In times of economic turbulence the TV schedules change to reflect that people have less disposable income. It comes as no surprise that Jamie Oliver was quickly commissioned by Channel 4 for a new cookery show called keep cooking and carry on. Jamie is smart choice and a safe pair of hands as he’s experienced, calming and owns his own production company so is able to quickly produce a TV show.
However Jack Monroe was very vocal when it was announced that Jamie Oliver got a show about making store cupboard meals:
She refers to him as “that man” but her 160k followers (at the time) knew exactly who she was talking about and took to social media and comment sections across the internet to slam Jamie Oliver.
Jack Monroe was not the first person to use tins for cooking and these kind of store cupboard recipe shows are commonplace during recessions. These tweets were made before the show had even aired. Although Jack Monroe lives with her partner that’s an executive at Channel 4 so maybe privy to more information.
She later deleted these first tweets, but the damage had already been done as many of her virulent followers started harassing “that man” Jamie Oliver.
Jamie Oliver faced controversy over Jollof rice where he was accused of cultural appropriation for adapting an Afro-Caribbean dish, it’s rich to accuse him of cultural appropriation him fronting a cookery show using tins. Mentioning the Jollof rice scandal pretty much names Jamie Oliver and causes a pile on.
It’s unlikely Jack Monroe regretted tweeting inflammatory tweets. People targetting Jamie Oliver is the predictable outcome as she knew it would rile up her followers.
She’s known for tweeting, getting a dogpile, then deleting her tweets and going quiet.
Jamie Oliver has built a whole career on doing fuss free recipes that are easy and accessible. Why shouldn’t he take the job he was offered?
Jack Monroe released a vegan cookbook after claiming to go vegan for a short time, then returning to meat once the book was released. Vegan writers were not (to use Jack’s words) saying they were being screwed over and lost everything they’ve worked for.
A good reason why TV executives wouldn’t pick Jack (apart from the troublesome social media posts) is that she has done very little video work. The internet is full of cooks that showcase their talents on YouTube and Instagram so if someone want’s TV work you’d expect them to have built up a portfolio of video work these days.
After riling up people to support her Jack replied and liked many tweets that supported her.
Jack Monroe was not the first economy cook, that name alone predates her. People have such short memories but budget recipes using tinned goods have been around for a very long time.
The bootstrap cook was very appreciative of the messages that supported her and made no call to stop people from targetting Jamie Oliver.
She’s very regularly talking about how much she does for free; but this all promotes her to land more commissions, more traffic to her website with adverts, sell more books, get more patreon donations and more cash on Paypal. So it’s definitely not selfless.
Jack regularly posts that people can directly give her cash.
Jack was quick to reply to any blue ticker that supported her.
It makes no sense that she’s too timid to film at home for YouTube but is angry that Jamie Oliver has a TV show. Performing to a crew on a set you would think is far more difficult than just you and a camera at home.
Jack seemed happy after her tweets at Jamie Oliver got so much attention and grew her follower numbers.
She took the time to tell people she wasn’t asked to be involved in Jamie’s show.
She took to twitter to tell people that messages on his accounts have been deleted. With the vitriol some of her followers aimed at him I’m not surprised. It added fuel to the fire for her followers to continue harassing just as the momentum from the original tweets had died down.
Before the first Jamie Oliver keep calm and carry on cooking show had even aired she appeared happy to back up that he would be using her recipes and fueled the narrative that she was being stolen from.
Once Jamie Oliver’s new show began airing she started a live tweet recipe hashtag at exactly the same time . Jack regularly made pops at Jamie Oliver’s show and that she replied to X number of tweets to give a recipe idea.
Of course, filming a tv recipe is a lot more work than telling people with lentils and onions to make a curry.
This tweet many believe to be a pop at one of Jamie’s pasta sauce recipes from the first episode of keep calm and carry on cooking.
Jack was keen to reply to any tweets that praised her and lambasted channel 4.
Is it really selfless posting on twitter? It’s done wonders to boost her profile, gain followers, get more donations, get more website visitors, sell more books and get commissions.
Understandably Jacks followers started piling on Nigella Lawson after she got some work about using store ingredients, after all Jack has encouraged the Jamie Oliver pile on for exactly the same thing.
However as Nigella is supporting Jack she told a follower to pipe down:
Strangely after one follower targets Nigella Lawson Jack tells people to be kind, but she let the abuse of Jamie Oliver carry on while fanning it herself with replies.
