Richard Madeley has laughed off the infamous fake tan gaffe of 2019 which saw him compared to Donald Trump, Ross from Friends and an Oompa Loompa.
The presenter, 65, had stepped in for Piers Morgan to co-host Good Morning Britain but quickly became a trending topic on Twitter after viewers were left in hysterics at his bright orange visage.
Appearing on ITV’s Loose Men on Thursday – a special edition of Loose Women with an all-male panel – the broadcaster revealed he still thinks about the incident three years on and explained the reason for the blunder.
Looking back: Richard Madeley has laughed off the infamous fake tan gaffe of 2019 which saw him compared to Donald Trump, Ross from Friends and an Oompa Loompa
Memories: Appearing on ITV’s Loose Men on Thursday – a special edition of Loose Women with an all-male panel – the broadcaster revealed he still thinks about the incident three years on
Richard explained that he hadn’t intended to be tanned at all, but mistakenly grabbed a tube of the darkening agent while looking for moisturiser.
He recalled: ‘3.30am in the kitchen, my face was dry from shaving, I put on some moisturiser, got in the car, drove in.
‘Flash forward to 8am and I could hear the director in the gallery whispering to people and there was giggling going on.
‘They said, “You’re trending Richard.” And I said, “Why?” And they said, because you’re going darker and darker and darker. I had. I was doing a Donald Trump!’
Looks familiar: Richard joked he was ‘doing a Donald Trump’ after accidentally applying fake tan instead of moisturiser for an appearance on Good Morning Britain
Oh no! Richard was compared to David Schwimmer’s character Ross Geller who famously received repeated spray tans in the episode fittingly titled: ‘The One with Ross’s Tan’
Orange you pleased to see me? He was also likened to the orange-skinned Oompa Loompas from the 1971 Roald Dahl movie adaptation Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Richard continued: ‘It turned out, what I’d done is, at 3am, I’d put my daughter’s artificial tan on and it was strong stuff. It was humiliating.
‘But the attention that that got! That’s funny and it was very funny.’
He recalled: ‘I had to get up at 3am and my face was dry and it was dark, so I put on some moisturiser and came in…
‘I could hear the director laughing in the gallery and they said I was trending because come eight o’clock I was going darker and darker.
‘What happened was at three in the morning I put my daughters tan on, I was doing a Donald Trump!’
Oops: Richard explained that he hadn’t intended to be tanned at all, but mistakenly grabbed a tube of the darkening agent while looking for moisturiser
Wipe off: Although Richard could laugh at the incident, he admitted he found the ordeal ‘humiliating’ (pictured wiping off the tan after his GMB stint)
Richard made the remarks as he chatted with fellow panelists Jordan Banjo, Martin Kemp and Robert Rinder on the ITV daytime show about body confidence and whether men feel pressured about their appearance.
Richard also revealed he’d been the subject of scrutiny after displaying his natural blond locks in lockdown.
He explained: ‘Even old men like me come under a lot of pressure to explain how we look.
‘For example, I was born blond, Boris Johnson blond when I was a little boy, so I’ve been told as blond born people, as they go grey, particularly men, the sun, swimming, wet hair in the summer, will make you go a bit blond again. That’s happened to me.
‘I have been accused again and again and again of dying my hair and putting streaks in my hair. And I haven’t and I’ve had to put up with this for two or three years.’
Golden boy: Richard also revealed he’d been the subject of scrutiny after displaying his natural blond locks in lockdown as people thought he’d been secretly dying them (pictured June 2020)
Elsewhere in the chat, Richard was asked if he considers flirting with someone other than your partner to be cheating, and explained he has strict boundaries with wife of 35 years, Judy Finnigan.
He explained: ‘The line for me and Judy was written in absolute concrete. When we got going on Richard and Judy and This Morning before that we were sort of emblematic as the nation’s sort of married couple.
‘We didn’t seek it but that’s kind of what was delivered on us. It would have been outrageous for either of us to be seen flirting with anybody.’
Boundaries: Richard was asked if he considers flirting with someone other than your partner to be cheating, and explained he has strict boundaries with wife of 35 years, Judy Finnigan (pictured January 2020)
Richard and Judy wed in 1986 and have two children, daughter Chloe, 33, and son Jack, 32.
The couple presented the daytime television programme This Morning from 1988 until 2001, and then hosted the daily chat show Richard & Judy from 2001 until 2009.
The family have a tightknit bond, with Chloe taking to Instagram on Thursday to wish her dad a happy birthday with a sweet post.
Alongside a shirtless snap of her dad in denim shorts, she penned: ‘It’s Dickie’s birthday and he’s not on Instagram but I’m posting this anyway out of mad respect for him, the Wayfarers and denim cut offs, legit my outfit O choice’.
Sweet: The Madeley family have a tightknit bond, with Chloe taking to Instagram on Thursday to wish her dad a happy birthday with a sweet post
It came as Richard worked on Loose Men which was rebranded from Loose Women for the day to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.
The all-male all-star panel was the next phase of Loose Women’s Stand By Your Men mental health campaign which, alongside ITV’s Britain Get Talking campaign, urges men to open up and seek help when needed.
It followed the first all-male panel in the show’s 21-year history last November to mark International Men’s Day.
Rebrand: Richard appeared on the Loose Women rebrand Loose Men alongside fellow panelists Jordan Banjo, Martin Kemp and Robert Rinder