Latest news with #height
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Tony Robinson: Women criticising men's height p----- me off
said it 'really p-----' him off when women comment on men's height but would not remark on other aspects of people's looks. The 5ft 4in Blackadder star told the How To Fail podcast that, as 'a shorter bloke', it angered him that women were still comfortable saying they wanted a partner taller than them. Elizabeth Day, the podcast's host, said she had heard similar complaints from actors Richard Osman and Stephen Merchant, both 6ft 7ins, about the 'insulting, slightly jokey' comments they get on their stature. Robinson said on the show: 'Nowadays, you don't pick on people's looks do you? It's like kind of a new understanding over the last 10 or 15 years, you don't deride people for what they look like. 'There is a blind spot about men's height, and the shorter blokes here will understand exactly what I mean, you kind of don't want to talk about it because what are you going to get back when you say that? 'But you look at Love Island, every woman who is asked what bloke they want will always start by saying 'I want a tall man' and then everyone else will laugh in collusion... 'I still carry it around with me' '[There's] smart women who wouldn't pick out the fact that they didn't want, I don't know, to be married with a red-haired man or a Jew or a blind person or anything else will laugh with their friends and say 'oh God, he's got to be taller than me'. 'It really p----- me off to be honest. My wife said 'don't get cross when you talk about this'.' Robinson said one of his problems in life was not being tall, and Day asked if this 'actually felt like a failure'. The 78-year-old said: 'In many ways, yeah, and I think I still carry it around with me. What first set me off was ... I was in the lunch queue with Victoria Wood and we got talking and she said to me, 'you know we'll never play Romeo and Juliet because I'm too fat to be Juliet and you're too small to be Romeo'. 'It kind of hit me like a bolt from the blue, and yet, it was so obviously true.' Day added: 'Your anger is welcome here, because I think it's an extremely good point. I've had two men on the podcast before who are very, very tall, Richard Osman and Stephen Merchant. 'They said the same thing. They get it the other way, where you might think 'oh pass me the tissues, complaining about your height', but they said that people quite often comment on their height in kind of an insulting, slightly jokey way and that's still actually acceptable in some way.'
The Sun
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
My husband is only four-foot & looks nothing like my dream man but I married him anyway – people think our photos are AI
A WOMAN has admitted to friend-zoning her now husband who stands 4ft tall as he wasn't the dream man she pictured. Anita Wing Lee and Tim Muttoo met through mutual friends in 2021, and while he was eager to take things further, Anita admits she was hesitant. 3 3 Tim is a person of short stature, and the businesswoman admitted his height was a problem at first but soon got over it when she realised they were the perfect match in other areas. The pair soon became friends, but Tim's feelings turned romantic and he didn't hide it. On their website, Anita wrote: "Tim started texting me more frequently, and I found myself feeling uneasy. "I didn't see him that way, and I already knew he liked me. "I felt like I needed to put a stop to it, but at the same time, I didn't want to lose him as a friend." Anita crafted a message with the help of her sister to explain that she only wanted a friendship with Tim. "But how could I imagine myself with a 4-foot man?" she wondered. "Tim's torso was normal-sized, but his arms and legs were shorter. While that could look cute in some ways, it wasn't what I had ever pictured in a partner." "I had always envisioned myself looking up into my partner's eyes, but with Tim, that wasn't possible. What was I supposed to do?" Anita was hesitant to send the text, and once she did, she regretted it immediately, and it left her questioning if she had stronger feelings for Tim. 3 'I'm 25 and my boyfriend is 76 – people call our relationship disturbing and family say I'm ruining my life' Anita realised Tim was everything she was looking for in a husband. She said he was kind and thoughtful, with 'no red flags', and that being tall was not in the list of qualities she wanted in a future partner. "Thankfully, I processed the height thing… and now I actually think it's so adorable!" she added. "It's an added bonus that brings so much fun and sweetness to our lives! "So if you're still waiting for your person …they may not look like what you pictured and that might be the best part." Eventually, Tim and Anita went from friends to partners, and the couple got engaged in September 2024 before tying the knot this year. Now the couple also work together, with Anita documenting and promoting Tim's charity H2O4all, a non-profit dedicated to making clean water accessible across the globe. On social media, the couple's wedding photos went viral as many asked if they were AI generated. She wrote: "We know many of you have been curious about our story, how we met and how our love grew. And, no, we are not an AI-generated image."
