Jack Monroe 2 Wiki

Welcome to Jack Monroe Wiki 2

If you're here and you are new to Jack, please go to Wiki 1, where we have lots of info at the top for new frauen / herren.

Page 2 is dedicated to Jack's antics in 2022 and notable chaoi 2012-2021.

⭐Notable Jack events / chaoi 2012-2021⭐

For more detail on these, see the timeline on wiki page 5.

Live Below the Line - 2012
"Live Below the Line" is an annual charity fundraising event to raise money for Oxfam. Participants take part in a sponsored challenge to live on an amount equivalent to extreme poverty, for five days. In the UK, this means a maximum of £1 per day. Jack took part in Live Below the Line each year between 2012-15, and documented the experience on her blog. Even in 2012-2013, she said she was poor but did not normally live like this and that the challenge had been difficult for her. But a decade later, in her blog post "You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal", she shared photos from Live Below the Line as an example of her supposed everyday life in poverty. Claiming she had lived for days or weeks on dry toast or a small bowl of vegetables.

"Jackie" in the Mirror - 2012
In December 2012 the Mirror ran an article about Jack living in poverty and having just £10 a week for food, calling her Jackie because (she says) they thought it weird for a woman to have a masculine name. Jack made several claims in this article that she would later contradict, such as saying that she couldn't afford to drink (yet she told the Evening Standard that in 2012 she'd been getting sloshed on cans of value lager every night.) This was one of the first articles about her in the national press after she became known for "Hunger Hurts."

Bread and Jam Foundation - 2012-13
Jack ran a business that she called The Bread and Jam Foundation, or just Bread and Jam. She said that she made clothes, crafts, and homeware and donated the proceeds to local charities. Jack was so confident of its success that she left her regular job to run Bread and Jam full time. On her blog she repeatedly claimed that she was preparing to develop the business, sell through local shops, and open an Etsy store - only to backtrack and say nothing was confirmed yet. Perhaps the reason for its failure to launch was that what she wanted to sell was evidently made with a cheap crafting kit or from AliExpress-quality plastic tat glued together. Bread and Jam quietly died sometime in 2013 but was an early example of Jack's grift. More information/pictures/old blog posts about it here.

Iqbal Rafiq vs The SH1TTER - c.2012-13
Someone has been known to repeatedly comment on articles about Jack on the website of her local paper, the Southend Echo. They allege that she rented from a landlord named Iqbal Rafiq, and trashed his house, including breaking the toilet. She was evicted and left behind dozens of bags of poo (since, obviously, the toilet was no longer working.) As a result, Iqbal lost the house and has since had to work at Sainsbury's to repay his debts. The commenter refers to Jack as "the SH1TTER." We're inclined to take this with a pinch of salt, as this person sounds more than a little unstable and made some wild/implausible claims about Jack. But we still find it very funny.

Jack vs Richard Littlejohn - 2013
Right-wing columnist Richard Littlejohn attacked Jack in a column that portrayed her as your stereotypical Daily Mail caricature of a lazy, benefit-dependent single mother. He claimed she had deliberately chosen to leave her Fire Service job to live on benefits, and that SB's father wasn't involved in his life. Jack wrote a smug response where, among other things, she admitted she made some money from her blog - which she has since repeatedly denied.

Tattoogate - 2013
Jack was writing regularly for Waitrose's magazine and complained that they airbrushed out her tattoos in a photo used on the cover. She said that she always brought a long-sleeved shirt to photoshoots in case the publication did not want her tattoos on display. Waitrose apologised and said they were not discriminating against Jack, as they had previously featured her tattoos in the magazine. Jack ranted on Twitter and said she would soon share a blog post about how people treated her poorly because of her tattoos; but ultimately she never posted it. She said she chose to have tattoos rather than buy expensive bags or jewellery - even though she's often displayed both, and says she has been buying designer bags ever since her first book advance.

Jack Does Tanzania - 2014
Jack was hired as a guest blogger to go to Tanzania and write about various community projects funded by Oxfam. She wrote several blog posts and newspaper articles with a rather patronising tone, informing her audience that Africa isn't a country or universally poor, and expressing surprise that she has things in common with some Tanzanians. (They're from another country, Jack; not another planet). The fact that she was applauded for publishing this stuff is an example of the regard she was held in by the press at the time, as the palatable face of poverty in the UK. To see more, watch Jack's 'Female food heroes' video on YouTube and read this article in the Mirror.

Sainsburys Sacks Jack, Allegedly - 2014
It was reported in November 2014 that Sainsburys had ended its brand partnership with Jack, after she tweeted that then-Prime Minister David Cameron "uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends." (Cameron's son passed away in 2009 at age six.) Jack denied that Sainsburys had said anything to her about it. She was attacked in right-wing press, some of which accurately pointed out that Jack herself is known for using SB in sob stories. She has since claimed that she no longer shops at Sainsburys because they donate to the Conservative Party.
Source: Huffington Post article

Jack and the Birthmarks - 2015
On Facebook, Jack shared a news article about a child with disfiguring birthmarks, whose parents had tried to cheer her up by getting tattoos that looked like the birthmarks. Jack said that she'd had years of laser treatments for birthmarks on her legs when she was a child, and her parents pressured her to continue with the painful treatments, making her feel like she was ugly or not good enough. Her mother commented to say Jack is the one who insisted on having the birthmarks removed, while her parents patiently drove her to hospital appointments and supported her in any way they could.