Jack Monroe has said herself said she has numerous health conditions which make her high risk and maybe a reason why execs would not want to use her to front a show, especially not one that needs a rapid turnaround.
As Jack has posted herself she’s immunocompromised so following government advice she should self isolate at home for 12 weeks and would defiantly not be able to film a tv show.
How can you not leave the house and not have visitors but be annoyed that someone else got a job that you physically wouldn’t even be able to do?
Jack landed new deals with the daily express and the metro following her original outburst but still kept talking about Jamie Oliver.
Oh, how we guffawed at Jamie wheeling capers out as a storecupboard staple in his new show, but I am a secret fan of them myself. And it seems I’m not the only one, as a lot of readers have sent me pictures of their own jars of them over the last week, asking how they can best make use of them.
Metro: Jack Monroe’s Lockdown Larder: How to make sardine rillettes with that tin in the back of your cupboard 29th March 2020
Jack had previously dragged Jamie Oliver for using capers in his new show so it’s surprising to see her use them in the first of her new columns for the metro.
One of the most bizarre Jack Monore quotes was in the evening standard after she spoke about Jamie Oliver, of course her deleted tweets were not mentioned in any of her press pieces.
This is my thing. I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve been sneered at and fought hard to teach people you can use long-grain rice for a cheap risotto
~ Jack Monroe evening standard 24 March 2020
Jack remained mainly silent while her followers were slinging abuse at Jamie Oliver, but did reply to one critic.
Jack has previously claimed that Jamie Oliver ripped off her work to make an old salad bag into pesto. Calling the chef ‘him’ and ‘mister multimillionaire’, saying she can barely afford to pay herself a wage and talking about the shabby bungalow she rents.
Jack is too busy to even make youtube videos, so maybe that’s why tv execs wouldn’t reach out. How would she ever have time for the long days a TV show would be if she’s already working 20 hours 7 days a week?
Plenty of people manage to make youtube videos on their own on a phone and her small bungalow has a separate office so it’s strange that Jack wants a TV show but won’t showcase her skills on video.
Jack’s books have been selling well (some in the top 15 of Amazon recently) but when virus crisis started she has been asking for cash donations because she was losing work and selling £24 + £3 postage framed 6″ by 4″ signed photos. Along with the several new commissions like the express and metro and the advertising revenue from her site.
And she’s posted 3 times the huge stacks of photos. Nothing against people making money but lots of her posts have been emotional blackmail talking about how much she’s struggling / how shitty her rented bungalow is. This is surprising after releasing 7 cookery books (some of which were bestsellers) and a successful media career with many sources of revenue.
Here Jack is glueing her signed photos for fans. Unfortunately she seems to be using bog-standard glue rather than photo glue so the photos are likely to warp and disintegrate quickly.
She clearly has a vendetta against Jamie Oliver and for her own sake it would be better to contact him directly or say nothing than airing these views on public platforms. In 2018 she was singing his praises:
Jack announced getting a BBC One show Called Daily Kitchen Live with Matt Tebbutt. Ignoring that she said the week before she was immunocompromised so it’s surprising she’s leaving her house when the government says not to for 12 weeks.
I can say confidently this wouldn’t have happened without you all and the absolute STINK you kicked up demanding I have a show
Jack Monroe deleted tweet according to tattle life user
It seems she was carrying on begging for cash donations all while having a BBC TV show in the works. She claims to only pay herself the living wage (where does the rest of the cash go? stay in her business account?) but is that anything to brag about if she has to use emotional language to get her followers to give cash donations?
Seems strange she had no time to film any youtube videos as she works 20 hours a day, but found the time to colour code her bookcase?
Jack appears to have been wanting a TV show for sometime as her tweets in Aug 2018 talk about asking for cash donations for a pilot and that she’s booked herself for TV presenter training.
It does appear to be a bit peculiar that she was asking for cash to start a youtube series when bootstrap is her username.
Asking for cash donations for a TV pilot to fund does appear to contradict the blog post she wrote after getting the BBC show. Where she says she was approached dozens and dozens of times for TV work and always said no.
Also it’s worth noting the storm on twitter about giving her a show was because she instigated a series of tweets against Jamie Oliver, not something coming organically.
