It is a cliche of breakfast television that while everyone involved is all smiles and cosiness for the cameras, there are often daggers drawn backstage. At BBC Breakfast in recent months, they’ve barely managed the on-screen warmth: the on-screen chemistry between presenters Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt can now best be described as glacial.
But that seems to be barely the half of it. The programme’s editor Richard Frediani has been on an “extended period of leave” after historical allegations of aggressive behaviour at work were aired in the Sun. Some colleagues rallied to his defence soon afterwards in the Times, alongside allegations of “inappropriate comments” made by Munchetty.
Public rows, though, tend to damage everyone involved. Munchetty had reportedly been in talks with both LBC and Sky News – the latter for a time particularly keen on her replacing the departing Kay Burley. But both roles are believed to have fallen through amid the media civil war at Breakfast, leading onlookers to fear that thanks to having their rows in public, everyone concerned is now stuck with each other.
