What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Michelle Collins said elsewhere, not written here
A radio presenter said I had yellow teeth – to my face. When I was 45, a manager in LA said I was too old to work in Hollywood; and then she rang my agent and said, “Can you tell your client never to wear that perfume again because it made me feel sick.”

The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 122 →
On X, I am regularly called a traitor, a fraud, a grifter, a weakling, a narcissist, a coward and a child molester.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
Adam Lambert American singer
“You’re never going to make it.” It was some guy I was dating. I had the last laugh.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 February 2023 source ↗
“You’ll never, ever work.” When you are young and full of hopes and dreams it’s devastating. I am just grateful that I thought: “Well, I’m going to try.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗
When I was growing up, my mother would accuse me of showing off. That’s the most shaming, humbling, horrible thing. What was I doing? Showing off!
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 April 2026 source ↗

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