AJ Odudu says she felt ‘pressure’ to speak out following killing of George Floyd

The television presenter told Women’s Health’s Going For Goal podcast she was contacted by some of her white friends asking what they should do or say following the killing of the unarmed black man in the US.

“I thought, ‘Go away, I don’t want to talk about this to you right now’,” she said.

“Why am I the oracle of information? Why am I suddenly the go to race relations expert?”

Odudu said she was also contacted by a number of black people who said they “need all the black presenters to speak”.

She added: “I thought, ‘Oh my God there’s so much pressure’.

“People really looked to you all the time to have the right answers and there’s a lot of pressure in that.”

Odudu also told the podcast she feels “much stronger mentally” than she did before the lockdown.

The television presenter told Women’s Health’s Going For Goal podcast she feels more “assertive” and “confident” than she did before the pandemic began.

She said she had made some “positive changes” in her life this year, adding: “I’ve dealt with traumas that I’ve clearly not dealt with in the past.

“I’m having conversations with close members of family and friends that I wouldn’t have had,” she said.

Listen to the full AJ Odudu interview on the Women’s Health Going For Goal podcast, available now.