Bobby Norris reveals troll threatened to 'petrol bomb' his home over his sexuality

The Only Way Is Essex star Bobby Norris has opened up about the abuse he received on social media due to his sexuality and how he campaigned for a change in legislation

Bobby Norris opened up about the horrific online abuse and death threats he endured due to his sexuality.

The 38 year old The Only Way Is Essex favourite shared with listeners on FUBAR Radio's 'Politics Uncensored' about the intense homophobic attacks he faced during his stint on the popular reality TV series. Speaking candidly to co-host Ellen Coughlan, Bobby recounted: "I love social media, but I've been through it, and this is something actually, I'm not sure if a lot of people will know, but I think back in I think 2019, I was on a big reality show at the time, and was receiving a huge amount of abuse on social media, predominantly because of my sexuality."

His experiences included chilling moments; as he told Ellen, "There was this one, I think another death threat come through. And when I say that it sounds so flippant, but it was literally just another one was outside my house and was going to petrol bomb me."

Despite his resilient demeanour, Bobby acknowledged the seriousness of these threats, commenting, "It was a tough time. I've got a thick skin. So I was never losing sleep over it. And I was very aware. I thought, I can deal with this. " However, Bobby realised that his younger self would have struggled with the abuse.

He said: "But I know 13 or 14 year old Bobby couldn't have dealt with it. They were not just saying, Bob, I don't like your hair. I don't like your blow dry today, or I don't like that Louis Vuitton bag. No, we're talking really dark stuff."

Driven by his experiences, Bobby took action to instigate change, crafting a petition from his bedroom and pushing for the classification of online homophobia to be recognised as a specific offence – a campaign he pursued passionately for around four to five years.

Bobby commented: "Well, yeah, it's been in law for one year now, yeah, to put an aim to or to have some kind of legislation around how people can speak online. " "I went to Downing Street. I've been to Parliament several times for debates, and thankfully, after four or five years of campaigning, it's become a law, and it is the Online Safety Act."

"It isn't about the snowflake generation saying that they don't like something about you. It's not opinion based. We're talking threats violence, threats violence, discrimination, dark stuff."

Follow Mirror Celebs onTikTok,Snapchat,Instagram,Twitter,Facebook,YouTubeandThreads.