For years and years my readers – you – have been saying that I should do this, and I have been approached dozens and dozens of times. And every time I turned it down, because I didn’t have the confidence, I didn’t believe in myself, I thought I was too odd and anxious and nervous and that everyones belief in me was misplaced. I know I can write, I do that instinctively, but pointing a camera in my face has been a recipe for disaster, time and time again.
And then, earlier this year, ITV’s This Morning asked me to come on their show. And I dug deep inside myself for some Courage, and I said yes. Again, and again, and again. Here’s me being courageous and enjoying myself making a hash of something in front of an audience of millions.
And then a couple of weeks ago an absolute storm broke out on Twitter, with people suddenly demanding that I have my own show.
Jack Monroe Blog “Some News That Is Good.” 2nd April 2020
Jack asked for people to give her a moment of joy, but from the moment Jamie Oliver’s show was announced she’s gone on a campaign to take away his moment. This is not really in the spirit of be kind.
Jack made a point of telling people to not use her show as a weapon and even names KH (Katie Hopkins) thus helping to reignite flames with her followers.
However was Jack not using Jamie Olivers show as a weapon? It seems hypocritical to now preach about being better following her dozens of deleted tweets.
Jack tweets the daily Mirror after they mention Katie Hopkins alongside an article about her TV show, even though Jack herself has been the one regularly going on about that legal battle for the last 5 years.
Even after getting the BBC One show Jack couldn’t help but reply to followers with digs at Jamie Oliver.
After landing the BBC One show Jack Monroe has gone on a tweet deleting spree. Deleting over 45’000 tweets. This makes it difficult to write this article as only a fraction of her tweets were saved. But from her behaviour on twitter she probably had a lot she wanted to hide. The judge in Hopkins Vs Monroe mentioned how extensively Ms Monroes’s twitter records were deleted.
Look at the last column and how many tweets were deleted around the time Jacks BBC One show was announced.
So many things seemed suspicious like (IIRC don’t sue me Jack) her and her tv exec partner not having insurance because of the trauma she had from once being poor.
No professional person would go on twitter encouraging a bitter pile on of someone if someone far more experienced and qualified got a job they wanted.
Unfortunately this “be kind” sentiment for many people is only applicable when it suits them.
Jamie Oliver was offered a job that he was well qualified for. He did not deserve a pile on for accepting it.
Sadly many people have not seen the full extent of Jacks tweets and only a fraction was saved and able to be shared here. She came across as entitled, jealous and very unprofessional in my opinion.
This tweet many believe is about Jamie Oliver where she appears to minimise the torrent of abuse she initiated and ran with for weeks. Only a fraction of tweets have been saved and uploaded here. It just wasn’t one angry tweet and I think she knew exactly what she was doing to encourage an online pile on.
Since annoying the show Jack has changed her bio and is no longer posting asking for cash donations but the message on every page of her site is still there asking for donations. Her patreon account is still taking money and she’s gained a lot of new supporters that are all donating between $4 and $24 each month.
If backpeddling was an Olympic sport Jack Monroe could take the gold, she’s called her home shitty and shabby many times especially comparing herself to Jamie Oliver and his house. She now posts this after the immunocompromised cook invited the Sunday Times round for dinner recently.
Many newspapers are too scared to run a story on Jack Monroe because on the face of it she’s doing good with her poverty campaigning and she won her libel case with Katy Hopkins, but there are many curious things about her that don’t add up. I think the rest will have to wait for another article.
[totalpoll id=”644″]
Please do let me know what you think of this article in the comments below.
If you would like to discuss some of the things in this article check out the Tattle Life threads for Jack Monroe.
You better delete this ASAP or you’ll regret it. Jack sued Katie Hopkins who ended up loosing her house. You’ll be sorry!
Hello, I most certainly will not be deleting this article. It’s a collection of someone’s (deleted) public social media posts and my opinion on them. I’m no legal expert but I’m confident I have the freedom of opinion over a public figure as part of the rights afforded by the First Amendment. If I’ve made any mistake there wouldn’t be a need for legal action as I would accept it and issue a sincere apology. I welcome any comments for something I may have got wrong so I can update it
How peculiar. I have never followed Jack, but came across her blog when I was actually homeless and living in a hostel or not, depending on the queue. She was walking the walk and talking the talk of skint people but the facts did not add up. You dont need to find rent money if you are on benefits. Rent is paid. And if I hear one more time how she had to remove lightbulbs and unplug the fridge, I’ll scream! She used emotional blackmail to tap into the poor peoples thoughts. But she had no original thoughts or experiences. I’ve not come across her since. My oh my how shes grown! And not in a good way either. Arrogant cow
It’s a public forum in exactly the same way as social media is. People post things and others comment. If somebody with as much influence as Jack sees fit to lambast Jamie Oliver so publicly and implore her 200,000 plus followers on Twitter to begin to target him as they did, when he had done absolutely nothing wrong, then the contents of this article are fair game in my opinion.
