Paddy McGuinness reveals how he copes with abuse from trolls on social media
Paddy McGuinness has insisted he has learned not to take social media too seriously.
The Top Gear presenter - who announced his split from wife Christine McGuinness in the summer - said he copes with internet trolls by not paying attention to their negative opinions.
McGuinness told The Daily Star: “If you look on any kind of social media, everyone has got an opinion on everything. And the thing is these days, everyone likes to share that opinion.
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“A lot of people spend a lot of time on social media. You can get praised, you can get slagged off. There is something for everyone. But if you buy into it too much, it’s not good.
“We’re in this world where pretty much most things on Twitter can be misconstrued into something negative. I’m not just on about telly, that goes for anything.”
“Luckily for me, I’ve been doing this job for over 20 years. So I was involved in TV before social media.
“I’ve seen it all happen and I’m aware of it. So I don’t buy into it much to be honest.”
The 49-year-old Question Of Sport host has 580k followers on Twitter and 2m on Instagram and is very active on social media.
He said: “I like to surround myself with people who I can have a bit of dialogue with and a conversation.
“I want to listen to people’s thoughts and opinions if they’re done in the right way. Other than that, it’s just social media.”
Paddy and estranged wife Christine, 34, tied the knot in June 2011 and have three children together – nine-year-old twins Leo and Penelope and six-year-old daughter Felicity.
They confirmed their split in July amid rumours that their relationship was on the rocks.
Before their split the pair hosted documentary Paddy And Christine: Our Family And Autism for the BBC, which was nominated for a National Television Award.
Christine said ahead of the awards: "I'm really anxious, I'm quite nervous just because of everything, obviously it's not the best situation.
Read more: Christine McGuinness says she's 'really not fine' after Paddy split
"But I haven't done anything wrong and I know what a big difference the documentary made and I know how hard the whole team worked on it so I'm going to and try and hold my head up high and just enjoy the night."
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