Shut Yer Legs! - 2015
Jack had a clash with Michael Portillo on an episode of the TV show The Week, where she claimed that he had told her she shouldn't have got pregnant and should have "shut her legs." This is not in fact what happened, as we have the transcription for you here, along with a write up in the Huff Post. Jack has made dozens of claims of being told to "shut her legs" or "should have kept her legs shut" - at this stage it's basically just crying wolf, any plausibility is long gone.

Open the Doors, Jack's Coming Out the Closet - 2015
In late 2015, Jack announced on her blog that she was non-binary and would now use they/them pronouns and the title Mx. She said that she had been considering transitioning for a long time and that this had led to a breakup with a past fiancée - seemingly a policewoman she was engaged to in 2013. She also indicated she wanted top surgery and was on hormones. Jack gave an interview about her gender identity in the Observer; accompanied by a bizarre and highly stereotyped photoshoot.

Jack has now reverted to she/her pronouns, has not made any further mention of medical transition, and rarely talks about the subject any more. Unless it is to accuse her critics of being "TERFs" and/or brag that she was the first non-binary person in the UK to do something or other.

Jack vs the Mail and Echo - 2015
Jack had recently received an honourary doctorate, and changed her Twitter handle to Dr Jack Monroe. A writer in the Daily Mail gave the opinion that Jack shouldn't be allowed to call herself Dr. She does have the right to use the title, but has to put Hon. after it, i.e. "Dr Jack Monroe (Hon.)" At the time, Jack was writing a column for her local paper, the Southend Echo. The Echo published a letter from a reader who felt it wasn't fair that Jack gets to be a Dr, and that she is, in fact, a bit of a grifter. Jack wrote an irate response on her blog and subsequently left the paper. The Echo has since allowed many comments critical of Jack to be published on its website.

Heather and Jack/Broken Rainbow - 2016
Jack announced that she and her friend Heather were setting up a store together to sell books and art - including some pictures Heather drew for Jack's first book A Girl Called Jack. They subsequently held a fundraiser for the Pulse nightclub shooting, however, no proof of donation was ever shown. As of 2024 the shop's site is still up; Jack no longer promotes it, but the link can be found on her blog and social media. It includes a link to a print being sold in aid of the charity Broken Rainbow - which closed in 2016, shortly after Jack set up the store. Is Jack still making money from the site and if so, where is that money going?

Alleged wallet theft - 2016
Jack posted on Mumsnet's infamous "AIBU?" (Am I Being Unreasonable?) board. She said that she'd had an unpleasant encounter in a pub beer garden with a woman who was aggressive to Jack and seemingly stole her wallet. Jack had to pay £2200 to a letting agent before her forthcoming house move, and would now have to go to the bank to withdraw it with ID. She claimed she had left her phone on the table with the video camera running, and it would have caught the theft on tape. Jack planned to not only go to police, but social services over the offender's treatment of her kids.

She never followed up on this particular story, but the following day she moved into a new house that evidently cost nowhere near as much as she said she was paying. Jack has repeatedly told her followers not to report people for stealing as they may be desperate and trying to feed their families. So, shouldn't she have extended the same courtesy to this mother?

I, Daniel Blake - 2016
I, Daniel Blake is a film directed by Ken Loach about the lives of people who live in desperate poverty because they have been denied benefits. Jack claimed in a Guardian article that the makers of the film had contacted her for "research", and tried to imply that the character of Katie was based on her. Just like she wanted, this led to mistaken reports in the press that I, Daniel Blake was partly inspired by her life. (The script was actually written around 2010, when she says she was not yet in poverty.) She subsequently gave a melodramatic review, saying she was so moved by the film that she had burst into noisy sobs and punched a wall outside the cinema.

MrsGloss&TheGoss - 2016-2017
Jack joined MrsGloss&TheGoss, a popular Facebook group about fashion, beauty, and makeup. She shared photos of numerous new hairstyles, clothes, and beauty products - many of which were high end brands like Chanel. Understandably, this raised questions over how someone who claimed to be poor could afford so many expensive things. Jack later claimed on Mumsnet that she only posted on MrsGloss&TheGoss because she thought it had a "confidentiality agreement." This is obviously ridiculous: it's a huge group with thousands of members and, although private, anyone can request to join.

Jack vs Katie Hopkins - 2017
In 2015, the writer Laurie Penny defended protesters who had vandalised the Cenotaph in London during an anti-austerity demonstration. Katie Hopkins attacked Jack on Twitter, confusing her for Penny; and falsely said that Jack was involved in the vandalism. When it was pointed out that Jack is not Laurie Penny, Hopkins said there was little difference between them and called Jack "social anthrax." She refused to apologise or back down on her remarks. Jack sued for libel and won £24,000 in damages when the case concluded in 2017. The court costs led to Hopkins losing her home, for which Jack expressed sympathy.