Forbes
11-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Babble Effect: When Style Gets Promoted Over Substance
Can height shape how we see leadership? Psychologists call it the 'height premium" or the 'style advantage' —and it's more than a quirk of perception. Research from the University of Florida found that each additional inch of height corresponds to an average $789 boost in annual earnings. Malcolm Gladwell also opined on this phenomenon in his book Blink: In the U.S. population, about 14.5% of all men are six feet or over. Among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, that number is 58%. We unconsciously equate height with authority, strength, even intelligence—a leftover bias from evolutionary psychology. Tallness signals dominance, and dominance gets confused with leadership. It's not rational. But it's real. And it shows up not just in paychecks, but in who we trust to take charge. But height isn't the only signal that gets misread as strength. The way someone speaks—how often, how confidently, how loudly—can tilt perception too. Take the Babble Effect. A recent study led by research scientist Neil G. MacLaren helped renew attention to a long-observed but underexamined pattern: people who speak more in group settings are more likely to be seen as leaders, regardless of what they say. MacLaren and a team of researchers found consistent evidence that people attribute leadership to those who 'babbled' or talked more frequently. The study also found that men received an additional vote on average just because of their gender. I recently spoke with MacLaren to understand the context behind the study. His responses emphasized that this is still an emerging area of research but one with real implications for how organizations identify and grow leaders. In my own research, coaching and succession work, I've seen how performative behaviors like constant speaking often get rewarded—not because they're valuable, but because they're visible. That disconnect shows up across leadership selection, promotion processes and even team dynamics. Performative Leadership Isn't Always A Choice There's a common critique of performative leadership. But the truth is more complicated. Most leaders don't begin that way. They become performative because they've learned what earns attention. What gets rewarded gets repeated. Speak more, get more. Be seen, move up. Babble becomes audition. A way of signaling, 'I belong here.' It isn't always ego. Sometimes it's survival. A perception gap only deepens the problem. While 68% of board directors believe their succession plans are equitable and inclusive, just 38% of C-suite leaders and 33% of next-generation leaders agree, according to a Russell Reynolds study. In the absence of clear merit signals, high-potential leaders often reach for the next best tool—visibility. Even if that means stepping into a version of themselves that feels unnatural. Not to impress, but to stay in the running. And when polish is mistaken for readiness, when confidence is confused for competence, we begin to lose the plot. Noise gets misread as value. And the leadership pipeline fills with those who learned how to perform, not necessarily how to lead. The Real Cost Of Mistaking Volume for Vision In many organizations, presence still substitutes for performance. The first person to speak is seen as decisive. The most vocal shapes the discussion. The smoothest communicator becomes the natural pick for the next stretch role. But that pattern carries a cost. Leaders with strategic patience are misread as passive. People who elevate others don't always dominate the room. And those who think deeply often go unnoticed. Gallup's recent research on neurodivergent employees adds to the picture. Many bring rare strengths like ideation, strategic thinking and pattern recognition. But in systems that reward verbal fluency and fast thinking, they are often overlooked. We end up reinforcing a narrow definition of what leadership looks like—and miss out on the very people who see around edges. Maclaren noted that the Babble Effect tends to show up most strongly in unstructured environments without formal hierarchies. That doesn't mean it vanishes in more formal organizations—it may just look different. So far, there's little research on how it plays out in succession or promotion decisions, but the potential impact is clear. As he put it, 'There hasn't been much research that's tried to go beyond the babble observation.' That gap in evidence doesn't make the pattern less real. It just means most organizations haven't yet asked the right questions. What we label as leadership often reflects what we see first, not what drives the best outcomes. Man yelling into bullhorn Three Shifts To Build Leadership Cultures That Listen Charisma isn't a competency. Yet too often, it becomes the shortcut for advancement. Structured evaluation helps leadership teams assess potential based on contribution, not just presence. Too often, leadership potential is assessed by gut feel, surface-level impressions, or informal 360s that rely on perception. Candidates who 'appear confident,' 'speak boldly,' or 'stand out' may be favored, even if their actual impact is uneven or untested. That is not evaluation—it's projection. And it's one of the fastest ways to miss real capability. This is where objective assessments matter. Tools that evaluate