By Mary Mrad for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 10:05 PM EDT, March 22, 2024 | Updated: 10:05 PM EDT, March 22, 2024

A disabled pedestrian jailed for causing the death of a cyclist in the street has been released on unconditional bail after winning the right to challenge her manslaughter conviction.

Auriol Gray is ‘excited’ to be back home and was welcomed with ‘big hugs’ from supportive neighbors and after doing a supermarket shop.

She was jailed for three years in March last year for aggressively waving at a retired midwife who then fell into the path of an oncoming car, killing her.

Polite and well-spoken, Gray confirmed to MailOnline today that she was now back home, but refused to say how she was feeling or answer questions, simply saying: ‘No comment.’

Her good friend Roman Ramsay, who bailed her out, said: “We are so happy that Auriol is back home and it is really nice to see her again. She should never have been in jail in the first place.”

He added: “She is happy to get bail.”

Another friend and neighbor Robert Reed told our website: ‘She was granted bail and left jail last night.

‘I welcomed her home and we had a quick cuddle before she went to the Aldi store to buy some stuff.

“One of our friends got her out of jail and we’re all so happy she’s back. She is in good spirits and happy to be home.”

She had spent a year behind bars at HMP Peterborough.

Gray returned to her adapted flat in a gated complex in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, owned and maintained by the Papworth Trust, which had been ‘sparklingly cleaned’ by her neighbours.

Mr Ramsey said Gray, now 50, was also “pleased and relieved” at the prospect of her name being cleared if her appeal was successful, and had told friends: “I’m not a murderer!”

After three judges at the Court of Appeal this week allowed her to challenge her conviction, he said: ‘Auriol was very angry about being in prison in the first place.’

The retired stonemason, 78, who regularly visited her in prison and last saw her inside on Saturday, said: ‘Her friends, family and neighbors all thought it was completely ridiculous that she had been convicted of manslaughter and given a custodial sentence.

“So did she, and she has always maintained that she is not a murderer.”

A spokesperson for the Criminal Appeal Office told MaiOnline: ‘Auriol Gray has been granted unconditional bail pending her appeal against the conviction.

‘She has been released. It is expected that the appeal will be heard in May 2024.”

Gray, who suffers from cerebral palsy and partial blindness, denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial.

She lost her appeal against her sentence in May last year, but has since hired new lawyers who took her case to the Court of Appeal in London.

Mr Ramsey said: ‘She feared she would lose her flat after receiving a three-year prison sentence, but fortunately she was not deprived of that sentence.

“She has been looking forward to the thought of coming home.

‘We prepared it for her with great anticipation, it has been cleaned and it shines!

“She has many friends and neighbors here who care about her and will care for her, and we will all give her a warm welcome.

“She also has caregivers who help.”

He added: ‘She is pleased with the appeal hearing and the fact that her conviction could be overturned.

‘She just wants to get on with her life.

‘She was not present at the hearing but was allowed to watch the proceedings via video link from the Governor’s office at HMP Peterborough.’

Gray has few surviving relatives – her mother Verna Gray, 87, from Sudbury, Suffolk, is not in the ‘best of health’ and has rarely been able to visit her in prison.

She has a businessman brother-in-law who lives in Chiswick, West London.

Her father and sister are both deceased.

Gray was caught on CCTV gesturing to grandmother Celia Ward, 77, while shouting at her to ‘get off the sidewalk’ in Huntingdon in October 2020.

A spokesman for the Criminal Appeal Office said: ‘This case was heard on Tuesday and the application for leave to appeal against a conviction was granted.

“A new hearing date will be set in due course for the final outcome of the appeal.

“The court has granted the lawyer the liberty to file a bail application.”

Ben Rose, of lawyers at Hickman & Rose, who are representing Gray, said: ‘Auriol Gray is an autistic, disabled person with reduced vision.

“In a case like this, the prosecutor must prove to the jury that she intended to harm, or feared harm, to Ms. Ward.

‘We say this did not happen and will therefore ask the Court of Appeal to quash Ms Grey’s conviction when the case is heard in May.’

Mr Ramsey told how Gray had appeared ‘in good spirits’ whenever he visited her – and before he was released yesterday.

He said: ‘She has been inside for a year and is doing well considering the circumstances. She is well cared for in a special wing because of her needs, keeps her head down and does not cause any problems.

“She is a smart and very literate lady and instead of going crazy inside, she has put her mind to good use.

“She is always reading and taking quizzes, and even learning advanced math from another inmate.

‘She has a lot of knowledge and the people there are amazed at what she knows.

