It’s perfect reality TV fodder and great publicity for him – but his kids? (Picture: Discovery+)
I buried my face in my hands as Jacob Rees-Moggs’ 15-year-old daughter Mary turned to the camera and admitted that she and her family have posh accents.
It’s a moment like many others, that will spawn a thousand memes when Meet The Rees-Moggs airs on Discovery+ from December 2.
The fly-on-the-wall show follows Jacob Rees-Mogg and his family in the run-up to and aftermath of the July 2024 election, which saw the polarising MP lose his North East Somerset and Hanham seat to Labour’s Dan Norris.
Producers must have rubbed their hands with glee when the former Tory MP agreed to allow cameras into his home(s) to film family life.
It’s perfect reality TV fodder and great publicity for him – but his kids? Allowing cameras to film them at home, where they should feel safe and secure, is likely to be a decision he’ll live to regret.
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It’s great television but he should have left the kids out (Picture: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
Their eldest kids, Peter and Thomas, are safely out of the camera’s way at boarding school in episode one, but they are featured on the publicity shots for the show, and I fear that along with his other children – Sixtus, six, Alfred, eight, Anselm, 11 and Mary, 15 – they are at risk of being horrendously bullied.
They may have given their permission to feature in the show, but they are too young to understand the consequences – such as trolling, bullying or just downright embarrassment later down the line.
Children are not an extension of their parents (Picture: Sally Brockway)
When you appear in print or on TV, a past version of yourself is preserved for all eternity. The content is easily accessible, and it can return to haunt you. What if a future employer sees it? Or a new partner?
Children are not an extension of their parents. They rely on adults to protect them and preserve their privacy.
Adults with big egos are welcome to hog the limelight and I admit, I was fascinated to see that the Rees-Moggs have the same nanny, Veronica Cook, who looked after Jacob as a baby (the poor woman looked exhausted) and I sat there open-mouthed at the size of his 17th-century country pile with a seemingly Downton Abbey-sized team of staff: I saw cleaners, ironers, gardeners and an odd-job man.
However, watching the Rees-Moggs children act up for the cameras made me cringe. None of them come across well as, unlike their famous dad, they haven’t had any media training or life experience to draw on. They could end up as collateral damage for his PR purposes.
It’s great television but he should have left the kids out.
Let’s hope, for his sake, that they forgive him.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Source:: Metro
