Bob Geldof criticised for repeatedly misgendering Sam Smith during This Morning interview

Bob Geldof has been criticised for repeatedly misgendering Sam Smith during his recent This Morning interview.

Hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield haven't come out unscathed either, as viewers also questioned why they didn't step in to correct him.

The 71-year-old singer appeared on yesterday's episode (23 February) of the ITV show to discuss how his band, The Boomtown Rats, is dedicating their remastered single 'No Tomorrow Like Today' to their late guitarist Garry Roberts, who passed away last November.

But when the conversation turned to Smith, who came out as non-binary in September 2019 and uses they/them pronouns, Geldof repeatedly referred to the 'Unholy' singer as he/him.

The conversation came up when the three were talking about the Geldof-led festive song 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', and how its group of singers has changed over the years.

Band Aid

"Throughout the years, we've put it out again, I mean, and if you looked at that, the official versions, you really do have the roster of great British rock and roll starting with Sting as a kid, Bono just breaking through, Simon Le Bon, you know, Boy George, George Michael," he said.

"And then you come to the Band Aid 20, and you've got Thom Yorke from Radiohead, Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn, The Darkness, all these other bands.

"And then up to the last one, which was, you know, kids starting off – Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, 1D."

He went on to share an anecdote about Smith and how they kept mixing up the new lyrics with the old ones because the song is so well-known.

Geldof continued: "At the microphone, he had his eyes closed and he was singing away to the song and [I said] 'Sam, they're not the words.'

"He goes, 'Oh, yeah, sorry,' because we'd rewritten the words for the Ebola crisis in West Africa. And he said, 'Yes, sorry,' and so off he goes, he closed his eyes again.

"They start singing the original words. I said, 'Sam,' and he goes, 'Yeah, sorry, every year in school I had to sing that song'."

ITV

And a number of people have taken to Twitter to slam the clip, with one writing: "Not Bob Geldof repeatedly misgendering Sam Smith on live telly and the evil Holly and Phil not correcting him."

Another said it 'made them mad', while a third asked why 'Holly and Phil didn't tell Bob' that he was misgendering the singer.

While others have defended the frontman, including this person who said: "Probably was he/him when working with Bob. It's not like he's doing it maliciously."

LADbible has contacted a rep for Geldof and ITV for comment.