‘But she can’t wait to get out of prison and get on with her life.

“She feels like she has been wronged.”

SHOPPING – Contains related content. The products in this article have been selected by our writers. If you make a purchase through the links on this page, Daily Mail Australia will earn an affiliate commission. Click here For more information.

Forget unappetizing gray meat or questionable fish, now thousands of Aussies are enjoying it premium meat and seafood delivered straight to your homethanks to a ‘revolutionary’ service.

Shoppers say they ‘save money’ and ‘eat better’ with sustainably and ethically sourced meats such as beef, lamb, pork, as well as poultry and seafood from ButcherCrowd.

The company, that is the highest rated food brand on productreview.com.auoffers subscription boxes of restaurant-quality meat and wild-caught fish, delivered free to your home.

By working directly with Australian farming and fishing families and delivering directly to customers, ButcherCrowd can offer high quality products at competitive prices because there is no middleman.

ButcherCrowd products are non-GMO, free from antibiotics and does not use hormones for growth promotion. They’re also sustainably sourced and certified humanely raised and handled, and the company has built a legion of loyal fans. with over 400 five-star reviews online.

One satisfied customer wrote: ‘I have been receiving Butcher crowd boxes for several months now and I will never go back to supermarket meat. Their customer service is excellent and their meat is delicious. Can’t recommend it enough.’

Another enthused: ‘Couldn’t be happier. Excellent quality. You will notice the difference through cooking and tasting. When cooking you will notice that the meat or fish is not filled with water to make it heavier, so you pay more for less. Overall fantastic.”

A third said: ‘Worth every penny. I’ve been buying ButcherCrowd boxes for almost a year now. The quality cannot even be compared to supermarket meat and the money goes directly to the farmers. We save more financially than impulse purchases in the store.’

Customers can choose between putting together their own boxes or selecting curated boxes based on their preferences and the products to be selected include grass-fed and finished beef and lamb, pasture-raised chicken and pork and 100 percent wild-caught seafood.

With items such as wild salmon burger patties, beef brisket, Scottish fillet steak, pork tenderloin chops, chicken wings and chorizo, there are plenty of options to choose from.

With what items starting at $4.89 per mealThe service offers great value for money and customers can select small boxes, suitable for two to three people, or large boxes, for four to five people, and choose delivery options on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly or bi-monthly basis.

There are options to skip, pause, or cancel your subscription at any time so you aren’t locked into a contract.

ButcherCrowd is offering Daily Mail Australia readers free steak for a yearplus two free steaks in their first box and you can see the details here.

The company was founded by brothers Damien and Rob Moffatt, who grew up on the Atherton Tablelands and grew up eating meat straight from the family farm.

The former pilots were grounded by Covid when the idea arose ButcherCrowd came about when they found themselves buying meat for family and friends.

A spokesperson for ButcherCrowd explained: ‘Damien and Rob couldn’t find meat on the market that was sustainably produced and affordable, and that’s how ButcherCrowd was born.

‘They deliver what is important: quality, affordability, convenience, the guarantee that products are sustainably produced, humanely grown and of course taste delicious and are accessible to everyone.’

For more information about ButcherCrowd or to take advantage of the exclusive steak deal for Daily Mail Australia readers, click here.

The cast of Sweet Home Alabama has made many comments about the possibility of a sequel to the 2002 film.

The rom-com starring Reese Witherspoon, Jos Lucas And Patrick Dempsey was a box office success upon release, and over twenty years later it continues to charm fans. The story follows Melanie Smooter (Witherspoon), a successful fashion designer in New York City who adopted the last name “Carmichael” to hide her poor Southern roots. After wealthy politician Andrew Hennings (Dempsey) proposes, Melanie returns home to Alabama to finalize her divorce from Jake Perry (Lucas), her first love whom she has known since childhood.

Melanie reconnects with her roots when her real past is revealed to Andrew, and she finds her way back to Jake.

In addition to the top actors, there is also a supporting cast Dakota Fanningwho plays a 10-year-old Melanie, Fred Ward, Mary Kay Place, Jean Slim, Candice Bergen, Ethan Embry And Melanie Lynskey.

Keep reading to see what the cast said about a possible sequel.

Reese Witherspoon

In 2022, Witherspoon responded to the idea of ​​a sequel Hoda Kotb asked if the film would ever get a “reboot” during the actress’ appearance Today.

“I hope so. I think that would be a great idea,” Witherspoon said at the time. Cohost Jenna Bush Hager then asked if the actress would star in the potential film.