The issue you have with it is that the entire article is based on facts. Facts which she chose to put out into the public domain the moment she purged them from her head and scribed them onto social media.
Anyone with even half a brain must realise these days that once you put something out there for all to read and comment, it simply can’t be undone. Nothing is ever truly ‘deleted’ from social media.
Oh, and for the record, I completely agree with what Jack did in response to Katie Hopkins. She’s a vile excuse for a human being and deserved everything she got. But this little situation is completely different. It’s based on FACTS! And the things that Jack has said on social media for the whole world to see. AND COMMENT ON!
Lol was this written by Jules Oliver?
I don’t know who Jack Monroe is (I’m not into the whole influencers thing, I have a vague assumption most of them are all about ego and this pretty much sums up all that’s wrong with social media “celebrity”, if you can call it that.
This is just what I think from reading this article.
Cooking on a budget isn’t a new idea, nor is it specific to one person. Jamie Oliver, for all his faults as a businessman (and some may say on tattle, as a person) is well-known and started his career from nothing too.
It’s frustrating when you think you’d be ideal for a job and someone else gets acclaim for your speciality, but you have choices. You could be gracious about it and wish them well, and still promote yourself (which makes you look like a nice person). Or bitch, moan and swear and watch your followers pile on whilst you cackle about it (which does the opposite – and let’s face it, any glory or ego-massaging you may gain from it will only last a few hours).
Reputations take years to build, and minutes to undo.
It amazes me how lacking in self-awareness and immature these people are.
She’s not an influencer though, she’s a professional author and cook. I feel like you didn’t properly read her tweets and understanding why something like that would be irritating for her – to put 10 years of work into your brand and niche, only for someone to take the idea and get a TV show out of it, because they’re more “established ” than you. To write some angry tweets about it seems like a fairly restrained response.
I’m not a big fan of Jamie Oliver but what Jack has done here is outrageous. It wasn’t just one hot headed tweet but a series of them to try and get her followers to attack him. She’s childish pissing all over his chips then when she gets her show acts all high and mighty hashtag be kind. One tweet can end a career and she’s done a lot more than that. She knew exactly what she did and how her followers would do her dirty work attack him. I’m disappointed that she’s won from behaving this way and gets her goal of a tv show. She doesn’t solely own the rights to cook using cans. If I was her I would be embarassed that it took this to get a TV show. She didn’t get it on merit but because she weaponized her followers to attack channel 4 and Jamie Oliver and get them to flood the BBC. Disgusting behavior Jack! I’m disappointed I once admired you, just because you did something good with Katie Hopkins it doesn’t make you a good person. Both rotten.
Whilst Im personally no fan of Oliver he surely got the job as C4 (as a publisher, not a programme maker) were looking for someone to turn a series round fast and (1) he has a production company,(2) is a hugely experienced presenter and (3) has a many decades long relationship with C4.
Isnt there room for multiple cooks looking at ‘survival’ cooking at present?
I’m not a fan of Jamie Oliver and even less of a fan of Jack Monroe, but I don’t understand why she’s lambasting him for being given the opportunity to do “her” show when it’s hardly as if he would have gone to channel 4 or the BBC and said, ‘give me that tv show so I can rub jack monroe’s nose in it’. – if anything he got the job due to his long standing relationship with channel four and ‘cheeky choppy family friendly’ persona. Ironically she’s probably put herself in a worse position by whining and crying like a toddler all over Twitter – who is going to want someone like that fronting a tv show and representing them?
What a self important fool. She’s a walking contraction that sounds like she invents stuff for attention. Grow up.
Is this bitch for real?? The jollof comment just closed her case. Last time I checked google…that was West Africa’s thing (sorry if I’m wrong)…not jamie oliver’s OR hers. The audacity. She acts as though she’s reinvented the wheel or something. I’ve never seen anything remotely interesting from her. I don’t think I could stomach watching such a self-victimising pathetic fool on my screen. No thanks.