judgment, strengths, and problem solving—without being filtered through charisma—can change the conversation. These tools don't eliminate bias, but they reduce the weight of first impressions. When used alongside structured observation, they create a fuller picture of leadership readiness. We also need to recalibrate what counts as evidence. Instead of defaulting to polish or airtime, ask: Who made others better? Who clarified thinking? Who improved the outcome? If thoughtful contributors are passed over for louder voices, we're not just missing talent. We're reinforcing a model of leadership that fails under real complexity. In succession planning, track who gets nominated—and who never does. Bias doesn't just shape final decisions. It influences who gets seen, supported, and stretched in the first place. Leadership move: Insist on objective, validated measures of talent—tools that assess how people think, not just how they talk. Reimagine talent reviews as structured data conversations, not loose discussions based on perceived readiness. Ask, 'Where is the evidence of contribution?' not just, 'Who feels ready?' Not everyone leads with volume. Some lead through clarity, systems thinking, or reflection. These are the leaders who stabilize progress long after the spotlight moves on. I've coached high-potential leaders who consistently elevate team performance but rarely get noticed because they don't fit the traditional mold. Gallup's research on neurodivergence reinforces this. Many bring powerful cognitive strengths that remain invisible in cultures obsessed with ease of expression. MacLaren noted that introverts are especially susceptible to being misread in these environments. Talkativeness is often equated with extroversion, and extroversion with leadership. He also raised a useful question: Do people speak more when the conversation plays to their strengths? That kind of nuance rarely shows up in performance reviews, but it should. Leadership move: Rotate facilitation. Normalize written input. Create space for insight that doesn't compete for airtime. Redesign team rituals so that introverted, deep-thinking contributors shape outcomes just as much as fluent speakers do. Talent development isn't just about giving feedback. It's about creating access. Many leaders don't self-promote—not because they lack ambition, but because the system asks them to perform a version of leadership that doesn't reflect who they are. As MacLaren pointed out, even raters are vulnerable to the Babble Effect. That's why he recommends more holistic evaluations. Pair leaderless group exercises with structured assessments. Reduce the role of personality-driven impressions wherever possible. Leadership visibility should not depend on who interrupts best or commands a room. It should reflect who delivers value and helps others succeed. If we don't challenge the idea that influence equals volume, we'll keep recycling the same traits in our talent pipelines. Leadership move: Ask in your next one-on-one, 'What part of your thinking does this organization need more of?' Then make that thinking visible. Influence starts by being seen for what matters. Amplifying The Voices We Don't Hear Leadership today doesn't suffer from a lack of ideas. It suffers from a lack of listening. The best insight might not come from the first voice. The most thoughtful contribution may not be the smoothest. The next great leader may not match the voice you've been trained to follow. Loud is easy to reward. But wisdom often speaks more quietly. And if leadership systems reward what's visible over what's valuable, we will keep cycling through the same kinds of risk, the same kinds of mistakes, and the same kinds of leaders. What if the next big idea wasn't in a polished pitch? What if it was scribbled in the margins by someone who wasn't invited to the room? What we choose to notice becomes what we scale. And what we overlook is often where the future quietly lives. Where substance matters more than style.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Richard Osman, 54, declares he looks best NAKED as much-loved presenter opens up about feeling 'weird' and 'embarrassed' about his 6ft 7in height
Richard Osman says his 6ft 7in height looks best when he's naked - after previously saying he didn't like being body shamed over how tall he was. The bestselling author and TV presenter, 54, said since becoming exceptionally tall at 17 he has felt 'weird' and 'embarrassed' about standing out in public, but he said being lanky looks OK with no clothes on. He admitted his height and humour meant he did well with girls despite being shy. He said: 'I always sort of did ok in that area. I was quite shy. And I was always funny and people like that. 'But I always felt I looked awful. My self-image was terrible and of course you look back at pictures of yourself and you go "Oh my God, you look great, you look so good". 'But at the time you're just thinking "This is awful". Being funny is an enormous help. 'I felt awful about being tall, and actually people like that. If you're funny and you're tall and you've got a bit about you.' Asked by Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud podcast how he felt the first time he was seen naked, dad-of-two Osman, who is married to second wife Ingrid Oliver, said: 'Tall doesn't look bad naked - I'll say that. 