“Maybe. I don’t know. That sounds fun. Would you like me to do that?” Witherspoon said before responding to the hosts’ positive comments. “Okay, I’ll just make a call,” she joked.

Before that, Witherspoon confirmed that she would “joyfully” remake the iconic film.

“I love Sweet Home Alabama!” she said during a Facebook Live chat in August 2016. “As far as I know we’re not making a sequel, but if Disney wants to call me I’d be happy to make a sequel.” Sweet House Alabama 2!”

Jos Lucas

“Look, I would love to do the sequel,” Lucas said during a July 2023 appearance on SiriusXM’s Pop culture in the spotlight with Jessica Shaw. “And I say that with a laugh, but Reese is, you know, I’ve heard like, ‘Oh, you can talk to her about stuff in five years.’ You know, she’s a mogul.’

The actor continued: “And while I was still working Sweet Home AlabamaI remember for some reason I told the director or someone else who was talking about her, but I said, “I bet this woman is going to run a movie studio one day.” And right now she’s even further than that. … I mean, it’s extraordinary and not surprising at all.”

Andy Tenant

Tennant, Sweet Home Alabama‘s director, developed a sequel concept where “Reese’s character and Melanie Lynskey’s character take their kids on a college tour,” he shared. Business insider in 2022.

“Reese’s daughter, Ava, went to school with my son, so I saw Reese occasionally. … When the movie came out thirteen to fourteen years later, I started thinking about where they would all be. Where are those four characters now: Melanie, Jake, Andrew, and Melanie Lynskey’s character, Lurlynn? Tennant explained. “My kids were going to college, so it got me thinking about a new generation of kids going to school and young love, and what that would do to parents when they see their kids being real adults. If the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, what does Melanie’s daughter look like?”

However, Tennant admitted that Witherspoon probably hasn’t seen his script, adding, “Even Reese’s lawyer loved the treatment, but that’s as close as I got.”

Dakota Fanning

The actress fueled speculation about the sequel after commenting on Witherspoon’s Instagram account in 2021. Witherspoon posted a photo of Sweet Home Alabama with the caption: “Do you remember what she said?”

Fanning gave the correct answer: “The truth is, I gave my heart away a long time ago, all my heart, and I never really got it back.”

Witherspoon made fans swoon when she replied, “I love you little Melanie.”

Experts have warned of a trend where people on social media are trying to renew their sofas with paint.

The trend is trending on TikTok and Instagram reels with over 29.7 million views as creative fans try to save money with their DIY projects.

Videos filmed by TikTokers in the UK show them splashing multiple layers of paint onto their sofas before scrubbing and sanding to achieve an even finish.

But while sofa makeovers may look good at first, experts have warned that they will soon become ‘dry, uneven and crusty’, and people risk ruining an ‘expensive canvas’.

Molly Mackinder, 25, who lives in Essex, shared her sofa makeover in a videoas she changed it from light blue to cream.

Molly mixed four parts water with one part chalk, before spraying the fabric with water and painting on the mixture. She went over it with a sanding sponge to work the paint in and added additional layers before going over it again with sandpaper.

The DIYer said she was ‘happy’ with how it turned out, but admitted the makeover had left it ‘patchy in places’.

She wrote on her TikTok account @mackingahouseahome: ‘Painting a sofa?!! I’m glad I did it because it saved me the purchase of a new couch and I’m happy with how it turned out… but I probably wouldn’t do it again.

“It took SO much paint and took forever waiting for the fabric to dry between each coat!”

Meanwhile, Emma Carberry, from Glasgow, who runs interior design company Form And Balance, said she turned to the sofa painting trend because she wanted a ‘sumptuous sofa’ but only had a second-hand one to work with.

She transformed her gray coach using a deep olive green and said a ‘little TLC’ had made it look ‘iconic’ while saving ‘a fortune in soft furnishing costs’.

While people in the comments were clearly convinced – praising the makeovers as ‘stunning’ and ‘so good!’, experts have warned those at home not to rush out to get out their own brushes.

Michael Rolland of The Paint Shed warned that painting is not a ‘simple hack’ and said: ‘DIY sofa painting is all the rage on TikTok with viral videos showing a fun, simple, eco-friendly and affordable way to redesign your furniture.

‘However, this could be one of those trends where what you see is usually not what you get. The only easy thing about painting a sofa is that it’s easy to make big mistakes, which can lead to unnecessary costs.

‘People expect their painted sofas to look like real quality pieces, but that is not the case with this trend. Fabric paint, even the good stuff, is unlikely to cover up any wear or imperfections.

