Barry Keoghan has opened up about how online bullying has affected him.
The 33-year-old Peaky Blinders star appeared on SiriusXM’s The Morning Mash Up, where he reflected on the “nasty side” of social media.
“I think I removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being that wants to go on and, if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it’s not nice,” he explained in an audio clip.
“There’s a lot of hate online. It’s a lot of abuse of how I look,” Keoghan added.
The Irish actor said he’s shied away from the public eye due to vitriolic comments from trolls.
“I say this being absolute pure and honest to you: It’s becoming a problem,” he revealed.
“So yeah, I don’t have to hide away because I am hiding away. I don’t have to go to places because I actually don’t go to places because of these things. But when that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem because then you don’t even want to be on screen anymore,” the Saltburn star mentioned.
The father-of-one is also upset that his three-year-old son Brando will read harsh comments about him when he’s older.
“It is disappointing for the fans, but it’s also disappointing that my little boy has to read all of this stuff when he gets older,” Keoghan stated.
It is pertinent to mention that in 2024 Keoghan deactivated his Instagram account in the wake of speculation about his split from Sabrina Carpenter.
Taking to X, he hit back at the “lies, hatred” and “disgusting commentary” and explained why he quit Instagram.
“I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don’t respond to,” Barry Keoghan wrote at that time, in a lengthy statement.
