Pete Evans opens up on 'neo-Nazi' controversy
Pete Evans has opened up on the 'neo-Nazi' controversy that saw his books pulled from shelves and his career in the TV and culinary world stall.
The former My Kitchen Rules host was dropped from the show in May 2020 over his outspoken and skeptical views on Covid and government restrictions to curb the spread of the pandemic, such as telling people not to wear masks and not to trust vaccines.
In November the same year, Evans found himself embroiled in another controversy after posting a cartoon on Instagram featuring a Nazi “black sun” symbol.
The image, showing a caterpillar wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat speaking to a butterfly with the black sun on its wing, was quickly deleted with Evans saying he was unaware of the symbol’s meaning.
Responding to the backlash, major retailers including Woolworths, Kmart and Target remove his books, while other businesses including publisher Pan Macmillan and kitchenware brand Baccarat also cut ties with Evans.
On the Secrets of the Underworld podcast, Evans spoke out about the tumultuous year, saying it was a "coordinated attack" from businesses to cut ties with him.
“It was a coordinated attack, it wasn’t just f**king out of the blue,” Evans told podcast host Neil Cummins.
“Within the space of 24 hours, the 15 business partners I was involved with all pretty much publicly denounced me. For that to happen it has to be a co-ordinated effort from some party. I don’t know who or what, but it wasn’t like, ‘Pete f**ked up’, it was like, ‘Pete f**ked up, let’s put the attack dogs onto this.’”
Evans suggested the cancellation was intended “to dissuade anybody else that may want to stand up against the vaccine or this that and the other thing”.
“This is what we can do to somebody, so be good boys and girls, just go along with the agenda, don’t stick your head up because we will financially destroy you,’” he said.
Evans admitted that he did share the Nazi symbol but its true meaning was “unbeknownst to me”.
“I just saw the Donald Trump hat and thought it was funny, I had no idea it was a f**king neo-Nazi sign,” he said.
“It was like, ‘Got him! We’ve been waiting for this moment. Now we can bring out the whole neo-Nazi, white supremacist [thing]. We’ve got him now. We’re going to use this and pressure all his business partners, that you cannot be associated with this man anymore.’”
Evans stressed that “just for the record, I’m not a neo-Nazi, never have been, never will be, I love all cultures, all cuisines, I respect everybody, every race”.
“It’s so ridiculous people fell for that … that anybody could ever consider that I would be a neo-Nazi, it’s beyond ridiculous,” he said.
Image credits: Instagram