‘It’s even less likely to feel like the material of a brand new piece of furniture. Preventing paint from becoming dry, uneven and crusty is much more difficult than Tiktokers show.

“A sofa is a very expensive canvas that you can ruin, and this is almost inevitable without experience or expertise.”

If you still want to update your sofa, Michael advised that there are easier and more cost-effective ways to breathe new life into it.

Less risky options include sewing a removable cover, purchasing a slipcover, or investing in quality pillows.

Mary rose to fame in 2007 with the start of the TV program Mary Queen of Shops, in which she helped failing high streets.

She was then appointed by then Prime Minister David Cameron to lead an independent inquiry into the future of the high street in 2011.

Mary’s brother Lawrence Newton provided the sperm to conceive Horatio with Melanie’s egg through IVF.

“Honestly, I don’t know which kid is the most high-maintenance!” Mary told the Daily Mail in 2015, adding that she actually finds taking care of her older children more challenging than her youngest.

‘The [then] The 19-year-old is back from her gap year and will be heading to college this fall. I spend so much time providing emotional and loving guidance, it is much more emotionally draining than the three year old!’

Mary also explained her close relationship with her brother Lawrence, who she previously revealed in 2015 fathered her child with Melanie.

‘When you experience the death of a parent, you stick together like glue. So we were always close,” she explained.

“We’re family, that’s it… I’m a mother, I’m a businesswoman, I have kids, I have family, I happen to live with another woman and she had a child who happens to be my brother’s. The more I can normalize that, the better the world will be.”

‘It is much more emotionally difficult to deal with daughters. “I was very happy to have another son,” she admitted.

‘I don’t want to offend my daughter, who I love, but they are all for it. It’s all those emotions that young girls go through.

“From the acceptance of their friends to the way they look, there’s a huge amount of pressure on them that boys don’t have.”

But the unconventional circumstances of Horatio’s conception have their origins long before all this. They are set in the tragic childhood in which Portas was effectively orphaned at the age of 16 – and became a surrogate mother for Lawrence, now the surrogate mother of her child.

When she and her brother first carried the baby into the west London sunshine, outside St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, they could have been forgiven for thinking about this extraordinary life cycle. Or as Portas puts it: ‘I know now that it could only have been Lawrence who was Horatio’s father.’

To fully understand these words, it is necessary to turn back the clock forty years, to the time when the multi-millionaire retail and branding consultant was a feisty sixteen-year-old who dreamed of becoming a famous actress and hoped to take up a career . a place at RADA.

That all changed suddenly and irrevocably when her mother, also named Mary, died of meningitis in 1977.

While Portas’ three older siblings were already on the verge of leaving the family’s dilapidated semi-detached house in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, her grief-stricken father found solace in another woman. Portas had to take care of 14-year-old Lawrence. washes his clothes and feeds him, while she struggles to come to terms with her own broken heart.

She may have achieved celebrity status through her TV series Mary, Queen Of Shops, not to mention her role as an adviser to David Cameron on the future of the High Street, but Portas’s beginnings were far more humble than her rich life today would suggest.

Her parents were immigrants from Northern Ireland; her red-haired, green-eyed mother, Mary Flynn, was a laundress and her father, Sam Newton, was a bus conductor. Both were fiercely ambitious and encouraged their five children to study hard in their Catholic schools.

While Sam later became a factory manager for Brooke Bond, his wife devoted herself to raising her children, Michael, Patricia, Joe, Mary and Lawrence.

The sudden loss of their mother – wrongly diagnosed with menopausal depression even as she was dying – was compounded by the reaction of their father who, after throwing himself over their mother’s body sobbing, declared that there was nothing left to live for. .

However, he quickly replaced his wife with another after meeting office worker Rebecca at a social club for widows and widowers.

He then sold the family home despite the fact that young Mary, who had barely left school, and Lawrence, who was still a student, were still living there. Both became homeless and Mary developed a fierce independence and self-sufficiency that is still so evident today.

Everything in the house was sold or simply disappeared. She has no photos to commemorate her mother, only a cookbook and a statue of a saint.

Despite Lawrence’s love of music, he was actually instructed by his father to join the police force, largely because he would be given accommodation at the training school in Hendon.

But despite her own ordeal, the ever-capable Portas was never far from her younger brother’s side. She quit her course at RADA because she couldn’t cope financially or emotionally, and devoted herself to caring for them both.

In fact, she sacrificed her dreams of becoming an actress to become Lawrence’s surrogate mother, not knowing that one day he would step in and thank her in the most poignant way imaginable, by becoming a surrogate mother for her to become a child after deciding he hadn’t. I don’t want any from himself.

