Culture

It’s Time We Discuss Gemma Collins’ Car Crash Interview With A Journo Who Didn’t Read Her Book

Unlike Adele who walked because Matt Doran had access to her album, Gemma's book was never sent to the interviewer.

by Michelle Rennex  24 November 2021
Jemma Collins Book Interview Now Adele 2018

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A Sunrise host made international headlines this week for bungling Australia’s only interview with Adele because he didn’t bother listening to the singer’s latest album before their interview.

Matt Doran was allegedly suspended by the Seven Network for two weeks after his failure to listen to the album allegedly cost the network a cool $1 million. After flying all the way to London for the exclusive, Adele reportedly walked out of the interview after learning that Doran had not listened to 30. 

Despite being sent a copy of the album, which only ran for 58 minutes, before his 23-hour flight from Sydney, Doran told The Australian that he was “totally unaware” that he was emailed a preview of 30 prior to the interview. He added that he is “mortified and unequivocally apologetic”, but noted that not listening to the album was “an oversight but NOT a deliberate snub.”

“This is the most important email I have ever missed,” Doran said before clearing up rumours that Adele had “walked out”.

“To suggest that the interview was disrespectful — or that Adele walked out — is incorrect,” he continued. “In fact, it ran well over time, and we had a great rapport. Adele was hilarious, engaging, generous, honest, and profound.”

But regardless of whether Adele did or didn’t walk out, Doran’s blunder has left the world thinking about other chaotic celebrity interviews — and namely, the time Gemma Collins abruptly ended an interview because a journalist had not read a book she was never sent.

While promoting her new book The GG: How To Be A Diva in 2018, the reality star icon ended an interview early when she learned the reporter had not read the book she was promoting — a book Collins claimed was going to be “bigger than the Bible”.

The issue? Hayley Minn, the person conducting the interview, was never sent an advanced copy of the said book so couldn’t read it. But Gemma Collins didn’t care, and still found issue with the reporter asking non-related book questions. So, in the most beautiful display of pettiness, Now decided to publish the entire interview verbatim to show the world how ridiculous the argument was.

“Despite the fact that we haven’t been sent a copy of the book (which hasn’t yet been released), Gemma isn’t impressed to learn we haven’t read it,” Minn wrote before publishing the back-and-forth as it happened. “And she can’t seem to grasp the concept that it’s a book supposedly about her, written by her, meaning she should be able to talk for hours about it.”

“So tell me about your book. How did it come about?” Minn asked, which is a totally normal question for anyone to ask whether that had read the book or not.

“Have you read it, hun?” Collins asked before Minn confirmed she hadn’t. “OK, so you’re doing this interview without having done any research or read the book or anything?”

After Collins’ publicist explained that the book had “only been sent out to certain people”, Collins finally started to loosen up before again bringing up the fact that Minn had not read The GG: How To Be A Diva ahead of the interview.

“What kind of advice do you have in there?” Minn asked. “Erm… have they given you any stuff from the book? Then you would know… it’s going to be hard to do this if you don’t know,” Collins responded.

“If you read it, you would know, so… I think wait until you get a copy and then you’ll be able to embrace the book. It’s hard to do an interview if you haven’t done any research on the book or been sent it.

“I’m going to get them to send you the book and then maybe we’ll do this another time,” the reality star continued. “Because we’re meant to be doing an interview on the book, but you haven’t got the book in front of you, so you don’t know what it’s about.”

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Sunrise Blew A $1 Million Adele Interview Because The Host Didn't Listen To The Album

“Any of the interviews have to be about the book, anything else isn’t relevant,” Collins concluded the interview. “Darling, don’t worry, we’re going to get the book publishers to send everyone doing an interview the book. Thank you, bye!”

The whole thing is a truly unbelievable exchange when you consider The GG: How To Be A Diva is literally a book about Gemma Collins’ life. Yet Collins was conveniently unable to answer any questions about the book she supposedly wrote herself and refused to talk to Minn about her life because it wasn’t “relevant”.

But if you’re wondering, after the interview was published Minn confirmed that she had still not received a copy of the book despite Collins asserting that the publisher sent her one.

And as for whether the journalist found a copy and read the book in the three years since the car crash interview, the answer is still a proud no as her Twitter bio notes. Iconic.