Zack Polanski: What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

The question

What is the harshest 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.

Zack Polanski

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I get trolled on a daily basis so it probably involved my teeth, but that was until I learned to love my teeth.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 122 →

Craig Charles English actor

I was born in 1964, in the most working-class area of Liverpool, so the N-word was bandied around a lot.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 July 2024 source ↗

Hamza Yassin

There’s a tweet somewhere saying, “If you like Africa so much, why don’t you go back there.” It was because I dedicated one of my dances to my three mothers – Mother Africa, Mother Nature and my mother.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 September 2023 source ↗

Rosalind Eleazar

I don’t think you could print it, it’s so bad.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 February 2025 source ↗

Stockard Channing

“Let’s face it, you’re not Ingrid Bergman.” I was 19 and he was a potential boyfriend. My only thought at the time was: “I’m not?”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 August 2026 source ↗