Richard Madeley has hit out at Madonna after the singer made him wait “six hours” for a television interview.
The presenter has spoken about the incident on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, recalling being furious that he was forced to wait until the early hours to get to speak to the Queen of Pop.
“I was so angry,” he told his co-host Susannah Reid, explaining that the interview, which was “years ago”, “didn’t start until about one in the morning”.
When Reid asked whether the interview was “worth waiting for”, he replied: “No it wasn’t, actually. She was weird”.
It comes as Madonna is being sued for late starts to her concerts, with three fans claiming that the singer broke the law by arriving on stage two hours late at a pair of gigs at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. in December.
The complaint, which also names entertainment giant Live Nation as a defendant, claims that the delayed starts to the ‘Celebration Tour’ concerts constitute “a wanton exercise in false advertising”.
Lawyers for the fans wrote: “Forcing consumers to wait hours for her performance in a hot, uncomfortable arena is demonstrative of Madonna’s arrogant and total disrespect for her fans.
“In essence, Madonna and Live Nation are a consumer’s worst nightmare.”
They added: “This complaint is not about unhappy fans who don’t want to stay up late, but instead, reasonable, responsible people who had commitments to babysitters, work, getting their vehicles out of parking lots that closed at 12:00 midnight, and realising that public transportation would no longer be operating.”
According to the suit, the Queen Of Pop told those in attendance: “I am sorry I am late… no, I am not sorry, it’s who I am… I’m always late.”
Recently, Madonna asked the court to dismiss a similar lawsuit filed against her in New York on the grounds of late concert start times.
The star and Live Nation’s lawyers argued that “no reasonable concertgoers – and certainly no Madonna fan – would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time”.
Additionally, they said fans could not take legal action over something they knew about when they purchased their tickets.
