Rylan Clark-Neal forced to pull out from Eurovision coverage due to sickness
Scott Mills, who is hosting the Eurovision semi-finals, said Rylan Clark-Neal had pulled out of the gig due to sickness, with Sara Cox stepping in to replace him
Scott Mills appeared on Lorraine on Tuesday ahead of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday in Rotterdam, with the semi-finals airing on Wednesday.
Radio 1 presenter Scott is hosting the semi-finals alongside Sara Cox and Chelcee Grimes, after Rylan Clark-Neal was forced to pull due to sickness.
The TV host, who came off social media recently due to horrific trolling, also pulled out in 2018 when his husband Dan Neal fell ill.
Scott was discussing the upcoming show, which will have an audience of limited numbers amongst its Covid measures.
"We are not going this year, normally it would be me and the lovely Rylan doing it, but he is not very well - not Covid!" Scott explained.
"He is just feeling very under the weather, so the brilliant Sara Cox is doing the first of the semi-finals."
Sara Cox said on her BBC 2 Radio Show: "I’m really excited, I’ve got a new little job this week. I will be co-hosting the Eurovision semi-finals on BBC Four tomorrow night and Thursday night.
"Rylan is unwell, so obvs we wish him better. So I’ll be stepping into Rylan’s sparkly tux tomorrow and Thursday, 8pm, BBC Four, all the action from the Eurovision semi-finals.
"I’ll also be rekindling the flames of fun with my old Eurovision mucker Scott Mills, and we’ll be joined by Chelcee Grimes and many guests as well."
A spokesperson told BBC: "Unfortunately Rylan is unwell so won’t be providing commentary for the upcoming Eurovision Semi Finals on BBC Four, however Eurovision superfan Sara Cox will be joining Scott Mills and Chelcee Grimes live in London bringing viewers all the action from the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam tonight & later this week."
In March, Rylan revealed that he was taking a break from social media after being left "enraged" by constant trolling online as he labelled the use of social media a "drug".
The star said he would often find himself scrolling endlessly on Twitter and getting upset by the hateful comments.
"I love social media, social media is not only lucrative when it comes down to money, it's brilliant for communication, there are so many plus sides to it," he said on the Sorted with the Dyers podcast.
Rylan went on: "But I found in the last three weeks, me looking at my phone, looking at my feed, looking at what is trending more so and I'm just getting to that point where I'm thinking this is a f***ing sewer.
"This is an absolute sewer. I feel like I could Tweet 'the sky is blue' and I would have 2 million people back and claim it's every other colour under the sun.
"And the worst thing about it, they would believe that and that's their truth. I'm getting to that point where I don't want to be a part of this because it actually enrages me."
* Lorraine airs weekdays on ITV at 9am