“We are so close,” she told The Times this weekend. “Our bond will never change, will never change.”

Meanwhile, Portas grew up having unequivocally heterosexual relationships and romantic feelings for men she met, eventually marrying chemical engineer Graham Portas after meeting him in a wine bar.

By then, she had achieved significant career success. After attending Watford College Of Art, Portas began her career in retail in the early 1980s with a Saturday job at John Lewis before moving to Harrods where she gained her first experience in window display design.

She moved to Topshop before being poached by London department store Harvey Nichols, where her exceptionally creative window displays made her the talk of London. At the age of thirty she was a board member.

For a while, it seemed that her professional success was accompanied by domestic happiness. Her son Mylo, now 21, was born in 1994. Her daughter Verity, now 19, almost two years later.

But slowly the relationship began to fall apart and the couple divorced in 2003, very amicably, after 13 years of marriage. She has since described those years as “some of the best years of my life… we just grew apart, and that happens.”

It wasn’t long after that Portas met Melanie Rickey, a fashion magazine editor, at a Royal College Of Art dinner, and the pair fell for each other almost immediately.

Until that point, Portas had never considered a relationship with a woman – “I certainly wasn’t a repressed lesbian,” she later reflected – and insists her love for Rickey took her by surprise, adding: “She gives the world complete love . and it’s the most refreshing, beautiful thing there is.’

Rickey also had not come out as gay before meeting Portas. But their relationship soon became both public and serious, making them Britain’s most high-profile lesbian couple.

The couple had a civil ceremony in 2010 and began IVF the following year, with Melanie carrying the child as she was the younger woman.

They were among the first same-sex couples to convert that partnership into marriage on December 9 last year, when Portas took Melanie out for dinner and then surprised her by going to the Westminster Register Office at midnight, where their family and Horatio were waiting for them.

Today they share a £5 million home in London’s Primrose Hill with Portas’ eldest children, Mylo and Verity. Portas’ ex-husband, the first person she told about Melanie, is a regular at the dinner. Melanie also spoke this week about the unusual circumstances surrounding Horatio’s birth and emphasized that she had no qualms about Portas making it public.

“Gay people get married and have children, so I don’t think there’s any downside to sharing the information,” she told the Observer.

“We’re simply sharing something that feels very normal to us as a family, and if it inspires people or makes them think differently – or even if it changes their perception of ‘normal’ – then that can only be a positive thing.”

But while Horatio’s legal mother is Britain’s leading retail and branding expert, his biological father is a bit quieter.

Despite embarking on a career as a police officer, he has recently worked as a bar manager for his eldest brother, successful entrepreneur Michael Newton.

Indeed, Portas and her siblings remain close and very protective of each other.

While Lawrence worked for his eldest brother, he lived for several years with another brother, Joe, in North London.

For the past three months, he has been living with Portas, Melanie and their children in her beautiful London home, where toddler Horatio takes turns addressing each other as Mom, Mom and Dad Lawrence.

But Lawrence is about to emigrate to Bermuda to start a new life with his girlfriend.

Portas, who says she watched her brother struggle for years after their mother’s death, says that as Lawrence coped by taking control and trying to micro-manage everything, “walked away” and “became the hedonist later in her life.

And the anger she felt as a child only grew as her own children grew up. This week, she recalled, “I look at these two kids and think, ‘Jesus! That was me coming home to do all the cooking. That’s you, Laurens. This is simply criminal.’ And I mourned this 14-year-old boy – and I guess I mourned the 16-year-old girl that I was.

‘I had no life for five years. It was a gray world, a very gray world.’

But the anger she once felt toward her father, who died suddenly of a heart attack the same year he remarried and left everything to his second wife, has been soothed thanks to years of therapy, not to mention the birth of Horatio.

Referring to her book, she said: ‘With all the trauma in it, this is a beautiful, happy little world.’

In an extract from her autobiography Shop Girl, published this week in The Times, she uses the present tense as she recalls the existence she and Lawrence built together as teenagers home alone without an adult to guide them.

“Together we have created our own way of being,” she writes. She might as well be describing the present. For while the choices she has made may seem unconventional, it seems clear that after years of private pain, Portas fought her own way to a happy ending that also involved the beloved younger brother she always promised to care for .

Dan Schneider has defended his relationship with a teenage Amanda Bynes and revealed he supported her decision to pursue parental emancipation aged 16.

The producer, 58, who has faced numerous allegations of inappropriate behavior  on the set of children’s TV shows, spoke out in the wake of documentary Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV – which made shock claims about the ‘toxic environment’ at the network.