Grenfell - 2017
Jack volunteered at the scene of the Grenfell fire, and was tasked with sorting through donated clothes and shoes. She wrote a now-deleted blog post about this experience, where she gave a self-centered and patronising take on the tragedy and gave the false impression that she was an ex-firefighter. In the blog post and on Twitter, she gave an obviously made-up story of being waved through a police cordon, somehow obtaining plans for the building, and being in contact with lawyers and architects. All of this was used to draw attention to herself, rather than benefit others. The Metro and other publications described her as an ex-firefighter, which was just what she wanted.

Jack Does Politics - 2017
In 2017, Jack stood as an independent candidate for MP of Southend West. This met with a very negative response from local voters, who accused her of promising more than she could deliver, and only running for office for her own glory. They were also concerned that she would split the left-wing vote in the area; the NHS was a key issue, and the Green Party had already agreed not to run against Labour. Jack withdrew three weeks later citing arthritis, death threats, and concerns for SB's safety.

Jack vs Jamie Oliver (#1 onwards) - 2020
In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Channel 4 launched a show called Keep Cooking and Carry On about cooking with store cupboard leftovers. Jamie Oliver was announced as the host, and Jack wasn't happy. She ranted on Twitter that the show should have been hers, and "That Man" (Jamie) had taken over her "niche genre." She's hardly the first person to cover budget cooking or cooking from tins. It's been done so many times it barely counts as a niche.

Jack's followers began attacking Jamie, and she attempted to marshal support for her to be given her own TV show. She also started a daily Twitter thread for recipes, trying to "compete" with Jamie. The BBC eventually placated her with a two-week stint on Daily Kitchen Live which you can see from the links above. More details about the Jack vs Jamie saga here.

Jack Lives Matter (#22-#23) - 2020
Jack was criticised for making a monetised video in support of Black Lives Matter, from which she said she would donate the profits but never showed any proof of donation. At that time, she had a brand deal with Hellmans, and did a livestream with them every week. One of these lives was due to take part on Blackout Tuesday, a planned initiative to stop posting on social media for one day in solidarity with Black victims of police violence.

A squig who had been invited to take part in that week's live asked Hellmann's if it was still going ahead. They said they'd check, and later confirmed it had been postponed. The squig was left with the distinct impression that Jack had no idea about Blackout Tuesday, and she'd had to hastily cancel the live after finding out. Jack claimed to have made the bold decision to postpone the live herself even though Hellmans threatened to end her contract. She had to backpedal on this after questions from the influencer Alexis Adjei, who alleges that Hellmans cut her scenes out of a TV advert because she is Black, called out Jack for working with them while professing to be anti-racist. The postponed live eventually went ahead but was a disaster, with Jack obviously poorly prepared and Hellmans only allowing pre-approved contributors.

Jack vs David Walliams (#39-#40) - 2020
Jack launched a Twitter crusade against David Walliams, whose books she described as "Little Britain for kids" and "sneering classist fatshaming grim nonsense." She gave several examples of elements from his books that she found offensive, including saying that a character clearly intended to be white was a racist stereotype of a Black person. Jack accused Walliams of lying about writing the books himself, and suggested he was a cocaine user. She then backtracked and claimed she was actually making fun of drug use in the publishing industry.

The For Sale Sign (#73) - 2020
Jack tweeted that she had woken up to find a For Sale sign on the lawn of her rented home, with no warning. She called the agency and was told it was a mistake and the sign had been placed at the wrong property. There followed a string of self-pitying tweets where she said she was crying and panicking because she'd had to move home so many times, and all she wanted in life was a stable home for her and SB. She announced she was taking a break from Twitter to "feel all the things." Five minutes later, she instead decided to chop down the For Sale sign because it would have upset SB - instead, he could just go on Twitter and read all about it. Tweet thread can be seen here.

Peeky_Mink (#74 onwards) - 2020
Tattler @Veronicaaa triangulated () a Twitter account called @Peeky_Mink as being a personal account of Jack's (here's why.) While Jack was pleading poverty on her main account, saying she was on a £20 food budget, @Peeky_Mink detailed frequent Ocado deliveries and generally enjoying the good life. The account was quickly made private when Tattle spotted it, and eventually deleted.

CAROLE MALONE IS AWAY (#119-#120) - 2020
In late December 2020, Jack stood in for Carole Malone as a guest columnist in the Daily Express. Jack's fans might have been wondering why she was writing for a pro-Tory, pro-austerity paper whose values are the polar opposite of hers. It was surely a coincidence that Jack only mentioned the fact of her column appearing (and that she'd bought three copies of the paper) late in the evening, when newsagents were shut. However, the canal had copies of the column with Jack's face next to the announcement that CAROLE MALONE IS AWAY.

Jacknapped (#123-#124) - 2020
When Jack claimed on Twitter that she'd been abducted and traumatised as a child, leading to days of "selective mutism." Her mother posted about it on Facebook and said that what actually happened was that a stranger tried to lead Jack out of the park but was stopped.

