Ashley Cain hits out at Ricky Gervais for 'mocking terminally ill children' in new comedy show after reality star lost his daughter Azaylia to cancer at just eight months old
- Azaylia lost her battle with acute myeloid leukaemia in April 2021, when she was just eight-months-old
Former Ex on the Beach star Ashley Cain has hit out at Ricky Gervais for making jokes about terminally ill children.
Ashley's daughter Azaylia died when she lost her battle with acute myeloid leukaemia in April 2021, when she was just eight-months-old.
Reality star Ashley, 33, and his partner Safiyya Vorajee have spoken openly about their heartache over their loss and have been raising funds in their late daughter's name to help other children who are battling cancer.
And Ashley has now slammed controversial comedian Ricky, 62, for mocking terminally ill children in his new Netflix special Armageddon.
In the show, Ricky calls children battling serious illness in hospital 'baldies' and asked the sick children who requested to meet him via the Make-A-Wish Foundation: 'Why don't you wish to get better?'
Former Ex on the Beach star Ashley Cain, 33 (pictured), has hit out at Ricky Gervais for making jokes about terminally ill children
Ashley has slammed controversial comedian Ricky, 62, for mocking terminally ill children in his new Netflix special Armageddon (Ricky pictured in 2019)
Ricky's jokes angered Ashley, with the former footballer taking to social media to write: 'Some things are just not funny.'
He posted on his Instagram Stories: 'I was actually a fan of Ricky Gervais but I had to turn off his stand-up the other day as I was watching it with family and there were multiple jokes about terminally ill children and especially kids with cancer.
'Some things are just not funny. Especially to those parents who are left behind.
'You can get cancelled for so many things these days but it’s ok to make a mockery of dying children.
'I’m actually so mad about this.'
Ashley hinted he was struggling to remain calm while composing his message, writing that he was 'trying to remain as professional' as possible, adding: 'I know Ricky makes jokes about having so much money that he doesn’t care about what us people think.'
He continued; 'But someday he will learn and he best hope it’s not me that has to teach him that lesson. Because I don’t play when it comes to certain things. And that is definitely one of those things.'
Ashley said that he had spent time with other grieving fathers earlier the same day: 'The maddest thing is, it was only today that I played in a charity match for Good Morning Britain alongside a group of great gentlemen that are part of a charity for bereaved fathers.
Ashley's daughter Azaylia died when she lost her battle with acute myeloid leukaemia in April 2021, when she was just eight-months-old
'Each man I stood next to shared each other’s excruciating pain from the loss of a child.
'Brilliant men, with beautiful children who were taken from this earth too soon. Left with a hole in their lives that is truly impossible to fill.'
Ricky is no stranger to making controversial jokes and has previously blamed some members of his audience for mistaking 'the subject of a joke with the actual target'.
He explained to GQ: 'I want to be able to justify every joke and I think it comes by making sure that the target is fair. I think most offence comes when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target.'
Ashley previously spoke out about the moment his beloved eight-month-old daughter Azaylia died in his arms in a heartbreaking interview earlier this year.
Two years on from her death, Ashley described how he watched his daughter go from a 'ray of sunshine' to crying blood from her eyes as the rare and aggressive cancer took hold.
In April 2021, Ashley and his partner Safiyya Vorajee were told Azaylia only had a few days to live as they discovered tumours in her stomach, her spleen, her liver and her kidneys
Speaking on the Original Penguin X Campaign Against Living Miserably Under The Surface podcast, Ashley spoke about Azaylia's final moments and how she fought until the very end.
Ashley and his former partner Safiyya Vorajee said they were 'living the dream' when they welcomed their daughter, but two months in she had a devastating diagnosis.
'The first time I held Azaylia in my arms, I thought I had everything. All these things that I was searching for in my life before, couldn’t come close or equate to this,' he said.
'But I was living the dream for two months, before I found out that Azaylia had AML leukaemia.'
'Do you know how hard it is going to sleep every night, scared to close your eyes because if you wake up, she might be gone. Do you know how difficult that is?
'Do you know how difficult it is seeing your previous little girl who is a ray of sunshine, getting wires put in her, getting chemotherapy.
'If her chemotherapy was going for three hours, I used to hold her for three hours, just so she knew I was there. That’s difficult.'
Ashley said he would have rather been 'tortured for the rest of my life' than have watched Azaylia suffer the way she did.
The couple's daughter spent the majority of her life in hospital, undergoing four rounds of chemotherapy and stem cell treatment.
Despite efforts from around the world and a treatment in Singapore, pharmaceutical companies could not release the life-saving drugs needed to beat his daughter Azaylia's battle.