Strictly Come Dancing star Pasha Kovalev has spoken out about the online trolling against his wife, Rachel Riley, and his fears for how this could affect both her and their unborn child.
The Countdown favourite is regularly the subject of vile anti-semitic trolling, with online abuse becoming so bad that she revealed her first child, Maven, "stopped wriggling for a couple of days" when she was pregnant with her.
Speaking to The Mirror, Pasha has said he is now worried about the welfare of his wife, who is currently pregnant with their second child, as the bullying rages on.
"I definitely can see how it stresses her. The smallest stress affects how the baby's development is going," he said.
Advert
"If you come up to someone on the street and tell them something like that, you're probably going to get some sort of repercussion. You'd be held accountable for your actions.
"Online there's a limited amount of repercussion, and it opens a floodgate. It should be stopped."
Rachel started getting trolled after vocally criticising the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and speaking out on the anti-antisemitism row within the party.
Advert
However, the hate has now spun far beyond this issue, with the TV star's social media flooded with cruel messages every day.
Rachel and Pasha are already parents to Maven, 16 months, and announced her second pregnancy earlier this month.
The couple broke the exciting news with a cryptic tweet posted on Riley's account, in which she left fans guessing at an anagram.
It read: FITTRILEY, which translated as 'FERTILITY'. Alongside the Countdown board, Rachel grinned and clutched her stomach.
Rachel and Pasha started dating in 2014, when they appeared on Strictly together, and got married in 2019. Pasha has since left the series, after eight years of appearing on the show.
Advert
Rachel shot to fame when she joined Countdown in 2009 - replacing the show's longtime maths genius Carol Vorderman.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Pregnancy, Celebrity News, Health