The Tea is Coming from Inside the House - IRL friend of Jack appears (#143 onwards) - 2021
A new frau appeared on Tattle claiming to be a former IRL friend of Jack who has known her since high school. We can't confirm anyone who posts here is who they say they are - however she seems legitimate as she spoke to site moderators. She alleged that:

• Jack was clever at school but easily distracted and didn't work hard. She was not expelled
• Her parents are middle class and she was not the poorest girl in school
• Jack got her Fire Service job through nepotism. Her mother offered to help with childcare but she resigned because she refused to work shifts
• Jack is a lazy parent and often leaves her son's father to pick up the slack
• She had financial difficulties but not so bad that she had to sell everything she owned
• She has never (to the poster's knowledge) been a sex worker or had an eating disorder
• Jack ditched some of her old friends when she moved to London to live with Allegra, others drifted away because she was unreliable
• Jack did lose her Sainsbury's brand deal and was upset about it, she didn't intend to be as nasty as she came across but her sudden "fame" went to her head
• She has always preferred older, richer partners. Between 2010-18, apart from Allegra and Louisa, she had at least two other engagements (one of whom was the policewoman) and 7 other relationships

The poster subsequently hinted that Jack had sent her a threatening legal letter.

The GoHenry Saga (#156-#157) - 2021
GoHenry is a company that provides a bank card for under-18s. Jack repeatedly stated, including on her social media and blog, that she used a GoHenry card when grocery shopping and had to lie about her age in order to open the account. She said she needed the card so that she could use its spending control feature to make sure she did not go over her very strict budget. A squig reported her to GoHenry, which closed the account. Jack then complained that someone had been impersonating her, and said she would involve police.

Jack Vs School Discipline (#176-177) - 2021
Jack attacked a school on Twitter ("School X") because they had tested a new government scheme for managing behaviour. She said that the school's approach was harmful and implied they were grooming children to join the military. She publicly accused her old school of causing her lifelong mental health problems, and destroying her future, by failing to accommodate her ADHD. When Tom Bennett pointed out she was being somewhat unfair to School X, Jack threatened to sue him - even though he'd said nothing offensive or untrue about her, and had even asked critics to leave her alone. She got into arguments with squigs who pointed out that Jack went to a grammar school, whereas School X is a regular (non-selective) school that already has problems with behaviour - in some schools this can be very serious, e.g. knives and fights. Jack denied her parents were wealthy at the time she attended grammar school, this is when she said her dad is a "Marxist-Leninist landlord."

⭐2022 Highlights⭐

Corporate collaborations / promotions
In 2022 Jack was hired by:

- Netflix (Jan - tail end of Robin Robin with Aardman films)
- Twitter (April - campaign to use up leftovers)
- the Lorraine Show on ITV - Super Savers (April - cheap recipes to counter the cost of living rise)
- Superdrug (announced May - campaign to lower the prices of basic hygiene products, including sanitary). However the campaign never materialised and Jack has since hinted she lost the brand deal. Possibly because of her online theatrics, defending shoplifting, and/or blogging about how she could not afford shower gel or shampoo despite the wide range of budget friendly products available at Superdrug, which they were paying her to promote.

In the second half of the year Jack was due to speak at various media interviews / conferences (we assume these were booked to promote Grifty Thrifty Kitchen, but the book was delayed) - she was unprofessional / off message on some (watch/listen Edinburgh book festival with Kit de Waal, (or read transcript extracts). Radio 4 interview, Hastings literary festival), or late (Bristol book festival with Jay Rayner, Radio Scotland interview) or simply did not turn up for others (Glastonbury, Wales Housing conference).

In spite of this work (together with her patreon / books / speaking slots on radio & TV), Jack has frequently claimed to have less than £50 in her account at various points in the year.

Rising food prices and the ONS survey / the Vimes Boots Index (#242 onwards)
On 20 January 2022, Jack claimed that food prices for the poorest using basic goods, were rising faster than for everyone else. Wild claims of the cost of rice rising by 344% were thrown around. The ONS went off to track the price of the cheapest grocery basket products and published an update on 30 May 2022. This research showed that figures for all groceries are essentially tracking more or less the same and at similar rates of inflation (6-7%).

To challenge this, Jack announced she was working on the "Vimes Boots Index" (VBI) - her own index of how much she says prices of the cheapest foods have risen, as opposed to the ONS' official index. She made a call for evidence on 24 January 2022 and provided examples of receipts she'd like submitted.

The name comes from the Terry Pratchett novel Men at Arms, in which the character Sam Vimes reflects on false economy and the hidden costs of poverty in relation to the boots he wears with his military uniform. Needless to say, there's an obvious difference between buying food and buying boots (even cheap ones you have to replace regularly.) See "In-jokes" on page 5 for more.

In an interview with BBC News, Jack claimed to have been working with the ONS in 'collaboration' (gently, softly, behind the scenes) although appeared to not have understood their new figures when posting on Twitter. This was backed up by an article in the Telegraph stating that she was wrong and that the ONS figures were correct. At a talk in Glasgow in June 2022, Jack claimed that 'the VBI is sanctioned and signed off by the ONS'.

