Rosie Jones says she carried ‘a lot of guilt’ in her twenties

Richard_Scope

Holly Bishop | Wednesday 26 November 2025 08:26 GMT

Rosie Jones has shared a message to ableists as she reflects on her personal journey of learning to own her disability.

Appearing on Katherine Ryan’s What’s My Age Again? podcast on Monday (24 November), the 35-year-old comedian said she “carried a lot of guilt” during her twenties and would often make excuses “when someone treated me badly”.

Jones, who has cerebral palsy, said now that she is in her thirties, she has a much tougher stance on “ableism and discrimination”.

“That’s on you to educate yourself. Don’t treat me like a lower-class citizen.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/lifestyle/rosie-jones-troll-cerebal-palsy-video-b2872236.html

trouble5316

Nice one rosie

Anhedonia

I really love Rosie Jones. I hope it is appropriate to say, but before I was disabled myself, she helped challenge some perceptions I had about disabled people and particularly those with speech differences. She is so quick and sharp and I love her humour.

trouble5316

I dont bite has no teeth due to my epilepsy

Zippy1983

I had a heck of a lot of respect for Rosie and always found her funny, but that ended with her Channel Four show that she called Am I a R****d….

A documentary supposed to be about online hate speach against disabled people. For a disabled comic to do a documentary about that and use such a derogatory term that offends millions of disabled people worldwide is not acceptable in my opinion.

As someone who was often called that by bullies growing up it really gets my back up, sticks like a knife in the back and makes me angry.

I used to watch the film school of rock and loved the film, right up until I heard Jack Black use the same slur, but this time against a fellow able bodied person.

Lizzo is another person that has used the term s**z in one of her songs, later changing the word out for another word after facing criticism from people with disabilities. Again this is a term I’ve had thrown at me when I was growing up being bullied due to me being different to other kids.

I just find that today’s world is ill informed, poorly educated and have no boundaries.

OverlyAnxious

I didn't mind that word used in the context of the documentary by a disabled person. It was meant to shock people. There's no impact just by asking people not to say something, they need to see the real life reaction to it. I would be interested to see the data on whether that program reduced the use of that particular word online afterwards.

I do feel less comfortable with derogatory words being used in comedy though. Old Ricky Gervais stand-up shows have been shown on a major TV channel recently. Some of the comedy in them feels really uncomfortable now and I am surprised they're showing them in full, albeit with a disclaimer before the program starts. It can be partly put down to the fact they were recorded around 20 years ago. But I do feel that some of the jokes could have been edited out for viewing in the 2020's. One of which involves the charity we're using now, and the name they previously went under.