In 2010, Marah made headlines over a drunken filming of an episode of the talent show. She later accused someone close to her of foul play.
GARETH CLIFF REACTS TO DRINK-SPIKING RUMOURS
Hot on the heels of Gareth Cliff trending over his praise for Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the CliffCentral founder issued a stern warning to a tweep who made a sensational claim about him.
The X user – @_BeingNaledi– responded to a tweet calling Gareth “racist” after he was fired by M-Net as an Idols SA judge in 2016. This, after he cited “freedom of speech” for convicted racist Penny Sparrow, whose Facebook rant comparing black people to monkeys went viral.
According to the Sowetan, Gareth Cliff took M-Net to court over the decision and was reinstated. Not long thereafter, he announced his decision to quit the show.
The X user said of Gareth Cliff: “You mean the guy who allegedly spiked his black co-judge drink with vodka, getting her drunk on national TV, which ended with her being fired and having her career ruined. And when questioned about it he said she was an alcoholic anyway. That guy?”.
The tweet caught the attention of the former shock jock, who tweeted: “Apart from being entirely untrue, this is defamation. Hope you have some lawyers handy. We’ll be in touch”.
The X user has since disabled her account.
WHAT HAPPENED TO MARAH LOUW?
In 2011, Marah Louw was officially sacked from Idols SAafter her relationship with M-Net soured.
A year earlier, Marah accused the broadcaster of being “racist”, citing the lack of black winners on the show. Marah strongly believed that M-Net’s demographic – ie white South Africans – influenced their winners.
That same year, Marah courted controversy after she appeared drunk during a live taping of the show. The entertainer later claimed that she had taken pain medication and had drunk a can of Red Bull after a long day. However, she claim her drink was “spiked” by someone on set.
She told the Sunday Times: “You’ll be shocked at what lengths people will go to get you fired in this industry when they want to put in their friends.”
Fast forward to 2016, and Gareth Cliff stated in his autobiography Cliffhanger: Confessions of a Shock Jockthat he had handed Marah the drink mixed with vodka.
In an excerpt quoted by the Sunday publication, he wrote, “It’s not common practice to have a drink on set, but that evening, one of the crew brought a bottle of vodka for a pre-show celebratory drink. I passed Marah her drink, and all was well until halfway through the show when she became a touch emotional, or maybe delirious.
Former Idols SA judges (L-R) Gareth Cliff, Dave Thompson, Marah Louw and Randall Abrahams. Image via M-Net
“Needless to say, the press had a field day. And I was the one Marah threw under the bus during a radio interview the next day.”
Gareth later hit out at the Sunday Times for claiming he was the one who poured the drink.
He shared in a Facebook post: “I’ve never spiked anyone’s drink, let alone a colleague twice my age.” In a blog post, Gareth claimed that Marah knew that she was consuming alcohol.
He wrote: “A crew member happened to have a bottle of vodka and poured some drinks in front of everyone, including Mara, who knowingly accepted. She went on to have something of a meltdown during the show.
“Only the next day, on a radio interview, she admitted to being on medication and said that I had given her the drink, blaming this for her strange behaviour.
“Perhaps she was looking for someone to blame rather than admit to being irresponsible about mixing medication and alcohol.”
WHO WAS BEHIND THE ‘SPIKING’?
A year after Gareth Cliff’s book was published, Marah Louw released her autobiography It’s Me, Marah,where she referred to the “vodka scandal”.”
Without naming the person, Marah claimed that she had strong suspicions that her drink had been deliberately spiked.
She wrote: “Later, one of the contestants called and told me that my drink seemed to have been spiked deliberately. I got the same story from someone who worked on the production – they’d been sent to buy the vodka.
“I listened to all these stories but decided to keep quiet and not confront those involved, I prayed on it and left it in the hands of the Almighty God”.
Marah then seemingly hinted at the identity of the person.
She continued: “The person whom I was told had spiked my drink was later embroiled in a controversy. A journalist friend of mine who was around during Idols that year sent me a text that read, “Justice served!” Before I could respond, another came through: “Including spiking your drink.” This confirmed what I’d heard about the shenanigans back then. All I can say is, I serve a living God of justice”.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF GARETH CLIFF AND MARAH LOUW’S VERSION OF EVENTS?
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