By the end of 2022, the Vimes Boots Index, which she claimed to have started in January 2022, remained unpublished (apparently still lingering in a set of lever arch files in the shitty bungalow). Jack has stated that she needs to complete a UK wide tour of the poorest places, to go see what's on the shelves in each location and whether anything is in stock - it's unclear how this set of datapoints will be statistically relevant.

It now appears that rice has not in fact gone up by 344%.

UPDATE: A Freedom of Information (FOI) request was made to the ONS regarding Jack's involvement with them both in terms of regular mtgs / engagement about price indices, the workings of the VBI and other matters. They responded in September 2022 to confirm that other than one informal meeting (not minuted) with Jack on 28 January 2022, she is not working with them or involved on a regular basis - this is at odds to a number of tweets / interviews during 2022 where she implied heavily that they were in an ongoing relationship and that she had been responsible for changing their strategy of price indices tracked.

T-shirt fundraising (#251 onwards)
In early February 2022, Jack launched a charity t-shirt shop on Teemill. The shirts had tasteless slogans. She said the profits would go to the Trussell Trust. She then decided money would also go to other, unnamed food bank charities, too. She got some flack on Twitter for the slogans, all of which are politically provocative:

• "This is an Eton Mess"
• "Dead People Can't Riot" (named after a poem Jack wrote)
• "No Bread, Just a Circus"
• "This (T-shirt/bag) paid for three days (sic) emergency food for someone who in a fair society wouldn't have to rely on the macro philanthropy of strangers in order to eat." That would be micro philanthropy.

She said Trussell Trust were fully on board and she claimed to have raised just over £10k from tshirt sales in a couple of days.

After a few days it transpired Trussell Trust only found out about the fundraising after the fact. They didn't approve the slogans. Jack had to backpedal a bit and said money up to the declared 'just over £10k' would go to Trussell Trust, and other monies would go to the smaller charities previously mentioned.

What seems like a lifetime later, she eventually donated around £11k to Trussell Trust saying it was the tshirt money. Jack only donated the Teemill money after a journalist started investigating her. And she wasn’t actually transparent, we saw the end amount donated, but not how much had actually been raised.

UPDATE: Jack's Teemill shop remained open with donations apparently going to charities from February to September 2022, when it suddenly closed on 21 Sept 2022 after another lengthy discussion on Tattle about it. During that time, the blurb on the shopfront continued to state that 100% of the profits were going to the Trussell Trust, even though they were not (they confirmed in a tweet that they did not take any profits beyond 2 February 2022). Jack stated repeatedly that profits were going instead to small, unnamed charities, but refused to disclose the details of them (which is odd as most small charities would really want the publicity).

She claimed that proof of donations to the smaller charities through September 2022 were provided "at the time" but this is false - the only screenshots she ever posted related to the larger Trussell Trust donation. When the project was first announced Jack promised complete transparency and regular updates, which did not happen.

Although the shop is now closed, you can see what was sold and the slogans of the merchandise, in our archive here.

UPDATE: On 1 November 2022 a post appeared on Jack's blog titled 'Jack Monroe’s ‘Dead People Can’t Riot’ & ‘This Is An Eton Mess’ Merchandise Raises £11,369 For UK Food Banks'. In the blog, Jack explained that after the initial donation to the Trussell Trust, the remaining profits had been donated to a local Southend food bank (used by Jack during the poverty). She provided an undated receipt to prove her point, and did not explain why the multiple charities which she'd previously referenced (and which she'd asked her followers to nominate), had not received the donation instead.

Georgia Church Suppers (#292 onwards) : On 22 April 2022, and in an effort to show solidarity with Eastern European cookery writers, after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Jack published a list of her favorite cookbooks from the area. Included in the list was this 'absolute banger', ostensibly from Georgia (the country), but actually from the state of Georgia USA: Georgia Church Suppers - currently only available on kindle (although at least one frau has a paperback copy ). It is fair to say that the evening of this 'error of geography because of a failure at GCSE level' as Jack is now describing it (as of September 2022), was one of the most hilarious of all these threads.

The Short Sweet Saga of The Other Half (OH) / The Dordrecht Mystery (March #264 for the arrival of the stetson -June 2022)
See here for a history in tweets.

In March 2022 Jack declared she was in a new relationship with someone she referred to as her "Other Half" or "OH." The canal started calling him Old Harold after the "Hide the Pain Harold" meme. Jack said that he was very private and not on social media; but then happily shared photos of his house for the world to see. She tried to ingratiate himself with his family, whom she referred to as "her outlaws." Jack dropped heavy hints that she and OH were already planning to get engaged and buy a house together after just four or five months of dating at the very most. Within a month of making the relationship public, she had started following wedding companies on social media.

Jack announced in June that she was going to Dordrecht for a break with OH. She made it sound like a planned romantic holiday, however there is some evidence she was tagging along on his business trip. That weekend, she returned from Dordrecht and went straight to Scotland to speak at a voluntary sector event. The event included a black tie dinner where she showed up in an old shirt and jeans, having chosen to wear the only clothes she had brought to Dordrecht rather than buy something suitable. Jack's tweets indicated she was in good spirits and still together with OH (saying he'd talked her out of trying to wear her hotel bedsheet as a dress to the dinner, and that they had plans to go to a barbecue together.) But a few days later she announced they had broken up and that he had left!

