Belfast comedian Vittorio Angelone has apologised after making a rape remark about a woman who had recently described being sexually assaulted, according to BBC News NI. The comment concerned content creator Rebecca Goodwin and was made during a 2025 episode of the Have a Word podcast. Rape Crisis Northern Ireland and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre have both condemned the material.
Goodwin, who had reported a rape to police, said she had learned of the remark only when clips were shared on social media in recent days. She said she had claimed Angelone posted videos of the "joke" on his own accounts.
Why it matters
The episode has drawn attention because the woman named in it is a survivor who had already spoken publicly about an assault. Both crisis organisations argue that treating sexual violence as material for comedy makes it harder for victims to come forward and encourages a wider culture in which such crimes are downplayed.
The timing also places the case alongside Angelone's television work. He is due to appear in his first major acting role in the BBC sitcom Rewarding, scheduled to air this autumn. The BBC said it was aware of the concerns raised and was giving them active consideration, acknowledging their seriousness and the sensitivities involved.
What was said on the podcast
The remark was made during a "roast" edition of Have a Word, published in December 2025, in which comedians took turns insulting one another in front of an audience. Goodwin was not part of the recording. In that episode, Angelone asked fellow comedian Freddy Quinne: "if you're here, who's raping Rebecca Goodwin?"
Goodwin said on Facebook that the episode was recorded in September or October 2025 and had sat behind a paywall for a year before being released on social media. She had reported a rape to police in July 2025 and had spoken publicly about what happened to her.
She said she was relieved not to have encountered the clip earlier, because it would have surfaced only weeks after the assault, when her mental state was different from now. At the time of her post, she said Angelone had made no attempt to contact her or apologise, though he had taken the joke down from his own social media more than a year after it was written, edited, clipped, captioned and published with her full name attached.
Goodwin said the world is facing a crisis of violence against women and girls, and that survivors are asking for their safety and their experiences to be taken seriously.
She added that Quinne and several other comedians from the episode had since said sorry to her, but that she did not accept those apologies. In her view, they arrived a year late and nobody in the room had supported her at the time, until she wrote about it publicly.
Comedian says he is ashamed
In a statement on Instagram, Angelone said he had allowed his need for approval to override his own standards and morals, describing the realisation as pathetic and saying he was ashamed of it.
Rape Crisis Northern Ireland said it was very disappointed by the remarks, which it said feed a culture in which rape and sexual violence are treated as trivial. The organisation argued that when rape is turned into a punchline and sexual violence into entertainment, its effects become easier to brush aside and survivors find it harder to speak.
It added that people with a public platform and an audience have a duty to weigh the effect of their language and the attitudes they help make ordinary. Rape jokes may appear far removed from an actual assault, the group said, but they belong to the same culture of playing down and belittling such violence. Survivors, it said, should never be left feeling that what happened to them can be laughed at, minimised or ignored.
Rachel Morrogh, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said hearing rape used as a punchline can be deeply painful for survivors and strengthens the attitudes that stop people reporting. She said anyone with a public platform, including performers, promoters and venues, should consider who is listening and the damage such material can cause, and that joking about sexual violence shows a poor grasp of what survivors have been through.
The BBC has published information and support links for anyone affected by the issues raised in the story.
What to watch next is how the BBC handles the concerns it says it is considering, given Angelone's upcoming role in Rewarding, and whether the comedian makes any further comment beyond his Instagram apology.
