Art and Matilda Green have announced they have removed an episode of their wellness podcast in which they discuss COVID-19 conspiracy theories and vaccines with controversial chef Pete Evans.
The former Bachelor NZ stars prompted a wave of outrage when they released the Well & Good episode on Wednesday, in which Evans declares the pandemic "a f**king hoax".
In a statement published to both of their Instagram accounts the following day, the Greens insisted they "believed in being open to all opinions as a vehicle for learning", but they had received a "large amount of feedback" that some of Evans remarks on health "have the potential to cause harm".
The statement claimed that the Well & Good podcast aimed to interview a "wide range of guests offering many different views, philosophies and beliefs".
Some of the My Kitchen Rules judge's recent social media posts include an anti-vaccine meme about 'injecting humans with toxins at birth' and a suggestion that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Bill Gates are involved in a vaccine conspiracy.
"Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don't," the Greens statement continued. In the now-deleted episode, Art and Matilda praised Evan's "thought-provoking" approach to health issues multiple times.
"Nothing you've posted has been crazy or unhinged. It's all taken out of context and it's all sensationalised," Matilda told Pete in the podcast.
Art suggested the mass media were inclined to report on Evans in a biased way due to their ties with medical and pharmaceutical industries who felt threatened by Evans' views.
"We have made the decision to remove the podcast as it is not having the positive impact that we had intended," the statement concluded.
