Steven Bartlett has been accused of ‘sharing harmful health misinformation’ through his Diary of a CEO podcast in an investigation run by the BBC. BBC World Service say they have analysed 15 health-related episodes of the podcast and found that each contained ‘an average of 14 harmful health claims that went against extensive scientific research’.
Steven, 32, who has gone on to star on Dragons’ Den, launched the podcast in 2017 and interviewed entrepreneurs from the founder of Airbnb to Molly-Mae Hague as they shared tips on their success.
However, since 2022, the podcast has seen an increase in health-based episodes, with monthly views of Steven’s YouTube channel rising from an average of nine million to 15 million following the shift in content.
The BBC has given examples of the alleged ‘misleading claims’ they found within the episodes, which includes, ‘anti-vaccine conspiracies, stating that Covid was an engineered weapon’, ‘poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, autism and other disorders can be “reversed” with diet,’ and ‘evidence-based medication is “toxic” for patients, downplaying the success of proven treatments.”
The BBC says when guests who present themselves as leading experts make these claims ‘their views receive little challenge.’
Cécile Simmons, from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue told the BBC in their report, ‘Health-related clickbait content with scary titles does really well online with the algorithm amplifying that.’
A spokesperson for Flight Studio, who produces the Diary of a CEO podcast, told Grazia, ‘The Diary Of A CEO (DOAC), is an open-minded, long-form conversation with world leaders, global experts, CEOs, athletes, authors, actors, and other individuals identified for their distinguished and eminent career and/or consequential life experience.
‘Each guest episode is thoroughly researched prior to commission. DOAC offers guests freedom of expression and believes that progress, growth and learning comes from hearing a range of voices, not just those Steven and the DOAC team necessarily agree with.
‘The BBC claims to have reviewed 15 specific episodes of nearly 400 published to date. For any reporting of DOAC to focus on less than 4% of episodes with an extremely limited proportion of guests - some of whom have featured on the BBC - to create a broader, and in our opinion, partial narrative is disappointing, misleading and frankly, disingenuous.’
Earlier this year, two Facebook adverts featuring Steen were banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for promoting products by brands Huel and Zoe without disclosing that he is an investor in the companies.
The founders of both companies have previously been guests on the Diary of a CEO podcast.
And in January, Steven came under fire for investing in Acu Seeds on Dragons’ Den. The beads, which are placed in the ear, falsely claimed to cure chronic fatigue condition ME.
The BBC received a number of complaints about the claims made during the episode and added a disclaimer to the iPlayer upload of the episode, which reads ‘Acu Seeds are not intended as a cure for any medical condition and advice should always be sought from a qualified healthcare provider about any health concerns.’
Samuel McManus is a senior content creator for Bauer Media, writing celebrity news and features across five of the company’s brands – heat, Closer, Grazia, Bella and Yours. Samuel has worked at Bauer Media since November 2024.