James Wade has opened up about the moment he was left 'offended and upset' by iconic darts commentator Wayne Mardle.
The Machine was heavily criticised for confronting Seigo Asada during a match at the World Championship in 2018, which saw him shout at the Japanese player.
After winning the match, he then gave an aggressive interview, saying he wanted to “hurt” Asada. Wade, who suffers from bipolar, apologised for his actions, revealing he had suffered from a hypomania episode, which is a period of over-active and excited behaviour that can have a significant impact on day-to-day life and can be experienced as part of a mood disorder.
Wade has opened up that episode in the William Hill podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan.
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“After the incident, everyone jumped on the bandwagon and I was called a racist, a bully, a thug, all these things,” he recalled. “On that night I jumped around, shouted unintentionally in his face, and it was just unfortunate that he was standing where he was, I was unlucky there.”
On his post-match rant, Wade explained: “I was backed up by [presenter] Laura Woods because she said to hang on and see what I had to say, and I just came out with something that didn’t even make sense and was out of character for me.
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“But people had been asked by trained professionals to not put a camera in front of my face right after the game because I needed time to calm down, and it wasn’t helpful for me when they put a camera straight in my face.
“I was being judged as a guy that had just gone up there and been nasty, but that’s not what it was, I wasn’t very well and you do go through stages where you aren’t quite right, and no one took that into account.
“I wasn’t helped, I wasn’t backed, and I was just made to stand in front of a board [Darts Regulation Authority] and be told I was this and that and made to face the full consequence, even though everyone had been given professional opinions from trained people that it was what’s called a manic phase. It was unfair.”
One of the people to question Wade’s defence was Mardle, who implied mental health was used as an excuse for his behaviour.
“What was said by Wayne [Mardle] offended me massively and it upset me for him to question whether it was me using my problems as an excuse,” he said.
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