Daily Mail - 04.03.2020

Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020^ Page 15

Baker: BBC

threw me

under a bus

for Archie

chimp joke

DANNY Baker has complained

that the BBC ‘threw me under the

bus’ after he jokingly compared

Harry and Meghan’s mixed-

race son Archie to a chimp.

The broadcaster was sacked

from his Radio 5 Live Saturday

morning show last May after he

tweeted a picture of a smartly

dressed chimpanzee captioned

‘Royal baby leaves hospital’.

Baker, 62, pictured, denied

accusations of racism over the

comment. He told Tracy Ann

Oberman’s Trolled podcast yes-

terday that

he ‘never

had a great

relation-

ship’ with

BBC bosses

because he

is not ‘club-

bable’ and

claimed

that one of

t h e s t a f f

who rang

his home

over the matter was rude to his

wife. While he received support

from hundreds of showbusiness

friends, some said they could

not openly back him as they

had mortgages to pay.

‘The BBC threw me under the

bus,’ he said. ‘I had 200 or 300

direct messages from people in

showbusiness. But a few said

they wanted to support me

publicly but had a mortgage. I

did not feel sorry for myself,

because I shouldn’t.’

Baker, who hosts his own pod-

cast, Treehouse, said he doesn’t

want to be ‘defined’ by the

‘revolting, terrible time’ he suf-

fered. But he admitted: ‘Mine

was the most catastrophic mis-

take. The most outrageous cata-

strophic mistake, born out of

something so trivial and the

consequences of it so disastrous.

Everything I got I deserved.’

B A B I E S s m e l l s o n i c e

because they have evolved

to help them bond with their

mothers, research suggests.

But while a newborn’s odour

triggers maternal feelings of

love, it is a different matter

when they turn into teenagers.

The less appealing scent as

children enter puberty encourages

parents to keep their distance and

helps them become independent,

a study found.

The idea that babies generally

smell pleasant and teenagers less

inviting may seem unsurprising –

but it is linked to the mother’s

highly developed sense of smell,

the German researchers said. She

is capable of detecting in a sniff

her child’s developmental stage.

Lead author Dr Laura Schaefer,

of the Dresden University of Tech-

nology, said: ‘This study reveals

that children’s body odours are an

important factor affecting the

mother-child relationship, and

hints toward its importance for

affection and caregiving.”

The findings are based on 164

German mothers who were tested

with body odour samples of their

own children and four others of the

same sex ranging in age from one

to 18. The samples consisted of

cotton T-shirts and baby suits that

children slept in for one night.

Overall, mothers classified the

developmental status of the child

with an accuracy of about 64 per

cent. Mothers were asked to smell

the fabrics, and identify whether it

came from a child aged up to one,

one to three, four to eight, nine to

13, 14 to 18 or older than 18.

They generally scored higher

w h e n i d e n t i f y i n g w h a t t h e

researchers called pre-pubertal

odours, as opposed to those

defined as post-pubertal odours.

More pleasant smells were found

to be pre-pubertal, even when

they came from older children.

Stronger body scents were

identified as coming from post-

pubertal children.

Dr Schaefer said: ‘This suggests

infantile body odours can mediate

affectionate love towards the child

in the crucial periods of bonding.’

Post-pubertal classifications

‘ c o u l d b e i n t e r p r e t e d a s a

mechanism for detachment, when

t h e c h i l d b e c o m e s m o r e

independent and separates itself

from parental care’, she said.

The study, published in the

journal Frontiers In Psychology,

follows previous experiments by

the same team using MRI scans to

see how maternal brains react to

baby odours.

These showed responses similar

to studies that tested for reac-

tions to facial cuteness. The

research adds further to the evi-

dence that smell is an important

factor in the mother-child bond.

The team’s investigation into the

effects of body odour on the psy-

chological relationship between

mother and child could have long-

term clinical implications.

It is hoped that the research may

lead to the development of nasal

sprays that could help a mother

suffering from post-natal depres-

sion to bond with their baby.

By Colin Fernandez

Science Correspondent

Step down: Meghan with the Queen

voked controversy in 2013 for likening the

Duchess of Cambridge to a ‘shop window

mannequin’ who would become a ‘jointed

doll on which certain rags are hung’.

The comments were condemned by the

then prime minister David Cameron as

‘completely misguided’, although she said

her words had been taken out of context.

Dame Hilary won the Booker Prize for her

novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies,

and will tomorrow release the long-awaited

final part of the trilogy, The Mirror And The

Light. The April issue of Harper’s Bazaar

is on sale today.

DAME Hilary Mantel has described

the Duchess of Sussex as a ‘smiling

face in a dull institution’.

The Wolf Hall author said she was

pleased that Meghan’s marriage to Prince

Harry had survived the couple’s decision to

stand down as senior royals.

The 67-year-old posed in regal attire at

Hampton Court Palace in south-west

London – a key location in her trilogy of

novels about Henry VIII and Thomas

Cromwell – for Harper’s Bazaar.

Referring to Meghan and Harry, she said:

‘I’m pleased that it’s the marriage that’s

By Emma Powell

Showbusiness Correspondent

Regal: Dame

Hilary Mantel

at Hampton

Court Palace

for Harper’s

Bazaar

Mantel on

Meghan:

She was

too good

for dull

monarchy

Smells like teen spirit!

By Eleanor Sharples

TV and Radio Reporter

Babies’ scent helps bond with mum – but

youths are whiffier to gain independence

Picture: Ri

ChAR

d Phi

BBS

/hARP

eR’S B AzAAR

mailplus.co.uk/briefings

WATCH MORE AT

WATCH MORE AT

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surviving and the connection with the

monarchy that has to go, because I think

almost all of us would have bet that if she left,

she’d have to leave alone. None of us know

the details of how this is going to work out.

But I think that Meghan was too good to be

true. She was a smiling face in a dull institu-

tion, she cheered the nation up no end – or, at

least, men and women of good will.’

In January, Harry and Meghan announced

their plans to step down as senior royals

less than two years after their marriage.

Dame Hilary said there is no denying

Meghan has been a victim of ‘abominable’

racism. She added: ‘People who say that’s

got nothing to do with it – well, they need

to check their privilege.’

She also told the BBC: ‘There has been an

element of racism in the invective against

[Meghan]. I think it’s more deeply embed-

ded in people’s consciousness that any of

us are willing to admit.’ The author pro-

V