This caused much speculation among the canal about what might have happened on the Dordrecht trip. We refer to this as "The Dordrecht Mystery" and may never know the truth. Jack has since suggested OH didn't like her dress sense or tattoos, and had told her to "prioritise seeing a doctor" - presumably for her mental health or substance abuse.

Canal members with connections to OH alleged that:

• He is considerably older than Jack
• He is indeed not on social media, and hadn't heard of her before they met
• They were set up on a blind date by mutual friends in December 2021 and had been dating for around three months when Jack first mentioned him. So the relationship lasted about six months from start to finish
• He doesn't work in a shop like Jack said, but has a six-figure, C-suite job in a finance-adjacent field. His family is also very wealthy. This makes it even more outrageous that Jack wanted to buy a house together as soon as possible!
• OH's family liked Jack, but his brother was somewhat concerned about how invested she was in the relationship.
• The trip to Dordrecht, and another holiday in Venice, were paid for by OH - not from her Patreon funds.
• OH ended the relationship because of Jack's constant IRL drama. She couldn't handle it, and sent him abuse after HE LEFT
• Something did indeed happen in Dordrecht that drove OH to break up with Jack, but what it was is still a mystery.

Threat to sue MP Lee Anderson, Martin Daubney and Laurence Fox (#303 onwards and continued in wiki 3)
In April 2022, Jack accused Lee Anderson of libel (or slander, all legal terms are interchangeable) when he stated on an interview with the Reclaim Party’s social media, that she was 'taking money off some of the most vulnerable in society'. She started counting the views on the video, republishing the count on her own Twitter feed and talking to her pro bono (or no win no fee - again, all interchangeable) lawyer in Israel to take them to court.

Laurence Fox got involved and even sent her a fiver after she announced people could contribute to her legal fees (for a court case that her lawyer hasn't even agreed to take yet) via Paypal. She then swiftly started discussing / planning how to spend the winnings from her court case that hadn't been taken by a lawyer, let alone made it to court and won. The canal are thrilled as we planned our court outfits two years ago and we may finally get a chance to wear them.

She also started making frequent references to her "team of paralegals", presumably in an attempt to instil fear in anyone who dares to criticise her. In an interview on Tortoise media in May 2022, Jack confirmed to the presenter that legal proceedings were underway (listen from 11 minutes onwards).

UPDATE: In a Twitter exchange during September 2022, Martin Daubney (having read 'Saint or Scammer' post) confirmed that no legal action had been taken by Jack Monroe to date against any of the parties named above. Anderson corroborated this in a Facebook post on 3 November 2022. Which begs the question - where has all the money gone which was donated via Paypal to this cause? By the end of 2022, it had not been donated or returned to donators, in a transparent fashion.

UPDATE: On 13 May 2023 the statute of limitations for suing Lee and Martin expired. Please see wiki 4 for what happened on Happy 'Sue Lee' day and events following on from that.

The Man From the Mortgage Broker, He Say No (#314 onwards)
Jack tweeted about having a very important meeting at the bank. She didn't explicitly say what it was for, but said it was to do with her son and dropped heavy hints that she would finally get a mortgage and be able to buy a "forever home" for him. Two days later she said it was a "trial run" for a mortgage and she'd known all along that she wouldn't get it. This was a huge change in tone from how she spoke about it before. From what she said, Tattlers surmised she had tried to get a mortgage citing the proceeds of her Patreon as earnings from self-employment. They would have rejected her because it's not a stable income (if you are self-employed, it's difficult to get a mortgage even with a regular, consistent income.)

Jack Does Tinder (#330 onwards)
Around two weeks after OH walked out in June 2022, Jack told the world she was now on Tinder. Announcing on her professional social media account (which she says her 12-year-old son reads) that she was looking for casual sex. Her profile expressed that she would prefer a doctor and indicated she was looking for men only, strange given that she has frequently described herself as a lesbian. She then latched onto a man she called "The Teacher" and talked as if they were getting married after just a couple of days of knowing each other.

Jack tweeted every minute detail of her Tinder messages to her millions of followers, as if she were a 14-year-old writing in her diary. When followers expressed concern, she snapped that she'd been in several abusive relationships before, and knew what to look out for and how to stay safe. Why then was she comfortable with not only putting all her personal information on a dating app, but sharing it with millions on her public Twitter? As a single mother and semi-public figure, she would be an attractive target for predators.

Hunger Hurts 2 - 10 years on and the appearance of people repeating tattle on Twitter (#348 onwards)
On 31 July 2022, Jack published an article on her blog entitled 'The Curse of Poverty Hangover, 10 years on'. It was published for the 10th anniversary of "Hunger Hurts." In it she claimed amongst other things, that she was effectively in the same position she'd been in when she posted the original "Hunger Hurts" - despite having had a successful career in media for the last decade. She said she was back to pawning her possessions, unscrewing the lightbulbs, and had not purchased basic toiletries for two years. Her social media showed this was clearly not the case.

