Stephen Fry ‘free at last’ after leaving Twitter

Stephen Fry has spoken out about his decision to quit Twitter, saying he “doesn’t feel anything other than massive relief” and that he is “free at last”.

Fry posted an explanation on his official website in a piece titled Too Many People Have Peed in the Pool. He quit the social media site following a backlash over his “bag lady” comment at the Bafta awards.

The awards host was hit with abuse when he commented on Jenny Beavan, who won the Bafta for costume design for Mad Max: Fury Road, and her outfit after she had collected her Bafta.

He said: “Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to the awards ceremony dressed like a bag lady.”

Confirming that he had deleted his Twitter account, the QI presenter wrote it was “no big deal” and hinted that his departure from the social networking site may not be permanent.

He wrote: “I like to believe I haven’t slammed the door, much less stalked off in a huff throwing my toys out of the pram as I go or however one should phrase it. It’s quite simple really: the room had started to smell. Really quite bad.”

The actor and presenter reminisced about early days on Twitter and used a pool analogy as he described its decline from “a secret bathing-pool in a magical glade” to a stagnant pool that is “frothy with scum, clogged with weeds and littered with broken glass, sharp rocks and slimy rubbish”.

PA