new show with Rob Rinder, admitting they were subjected to homophobic abuse while in Italy together. The TV personality travelled to Venice with Rob – best known as Judge Rinder – to film new BBC Two show Rob And Rylan’s Grand Tour.
Rylan, 35, has shared details of the his and Rob’s experience in the country, where they spent time with an underground drag collective called House Of Serenissima. He recalled how people would meet “behind closed doors” to dress up in drag, as “they didn’t feel safe” doing it in public.
Speaking on Olivia Attwood’s So Right It’s Wrong podcast, Rylan noted that Italy is “not very LGBT friendly”. He also recalled the moment things turned scary after he and Rob, 45, joined in a drag photoshoot in San Marco Square.
He had to persuade Rob, but eventually the pair joined in the fun. Rylan said: “Rob finally got it and we dressed up in drag, the pair of us, and we walked with the whole collective to San Marco Square – Rob was giving Pauline Fowler vibes, it was the look he ended up with.”
While walking through the square, the 35 year old could hearing a young man shouting something in Italian at them, prompting him to ask one of the drag queens to translate.
“I’m now 20 foot in a pair of heels, I wanted to go mad,” Rylan admitted. “I wanted to go after this bloke and basically knock him out.”
However, moments later the group encountered some older women, who were much more supportive. Rylan told how they all “stood up and clapped” for the drag queens as they came past, which he branded a “realisation moment”.
“That was a real realisation moment, not just for us, but for them as well. They realised the people they thought we would offend or upset are the ones looking after us. It was really beautiful,” the TV star added.
