she was to see Anita “wearing not much more than her underwear"
Anita Rani fired back at comments made by former Woman’s Hour host Dame Jenni Murray, who criticised the TV presenter for “wearing not much more than her underwear” to the Baftas.
Anita attended the awards in May 2024 wearing a floor-length dress made out of transparent mesh fabric with a nude-coloured bodysuit underneath, by designer Rebecca Vallance.
Reacting to Anita’s outfit, Dame Jenni wrote a Daily Mail column expressing how “shocked and horrified” she was to see Anita “wearing not much more than her underwear – probably a bit of both – but my overriding emotion was one of profound disappointment”.
While Dame Jenni called Anita a “trustworthy” presenter, she criticised the host for “jumping on the bandwagon for wearing as little as possible to show off”.
She compared the Countryfile host to Rita Ora, who wore a similar-style dress to the Met Gala.
However, Dame Jenni claimed that Rita Ora “doesn’t have to worry about her reputation as a thinker”, while Anita Rani “does”.
Anita fired back at the criticism, telling The Telegraph that she found Dame Jenni’s argument to be reductive and concerning.
She said: “What was her argument – that Rita Ora can get away with it because no one expects her to have a brain?
“I think it’s a very reductive and quite a strange argument.”
Anita said the world has “moved on” from such ideas, adding:
“How amazing is it that you can have a brain and wear sexy clothes?”
The presenter admitted she was “slightly concerned” that Dame Jenni would make such criticism, since the broadcaster was at the forefront of Woman’s Hour, a radio show that has long championed women expressing themselves on their own terms.
She continued: “It’s really weird, because I’m not the first woman to have worn a dress, but for some reason, me in that dress seemed really interesting.”
Anita highlighted the backlash she received on social media and asked whether there was something about an “Asian woman doing it that has slightly blown people’s minds?” before concluding: “I don’t know.”
She added: “I wonder if people did even see me.
“It’s not that I’m being noticed – they’re just flippin’ seeing me for the first time.
“I think: is it something about the fact that it’s my body in that dress? That it’s an Indian woman who has done something totally unexpected?”
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