The blog ended, as usual, with a link to the tip jar and saw an outpouring of donations to both that Paypal link and to her Patreon (rising to 800+ over the course of that week), in the hours / days following. As usual, it looked like the grift was continuing and more money would be going into the Monroe coffers with absolutely nothing in return for Patrons.

Within 24 hours of the blog, an anonymous account appeared on Twitter: debunking in a drip-feed, many of the lies that Jack has told over the last 10 years. The account posted contradictory statements from Jack side by side on the feed - posts from JM's own account and various articles / blogs, which show the extent of both the lies - completely in her own words. The tweets went viral over the first week of August 2022, spreading far and wide over multiple social media channels, including to Mumsnet (which does not usually allow overt criticism of JM).

Having published a number of posts during August 2022, they followed up with a post on Medium platform on 21 August 2022, entitled 'Jack Monroe: Saint or Scammer'.

During 2022 the consensus view on Twitter was a dawning, more widespread, realisation that JM is both a compulsive liar and a grifter, together with a growing amount of piss-taking / mocking. Whilst there was no cancellation, more and more questions were being asked - including by journalists coming out into the open for the first time. Even Nigella found Jack's claims to be 'unfathomable'.

Tom Kerridge, chaos on the Jewish sabbath, and potential insta shade from Gordon Ramsay (#355 onwards)
On 6 August 2022, in a quickly deleted post, JM accused Tom Kerridge of stealing her ideas for the Full Time Meals campaign. Things unravelled over the course of a long Saturday, with Jack claiming that an orchestrated (but smallish) takedown was taking place on said day, because her lawyer is Jewish and therefore couldn't be working either pro bono or 'no win no fee' in order to read all of the malicious tweets (which may or may not have come from an alleged Tory bot farm) on the sabbath. Various Twitter accounts requested that the Patreon income be made public - to date this hasn't happened.

Multiple Jack socks were deployed on both Twitter and Mumsnet as she tried to defend herself, whilst also claiming to be having 'a lovely day' in the park with the famalam (some / none of whom may have been present). There were rumblings via professional food Twitter, that people were not happy, and had plenty more to say on the matter. By the end of the weekend, Gordon Ramsay had reposted a TikTok video on his main insta which whilst it had been recorded a few days earlier, may or may not have been shade over the Jack / Jamie Oliver / recipe stealing sitch - if you know you know!

Care costs confusion (#365 onwards)
Jack complained about the rising cost of adult social care, and shared a fragment of a letter that someone close to her had received from their local council. She said that they currently paid £24.80 a week towards their care but would now have to pay £180.81- an overnight increase of more than six times the cost. What the letter actually said was that the person would owe either the maximum charge (£24.80) or the full cost of care (£180.81), "whichever is the lower amount." Therefore they would pay £24.80. Squigs who had received similar letters confirmed this and pointed out that the cost is means-tested. Jack insisted this was "misleading" on the council's part and people were "jumping in with the wrong end of the stick," doubling down on her evident lack of reading comprehension.

Journalists start sniffing around - August 2022 (#374 onwards)
26/08/2022: freelance investigative journalist Matei Rosca starts questioning the financial situation
29/08/2022: an in-depth investigative blog from indie author and blogger, Katie Roche is published

By the end of August 2022, questions were continuing to be asked, this time about the origins of Jack dissing the poors in a 2013 article entitled 'Food Poverty, you think it doesn't happen to normal people', written by Patrick Butler of the Guardian. After maintaining she was tricked by the journalist into making inappropriate comments about poor people, whilst early in the public eye and naive, testimony from a few days earlier (which had triggered the article in the Guardian) in the House of Commons, was unearthed and posted on Twitter. The dates show clearly that the Guardian article was published after she had already, voluntarily, made the statements below in the HoC. It would appear therefore that Jack lied about her timeline and actions.

31/08/2022: House of Commons interview republished 'benefits, tracksuit, Jeremy Kyle' mentioned (recorded June 2013).

UPDATE:
10 November 2022: Josephine Bartosch published an article in The Critic 'The panhandlerati: what are the ethics of asking for money'?
11 November 2022: Mallika Basu published an article on the More Than Curry website 'Navigating the cost of cooking crisis sensitively: read the room, reality check and stay in your lane'. In the first paragraph of this - Mallika links to clout chasing accounts and says that Jack's lived experience as a frugal cook / expert is now contested.
17 November 2022: The Daily Mail published an article 'Ongoing row between anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe and detractors who claim her hardships 'don't add up' flares up on social media'. We have an archive copy stored for those who don't like to click through to the DM. They also published a link to it on Twitter. Whilst comments were turned off on the article, they were lit on Twitter. Check it out here on Nitter.
6 February 2023: Katie Roche posts a follow-up investigation on her website.