Schneider, who was disturbingly filmed in a hot tub with a then-16-year-old Bynes in 2002, said he helped Bynes after she ran away from home and was ‘concerned for her safety’ when she decided to leave her parents.

Speaking with former iCarly actor Bobby ‘BooG!e’ Bowman on his own YouTube account, Schneider said of Bynes’ decision: ‘She wanted that for herself. We supported her.  

‘Amanda was between the ages of 16 and 17 and she wanted to get emancipated from her parents, which was a fairly common thing with successful young actors — at least at the time.

‘She wanted that for herself, so she turned to her team, which included her lawyer, her agent, her manager, her publicist, me — because she included me as part of her team, thought of me that way. 

‘We supported her, she tried to get emancipated and it ended up not working out and she didn’t.’

Schneider claimed matters came to a head one night when Bynes called him following a row with her parents – which led him to call a person he trusted to take her to the police.

He said: ‘One night very late, well after midnight, 1 or 2 in the morning, phone rang, I answered, it was Amanda.

‘She was upset. She was in distress. She had had some conflict with her parents, I think her father, and she called me. I was immediately concerned about her safety. 

‘I called someone that I knew was fairly nearby. That person was able to go and pick her up. I knew she was safe, I felt better. She ended up being taken to the police.’

Bynes did pursue legal emancipation from her parents Lynn and Rick – but later withdrew the petition. 

The 19-minute video saw Schneider discuss Quiet On Set, released at the weekend, which he said had made him ‘face his past behaviors.’

Schneider admitted that had previously overstepped professional boundaries and conceded he owed ‘some people a pretty strong apology.’

Schneider, who was previously described as ‘Nickelodeon’s golden boy,’ began by addressing the furor head on as he explained: ‘Watching over the past two nights was very difficult. 

‘Me facing my past behaviors – some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.’

Schneider, who began working at the network in 1993, is said to have ‘launched the careers of child actors who became major stars’ including Miranda Cosgrove, Jamie Lynn Spears and Ariana Grande.

But he was later flooded with allegations before being sued over accusations of gender discrimination, hostile work environment and harassment – many of which were divulged in the new documentary.

It wasted little time in dishing that the period of the 1990s and 2000s ‘marked one of the darkest chapters,’ writer Scaachi Koul said.

Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen were hired as co-writers for The Amanda Show and split a single salary – as the network got ‘two writers for the price of one.’

‘It was early on when we first started that Dan said he didn’t think women were funny,’ Christy said.

‘He had fostered this very casual, fun atmosphere but I felt that Dan could be very volatile and could turn any moment. I was scared.’

She said that staff were left feeling ‘paranoid and uncomfortable,’ concluding: ‘Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship.’

Jenny also dished on having a similar experience, sharing that he ‘didn’t really value women in the writers’ room.’

But that was not all because, dishing on the depths of the inappropriate behavior at the channel, she claimed: ‘Dan was showing pornography on his computer screen. He asked me several time to massage him in the writers’ room and in the studio…

‘You always felt like disagreeing with Dan or standing up for yourself could result in getting fired. 

‘One of the worst, we were in the writers’ room and Christy was talking about high school which is relevant because we are writing for a young girl. 

‘And Dan just said: “You know what would be funny? If you leaned over the table and acted like you were being sodomized and told that story about high school.”‘

Jenny said that Christy had initially said no but Dan kept insisting and ‘she couldn’t get out of it.’

‘So she just leaned over the table and did what he asked her to do. It was upsetting to watch because I knew Christy at this point and I didn’t feel at all comfortable complaining to him.’

She concluded: ‘It was probably the wrongest thing I have ever seen happen to a woman in a professional environment ever.’

Christy herself declined to talk about the incident but remarked that she felt sorry for her former self as she was just a young woman at the time. 

Ultimately, after quitting her role at the network, Jenny decided to sue Dan because she ‘didn’t want it to happen to other women in the future.’

‘I hired a lawyer and started blowing whistles. My lawyer filed complaints against the production company for gender discrimination, hostile work environment, harassment – and in response they did an internal investigation and they settled.

‘But it had a lasting impact on my career… To learn that it didn’t stop and that it was all for nothing.’

Former assistant Amy Berg also took to X, formerly Twitter, in recent days to slam Schneider as a ‘f***ing a**hole.’

She branded him as a ‘psychological tormenter’ and a ‘manipulator’ before claiming his treatment caused her to suffer panic attacks, anxiety, and develop a ‘heart arrhythmia.’

