22 Kids and Counting’s Sue Radford ‘knocked for six’ as she shares sad news (Image: Channel 5)
Fans of the programme were left fuming after Sue Radford seemingly misguided them into thinking she had received a .
In the latest instalment, that aired on Sunday evening, Sue appeared unusually reticent and visibly agitated. Her husband, Noel, 54, expressed his worries as he shared: “I’m a bit worried about Sue, she’s been really quiet today which isn’t like her.
“She’s always like chatty, bubbly. Doesn’t seem the usual Sue. So I’m a little bit like ‘What’s going on?'”
Noel tried to coax out the cause of her distress by arranging a coffee date, which Sue missed. In a further move to improve the situation, he involved their daughter Sophie, aged 31, to whisk her mother off for a day in the hopes it would cheer her up.
The degree of Noel’s concern for his wife of 33 years intensified when he came across a dementia leaflet in their car, leading viewers down a path of erroneous assumption. It was later disclosed that the dementia scare was not related to Sue but to a long-standing friend of the family.
Sue was slammed as viewers thought she was the one with the diagnosis (Image: Channel 5)
Noel directly approached Sue for an explanation, to which she sorrowfully admitted that the issue involved her close friend who had been struck with early onset dementia. With heartfelt anguish, Sue confided: “I am sorry, it’s been awful. But now she’s told her family, I can tell you, so… she’s got early onset dementia.”
She continued: “It’s really upset me, especially when she’s got youngish children as well. You don’t expect that, do you?
“You kind of think, don’t you, that it’s something you get when you’re maybe 70, 80 – it’s not something you think of in your late 40s, is it? It’s knocked me for six. I feel like ‘Wow, that could happen to anybody, couldn’t it?”
Fans slammed the episode as ‘distasteful’ as they claimed they were set up to believe Sue had dementia. Taking to X/Twitter, one user said: “What a load of scripted nonsense, how can Sue just walk out and leave the children and Noel doesn’t seem to be at work.”
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Sue upset viewers as they thought she was ill (Image: Channel 5)
One more remarked: “Distasteful ….wanting to make people think Sue had dementia. Scripts need looking into.”
Another fan expressed disappointment, stating: ”Wow the show is really setting this up as though Sue has dementia. She doesn’t.
In defence of the show, one viewer wrote: “No one seems to have anything nice to say about the Radfords.
“Well I do. They work, they talk to their kids, they get on,they’re nice, they’re normal and I think they do a great job.”
Express.co.uk has approached Channel 5 and the Radfords’ representatives for comment.