Live TV veteran Jeremy Paxman swears twice on Sky News before lunch

'I'm interested in what they have to say but I'm disdainful of having b******s talked at me'

Famed for his forthright and at times cantankerous demeanor, Jeremy Paxman has never been one to hold back or bite his tongue.

And this could certainly be glimpsed today on Sky News when the veteran broadcaster, who has worked for the BBC since 1972, openly swore. The clock had yet to strike 12 o’clock but “B******d” and “b******s” were his two profanities of choice.

Appearing on All Out Politics, the presenter Adam Boulton took it upon himself to bring up an excerpt from his book A Life in Questions in which Andrew Marr is said to have described Mr Paxman as “disdainful and contemptuous and furious with his guests”.

But Paxman did not agree as he relished in making clear: “I'm not disdainful and contemptuous of my guests, any more than you are, no.”

“I'm interested in what they have to say but I'm disdainful of having b******s talked at me.”

Boulton also said he had long been associated with the phrase “why is this lying b******d lying to me” and asked him if he had that on his mind when he was interviewing politicians and others.

“Some clown once asked me what the principle ought to be and I happened to have been reading the memoirs of Louis Heron - the Deputy Editor of The Times as he became,” Paxman retorted.

“He was asked on his very first job he had been making the tea and he was given a job finally as a reporter to go out and ask someone a question and some gnarled old hack in the reporters room said to him just ask yourself ‘why is this lying b******d lying to me, and I think that's a pretty sound principle.”

A representative for Paxman did not immediately respond to request for comment.