Hmm I’ve never heard of this woman before but she is hardly original. I’m no JO fan either but it does not seem like he deserved all that abuse. Based on what you’ve posted, she comes across as a Bootstrap Markle; conniving, entitled, greedy and full of hissy fits. However I could be wrong.
I was one of the first funders for her kickstarter book. I have several of her books. There’s just something off about the way she tweets. Her books are brilliant but seriously. She lives with a channel 4 producer and she’s skint? I’ve been living well below the poverty line for years. Millions have and yes what she went through was awful but she’s made a very good living from it. She is a massive over sharer and yes if you are alcoholic you need support and if you have adhd you want to talk about it. She’s not the only cook on the planet. She sometimes acts like she is. As for vegan (ish). My view is. You go vegan. You stay vegan. I went vegan a year ago. Why would I be wanting to tuck in to pork belly? I actually only give a patreon donation for animals now. I’ve been stung too many times for crowdfunds and I draw the line at paying someone else’s bills.
Who is this Jack Monroe fellow and why does he think he invented budget cookin?
I’ve been an on-off fan and follower of jack I’ve seen her over exaggerate being skint a few years in and a few books later after she went to America for a holiday. And then was complaining she was cold in her one-bedroom flat using an old Samsung phone, many things she tweets don’t ring true on times and after being piled on by her fans after a reply from her after I posted something on twitter was nasty and downright vicious from her fans. it’s just left me with a disappointed feeling.
She lies about everything. Her health, her money, how she became a mother, she can’t cook either.
A court found she isn’t the liar and somebody else was sued for lying about her.
Oooh ok ‘jack’
Actually the court documents show that the judge literally didn’t believe that she was telling the truth, she wont because Katie didnt show up to court.
Even her “regretful” comment at the end of the article is obnoxious:
‘I’ve written him a proper apology letter but I don’t deserve him acknowledging it.’
This is disingenuous and baiting. If she was actually sorry she would have just apologised and not insinuated that he has ignored it her heartfelt apology. Why include that end sentence? It is so people are outraged and indignant that he hasn’t contacted her, hasn’t accepted her apology, hasn’t made peace. This isn’t her owning her behaviour and making amends. This is her continuing her feud in the guise of an apology.
Everything she writes has a feeling that she is hard done by, the constant victim – yet she is so charitable and hard working and can’t doesn’t deserve it, poor salt of the earth, genuine Jack. What BS.
What people have said is right, her version of events, her tweets about her life don’t make sense. Why is she still broke? She is a best selling author! And I don’t believe for a moment that she allows people to take financial advantage of her. She is an intelligent and wily and knows how to work the media. She lights the touch paper with tweets then deletes them and pleads wide eyed innocence. She doesn’t acknowledge her lousy behaviour.
I think one of the reasons she doesn’t get the TV coverage that she so desires is because she comes across as unpleasant and sneaky.
I think Jack was right. Who needs another rich celeb patronising them about eating when you’re in poverty. Especially when it’s Jamie Oliver who mismanaged his restaurant business so badly, many are now unemployed and in real poverty.
Jack Monroe is the guru of living on a budget and her books are affordable. The last Oliver book I looked at was £26.00, and I find his mockney accent annoying.
Jack was the one who recently came up with the idea of a book with recipes from canned and cheap ingredients, so she should have been given the TV opportunity.
Still no. She isn’t talented enough to do a tv show. Her tv resume is shockingly bad.
How do we get you to do another article?
£20,000 Reward for the location of the person behind tattle life for a name and location .
Jack shouldn’t have been given a show, Jaime was offered it because 1) he’s a chef 2) he’s always worked with tin food, he gets it. But Jack made it like, she was the ONLY person in the world to have thought of this idea. she wasn’t. There are many single mam’s out there doing it tough, they know how to make a meal last, they know how to cook with things from the cupboard, left overs etc. but Jack just made it seem like it was her, that she was only person in the world who thought of it. Jaime no doubt thought it was a good idea etc. Jack didn’t have to do that, she tweeted what she tweeted, and continued, liked tweets of people trolling Jaime and retweeted tweets of people who were just straight up telling Jaime to go do one! while Jack as semi acknowledged her actions and apologised. she still doesn’t get it. like that saying goes ‘some girls get it, some girls don’t’