GEORDIE Shore legend Nathan Henry has revealed vile trolls threatened to throw acid in his face while targeting him with homophobic and racist abuse.
Nathan, 32, heartbreakingly confessed he was left terrified to leave the house and lost £15k after cancelling a string of nightclub appearances over the messages.
Nathan Henry has revealed vile trolls threatened to throw acid in his face
While he didn’t report the abuse to police, the TV personality was left seriously shaken since he couldn’t afford to hire security at the beginning of his career and became “filled with fear” over the welfare of his loved ones.
In an exclusive interview with The Celeb Report, he remembered how one horrid Geordie Shore fan attacked him via his personal Facebook account.
Nathan, who identifies as gay, notably divided viewers when he filmed the MTV show’s first same-sex scenes in 2015, the year he joined the cast.
Explaining how it triggered one particular fan, he began, “They messaged me after an episode where I’d done something in the shag pad saying, ‘Nathan, my brother, my friend. I’m sending you wishes and prayers. You need God. I know God can help you. God can heal you. You are not meant to be this way.’
“They were basically talking about me being gay. Back then, I didn’t know better and I just thought I’d entertain it and message back being like, ‘Look, I’m happy with the way I am. Thank you for your kind words. I’m going to continue to choose the way I live.’
“But because I wasn’t giving the person what they wanted, it just rapidly turned very aggressive, very quickly. It was like, ‘If I ever see you out in the streets and you don’t correct your ways, I’ll set you on fire, I will throw acid at you.’”
While reality stars can rake in thousands from a single sponsored Instagram post in today’s climate, in the 2010s they relied on public appearances to make their living when not on TV.
Nathan reflected, “Obviously back then, it was the days of when we did PAs. It was all over Instagram, all over Twitter that I was giving an appearance that week.
“When you do PAs, you don’t take security. We’re not mega stars. We take our friends, our family members to these PAs. I didn’t have security back then. To be honest, I wasn’t earning enough money, so I couldn’t call my own security.
“Obviously you get the security from the club but I didn’t know if they would really protect me. Not only that but my friends too.
“So I cancelled. I think I did one PA and the whole night, I didn’t drink. I literally went there, did the meet and greet and left because I was expecting this person to turn up.
“And then after that, I cancelled all my PAs. I don’t think I did them for about three months. I lost out on a lot of money, about 15 grand, because this was when we weren’t on TV and obviously the work doesn’t come in as thick and fast.”
Unlike many of his white, straight castmates, Nathan’s sexuality and race saw his online abuse double at the hands of men who were double his age.
He said, “I was the only black person on Geordie Shore. I constantly got told that I ruined the show for the colour of my skin. I’d get called n****r a lot, black c**t, black f****t.
“It was absolutely vile and it always came from grown a**e men, never women. I would have been 21, 22, 23 and these tweets were coming from men in their late 30s, early 40s, fans of the show.”
These days, the influencer has rebuilt his confidence to attend public events and is looking forward to partying at the Isle of MTV Malta festival this weekend.
He gushed, “I’m so excited. I can’t wait because, well, I’ve never been to Malta before and I’ve heard it’s absolutely stunning.
“But not only that, the acts are incredible. One Republic, Alesso, Tom Grennan and Mimi Webb are performing and I can’t wait to see them and all the others.”
The event will broadcast on MTV internationally on 15th September in more than 150 countries across TV, digital and social, showcasing the festival and Malta to millions of music fans around the world.
It will be followed by Isle of MTV Malta Music Week, a series of club nights and parties across the hottest venues on the island, from 18th to 23rd July.
- Isle of MTV, Europe’s biggest free summer festival, in partnership with the Malta Tourism Authority, returns to the iconic Il-Fosos Square on 18th July.
He’s been targeted with homophobic and racist abuse over the years
Nathan said, “I was the only black person on Geordie Shore”