Addressing the widespread reports of inappropriate behavior in the writers’ room, Schneider said: ‘Let me just say no writer should ever feel uncomfortable in any writers’ room. Ever. Period. The End. No excuses.

‘Most TV writers comedy writers have been in writer rooms and they are aware that a lot of times there a re inappropriate jokes made and inappropriate topics come up.

‘But the fact that I participated in that e specially when I was leading the room embarrasses me. I shouldn’t have d one it.’

He continued: ‘I can tell you why it hurts really bad for me. I remember very clearly my first experiences in the entertainment business.

‘I was green, I was scared, I was excited – it meant the world to me that I was getting those opportunities and I went in and I got lucky because they were great.

‘My first couple of experiences were fantastic and t he fact that I didn’t pay that forward to every employee that walked through my door it hurts my heart because I should have. I wish I could go back and fix that.’

Schneider conceded: ‘In the writers’ room there’s no doubt that sometimes those jokes went beyond t he pale and I said things that went too far or made practical jokes that went too far.

‘That was wrong and that was because I was an inexperienced producer. I was immature – it wouldn’t happen today but I’m just really sorry it happened.’

Elsewhere, he also apologized for his frequent requests for massages from female members of staff while in the studio.

‘It was wrong. It was wrong that I ever put anyone in that position. It was wrong to do. I’d never do it today. I’m embarrassed that I did it then. I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation,’ Schneider said.

‘Additionally, I apologize to the people who were walking around because there were lots of people who witnessed it who also may have felt uncomfortable so I owe them an apology as well.’

BooG!E urged Schneider to directly address the people who did not have a good experience working for him as he dished: ‘I hate that anybody worked for me and didn’t have a good time… I would let the pressure of doing 40 or even more episodes per year get to me – which a good boss should never, ever do…

‘I would snap at people sometimes, I would be snarky when I could have given them a nicer answer, I would not give people the time that they needed, I would be in too big a hurry to get on to the next thing I had to do.

‘Watching [Quiet On Set], there were so many times I wanted to pick up a phone and call some of those people and say “I’m so sorry and let’s talk about it and I wish you had a better time and I wish I could have shown you a better experience.”‘

The documentary had also explained that Nickelodeon had raised eyebrows under Schneider’s leadership with some of its shows that were ‘full of uncomfortable sketches.’

Among them were ‘disturbing’ scenes that ‘sexualized’ child stars – including Ariana Grande who featured in scenes sticking her hand down her throat, putting her toes in her mouth, and talking about being ‘soaking wet’ at the age of 16.

Other parts also showed Ariana trying to get juice from a potato – which involved her squeezing it as hard as possible and letting out loud moaning noises – and attempting to drink water upside down in a provocative position – which resulted in it spilling all over her head and chest. 

‘It was clear that there was a permissibility around these sexualized jokes with children,’ commentators in the documentary shared.

Responding to the criticism, Schneider said: ‘All these jokes that you’re speaking of… every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny – and only funny.

‘Now we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens and they’re looking at them and they’re saying “oh you know I don’t think that’s appropriate for for a kid show.” 

‘I have no problem with that if that’s how anyone feels then let’s cut those jokes out of the show.

‘I want my shows to be popular… so if there’s anything in a show that needs to be cut because it’s upsetting somebody let’s cut it.

‘The last thing I want to ever do is put any content in a show that’s going to upset my audience and make them want to turn off the TV. Why would I ever want to do that?  That makes no sense.’

Schneider also insisted that there were ‘many, many levels of scrutiny’ at every stage to get a joke approved and also denied that he had ever been banned from his own set – branding it as a ‘false rumor.’

In recent days, a resurfaced clip being circulated online shows Schneider in a hot tub with an underage Amanda Bynes during a Nickelodeon sketch.

The scene in question – which is understood to have been filmed in 2002, when Bynes was around the age of 16 – shows Schneider sitting next to a bikini-clad Bynes for the skit, which he wrote himself, with commentators branding it as ‘very uncomfortable.’

But Schneider, who is 20 years Bynes’ senior, defended his friendship with the child star and said he had only been trying to help her ‘regardless of what some people may think.’

It was also revealed in the Quiet On Set expose that three members of Nickelodeon staff were charged over child sex abuse to varying degrees – as Drake Bell spoke for the first time about being abused by dialogue coach Brian Peck who was described as ‘very much one of the cogs in the Dan Schneider machine.’ 

But, in his new interview, Schneider was quick to distance himself from the predators and stated that he had not been responsible for hiring Peck.

He added: ‘When Drake and I talked and he told me what had happened I was more devastated by that than anything that ever happened to me in my career thus far.