'It looks unusual on the tube, but in a room where it's just in context it all seems to fit together.' Osman has previously told how he became accustomed to daily comments about being so tall. Richard's appearance on the podcast comes on the same week he was spotted with his wife Ingrid Oliver at Wimbledon. The pair - who met during the pandemic - put on a loved-up display as they were seen holding hands while walking through the grounds of the famous tennis club. Richard towered over his petite partner in a light pink suit, completing the outfit with a striped tie and shirt, brown shoes and his trademark black glasses. Ingrid, 48, was similarly dressed to impress in a white top and pink trousers and accessorised with a beige belt. She completed the look with comfortable-looking white shoes, adding a touch of glamour with her gold necklace and white, dotted earrings. Richard and Ingrid tied the knot in 2023 on a day which Richard described as 'full of love and laughter', three years after they met during the pandemic. After enduring a difficult divorce with his first wife in 2011 - with whom he shares two children - Richard gushed about his new love interest in 2023 during an episode of Desert Island Discs. 'I'm happy with myself,' the Pointless star said. 'I've got these beautiful kids, I've met the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. 'That thing of completion and ambition, you soon realise that rocket fuel disappears and it's about happiness and my kids bring me happiness and Ingrid brings me happiness.' Ingrid is best known for her role as Petronella Osgood in Doctor Who and has featured in her husband's show House of Games. Richard has two children, Ruby, 27, and Sonny, 25.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
Inside Barron Trump's diet and exercise regime that dad Donald credits for his staggering 6ft7 height
Barron Trump's diet and eating habits have long fascinated many people around the world due to his soaring height. Standing at an impressive 6ft7, the 19-year-old student is often seen towering over his parents, President Donald Trump and Melania Trump. While Barron's parents have previously revealed a glimpse into their son's healthy appetite, Femail has takens a closer look at what he is known to eat and what sports he enjoys to keep fit and active. Last year, one of Barron's friends lifted the lid on his school lunchtime habits and revealed that he and his pals would congregate in the school cafeteria. While the other students at Oxbridge Academy in Florida would dine on fancy cuisine more akin to high-end restaurant fare, Barron would avoid eating altogether. 'It was buffet style,' the friend recalled. 'They had American food, Asian and Indian food. 'There was a salad bar, a fruit bar, on special holidays they would serve steak. 'Barron always went to the lunchroom to sit with his friends, but he never ate any lunch. He never specifically said why, just that he would wait until he got home to eat. It was a little unusual.' While Barron didn't eat his school lunchtimes, he did enjoy homecooked meals whipped up by his maternal grandmother, the late Amalija Knavs. Melania and Donald previously credited her mother, Amalija, for Barron's impressive size. 'Boy, did she take care of Barron,' Donald told The Telegraph shortly after her death in January 2024 aged 78. 'That's how he got so tall, he only ate her food.' 'With her passion for cooking, she transported every dish, which she curated with her spices from her garden, to new heights,' Melania added. 'I'm fortunate that she taught me many of her secrets to creating the signature delights.' Traditional Slovenian food is typically hearty and features plenty of meat, dairy and seasonal vegetables. Some popular dishes include idrijski žlikrofi, which are traditional Slovenian dumplings, kranjska klobasa, a parboiled sausage, and bograč, a hearty stew made with various meats such as pork, beef, venison, and boar, as well as potatoes. As for sports and exercise, Trump confirmed that Barron 'loved' football in a 2023 interview with Piers Morgan. In fact, when Wayne Rooney was the coach of DC United during Trump's first term in office, the Manchester United legend briefly met with Barron after the Commander-in-Chief asked him to offer some soccer advice to his teenage son. 'He asked me to give his son football lessons,' Rooney, who was even invited to a Christmas Party at the White House during Trump's time in office, said on The Overlap. 'Barron said: "Do you want to see my dad?" He took me up into the Oval office and then from there, his PA was just texting: "Do you want to play a few holes?'' Last June, Trump praised his 18-year-old son during an interview with YouTube star Logan Paul where he detailed that he still plays soccer. 'He's a big boy - six foot nine,' Trump claimed of his youngest son. 'And I couldn't get him to play basketball. 'He plays soccer. He's a good athlete too. Good student, good athlete.' But his father also shot down the idea of him playing football during an interview in 2019, saying he would have a 'hard time' letting his son partake in the sport. 'I just don't like the reports that I see coming out having to do with football – I mean, it's a dangerous sport and I think it's really tough,' Trump told CBS' Face the Nation. 'I thought the equipment would get better, and it has. The helmets have gotten far better, but it hasn't solved the problem.'
