Katherine Ryan says she “wrestled” together with her conscience over whether or not to work with a male superstar she says she believes “was or is dangerous”.

The Canadian comedian first spoke about an “open secret” within the business again in 2022, telling fellow comedian Sara Pascoe she had confronted the alleged predator whereas filming a TV present with him.

She later reiterated her claims throughout an interview with Louis Theroux.

Ryan has by no means publicly revealed the identify of the alleged abuser, or the identify of the programme she was recording with them.

Speaking about her determination to confront the individual, she instructed Lauren Laverne on Sunday’s Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4: “I had a choice. I could go to work with someone whom I believe to be a perpetrator of sexual assault. Or I could turn down the job.”

Ryan added: “The choice is do I go to work with someone who I think is very problematic and do I stand near them and laugh and smile and look like I allowing this kind of person to still be on television or do I stay home?

“That was actually troublesome for me. That’s what I wrestled with essentially the most, as a result of I consider that this individual was or is harmful.”

She says she “compromised,” deciding: “I’m going to go, however I’m going to let him know underneath no unsure phrases what I consider him.

“I’m not going to just smile and look like I’m allowing this behaviour. I’m not going to let him think that I don’t know and that everybody he works with is just going to let him get away with it.”

Read extra:
Four Weddings star Anna Chancellor’s daughter dies aged 36
Glastonbury Festival announces ticket price hike

She instructed Laverne she had obtained “pushback” following the revelation, however stated folks had been asking her to offer the names of the alleged feminine victims moderately than the male comedian himself.

She stated she additionally nonetheless questions herself about her determination: “Did I do the right thing or the wrong thing? I still don’t know.”

When requested by Laverne how the unnamed man reacted, Ryan stated: “he didn’t have much of a reaction… He certainly didn’t have an obvious reaction”.

But she stated that the response from these round her had been optimistic: “People really liked what I said. I think they thought that it was funny and courageous”.

Ryan stated that whereas some folks might have questioned whether or not or not she was joking, she was lethal critical, telling Laverne: “Certainly the people who know, know that I wasn’t joking.”

She additionally spoke concerning the wider comedy scene, saying that when she first began out on comedy panel present 8 Out of 10 Cats she “didn’t really feel intimidated by the men,” however made the choice to be her “authentic” self and “never subscribed to these ideas of what a woman should be”.