‘I told him “I’m here for you, what do you need” which Drake mentioned in the show.’

Schneider went one step further by slamming the famous faces who had continued to show their support to Peck even after the charges came to light – sitting on his side in court and writing letters of support during sentencing.

He fleetingly broke down in tears as he said that Drake’s mom, who he is still in contact with now, had gone to him for advice in writing her speech for the judge at the time.

‘That was probably the darkest part of my career,’ he said.

Schneider began wrapping up by admitting that there are ‘definitely’ things that he would do differently.

‘One that I think would be really, really important is when you’re hiring young actors – minors – to work in television I would suggest that we have a licensed therapist there to oversee that process for the specific reason of making sure that those kids really wanted to do this job – that they really wanted to be on television.

‘Maybe they should even be informed about what that means – what’s it going to mean if you’re famous, what’s that going to mean on social media, what’s it going to mean within your family. Let them find out.

‘That way if a kid doesn’t want to be on a TV show they can opt out.’

He continued: ‘Additionally, the main thing that I would change is how I treat people. I definitely at times didn’t give people the best of me.

‘I didn’t show enough patience. I could be cocky and definitely overambitious and sometimes just straight up rude and obnoxious. I am so sorry that I ever was.’

He concluded: ‘When I watched the show I could see the hurt in some people’s eyes and it made me feel awful and regretful and sorry.

‘I wish I could go back – especially to those earlier years of my career and bring the growth and the experience that I have now and just do a better job and never, ever feel like it was okay to be an a**hole to anyone ever.

‘I wanted to make funny TV shows for kids and we definitely did that but if I could go back I would get it done in different ways. I would just be nicer as often as possible and listen more to the people on my team.

‘I would do everything that I could to make sure that everyone had a good experience.’

Schneider left Nickelodeon in 2018 and said at the time he was parting ways to pursue ‘other opportunities and projects.

HOME-Bargains has slashed the price of a GIANT version of an iconic chocolate treat.

The retailer is selling the Grand Ferrero Rocher milk for just £3, but not everyone is impressed.

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The giant chocolate treat has been reduced by 43% just in time for Easter, so instead of €5.25, customers can buy one for just €2.99.

The Grand Ferrero Rocher weighs 125g, which is considerably larger than the regular sized chocs.

However, reviews about the product show that this jumbo chocolate treat is more of a miss than a hit.

One person who reviewed the product said: “I love Ferrero Rocher chocolate, but this tasted like a very cheap version of it.”

Another added: “Pointless waste of money.”

While a third chocolate fan commented: “Don’t buy this as a gift for anyone, it’s just a thin shell of nutty chocolate.”

Many of the reviews were from people who expected the Grand Ferrero Rocher to be normally full.

One disgruntled Ferrero fan wrote: “It’s just an empty, hollow shell. I expected it to be filled with Nutella, a complete waste of money.”

Don’t buy this as a gift for anyone!

Social media user

The product description on the Home Bargains website states that the item is “a delicious hollow shell of the finest chocolate” and we also checked other sites.

Tesco also stock the Ferrero Rocher Grand, although it is more expensive at £6.50, and the description states that the egg is hollow.

Some websites also have a photo showing the item once it has been broken open, showing the cavity inside.

However, the product is very striking, so it can easily be assumed that it is a giant replica of the original, complete with padding.

Morrisons also stock the chocolate treat, and it costs £4.50, so if you want to try it, Home Bargains is currently the cheapest around.

Meanwhile, consumers reacted very differently to another Ferrero Rocher product hitting shelves in January.

A sweet-toothed Facebook user spotted the white chocolate hazelnut egg on the shelves of their local Tesco branch.

The luxury egg was cut from £15 to £10 for Clubcard holders.

Although this egg is also hollow, it is filled with the classic foil-wrapped Ferrero Rocher chocolate.

One chocolate fan raved about the egg online, saying: “My dreams have come true.”

Another said: “Yummy.”

Supermarket shelves are currently full of Easter treats and offers. It’s hard to know where to go for the best selection and the cheapest price.

To help you out, we tested branded Easter eggs and the winner beats both Cadbury and Lindt.

This week we also looked at where you can go to buy the cheapest Easter eggs, as supermarkets battle it out in the price war.

We’ve included retailers like Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Iceland.

Choc fans may be pleased to know that two major supermarkets have recently slashed prices on some Lindt chocolate Easter eggs this week

If you haven’t purchased your Easter eggs yet, we can also reveal the exact date of purchase to ensure you get the cheapest prices.