Burger Boy and Sex Jack (#378 onwards)
Jack has been known to share a little too much information about her sex life. This came to a head (no pun intended) in August 2022 when she tweeted in the middle of the night that she had been enjoying a six-hour shagathon with her "delicious new beau." More details were shared, of an increasingly graphic nature. Jack referred to this man as "Burger Boy" because she said the epic sex happened after he took her out for burgers. Their night of passion supposedly ended around 3am when he left abruptly "to start his shift at work". Sure, Jack.

However, questions have been raised as to whether he really exists or Jack made him up to make OH jealous - this was only a couple of months after she had just broken up with OH. If so, it's concerning that Jack thinks being "pumped and dumped" sounds romantic or would make her ex want her back!

An own-goal by Diva.pdf (#400 onwards)
During September 2022, Jack continued to complain of a 'targeted campaign' of bullying / harassment on Twitter. After a manic weekend of tweeting over 17/18 September preceding the Queen's funeral, things finally (and blessedly) went quiet. Various tweets were deleted and by 20 September, it was clear that Jack was 'gently, softly, behind the scenes' asking if people would post supportive messages on Twitter. In what turned out to be a spectacular own goal for their PR team (probably one unpaid intern), Diva magazine .pdf took up the cause - this lead to an outpouring of negative tweets which they then hid / deleted over the course of the day. Fortunately we have them archived though - you can read the replies here.

Campaigner of the Year? (#402 onwards)
In September 2022 Jack was nominated by the Pink News for 'Campaigner of the Year' and asked her Twitter followers to vote for her. When asked what campaigns she'd delivered she provided a range of suggestions here and here. Truth or lies? Decide for yourself...

UPDATE: The award winners were announced on 20 October 2022, and after a tedious evening of watching the live feed (which was probably made up of c.20 frauen / herren online), we were relieved to see that Jack had been beaten by Nemat Sadat (total twitter followers c.4000). You can read all about it in Pink News here.

Potatopocalypse (#404 onwards)
In September 2022 Jack shared a photo of some roast potatoes allegedly cooked by her mother. We've saved them for posterity so you can decide for yourself about their quality!

A Twitter user known only as Tom gave the opinion that these potatoes looked "dire" and "shite." Jack lashed out, saying that Tom was unfairly picking on her disabled mother. It's only ok to criticise someone else's food when it is Jack sneering at people's trifles. She and her squigs continued to pile on Tom for around 36 hours, calling him an evil bully. Meanwhile, there wasn't a word from Jack about the news of the pound crashing to record lows against the dollar.

On 26 September, Jack complained that she was being trolled and the tweets were upsetting her mother (Jack did not read them out, her mother is on Twitter, thank you!) She casually mentioned that she was upset because two friends had just died, one of whom had "topped himself". A truly sensitive way to break this news, on her professional account no less. She then flounced and deactivated her Twitter. Squigs soon began to suspect that her absence was not about potatoes, but increasing concern over Jack's Patreon and Teemill funds along with the rest of her grift.

Many jokes and memes at Jack's expense ensued on Twitter, but a crowd of loyal fans continued to defend her; demanding that others be kind, while expressing sentiments such as wishing death on people who had made fun of Jack. The morning after deleting her Twitter, Jack had returned to Instagram, proving that she can't be off social media for more than a few hours. Her Twitter account was restored less than a week later. Due to Jack uncharacteristically disappearing mid-argument with Tom, fraus believe her Twitter deletion came after her agent and/or family staged an intervention.

Blocked and Reported / BBC Scotland (#407 onwards)
Blocked and Reported (BARPOD) is a US podcast hosted by Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog. You can listen to the first 10 minutes of it here and also view an image of the paywalled descriptive blurb from the creators.

The podcast generally focuses on internet drama, usually but not always of the political variety. On 28th September 2022 (US time - so, early in the morning of the 29th for the UK) a new episode of the podcast was released focusing on Jack. Singal and Herzog had approached her for commentary but she declined to say anything. Her knowledge of the upcoming podcast may have been the reason for her Twitter flounce.

Singal and Herzog referenced Tattle and thanked us for our "receipts"; they also claimed to have had help from a Tattle user in compiling the episode. It contains nothing new to Tattle but gives a detailed history of Jack's lies and scams, aimed at a mostly US/Canada-based audience that won't have heard of her before. Later that morning Jack appeared in a live phone-in on BBC Scotland, she sounded very strange (possibly from a cold and/or medication) and gave very generic, largely useless advice about saving money.

2022 Food Hero - Jack Monroe! (#415)
On 13 October 2022, Jack was announced as the winner of the Observer Food Monthly awards for Food Hero 2022 - an award which was apparently voted for by the public (voting closed in June 2022 - prior to the publication of HH2). Jack appeared at the awards to accept her prize, but the Twitter feed announcing her win was lit with disappointed commentary. You can read the puff piece about her win here. Will she win a popular vote ever again? We shall see...

The Clean Up: Patreon password located (#422 onwards)
On 31 October 2022 Jack finally updated her Patreon with a new post entitled 'Dear Patrons - I'm Sorry'. You can read the text here, here and here. An online post also showed a performative table (and newish Macbook Air) full of items due to be posted out. The text of the mea culpa had a whiff of a helping hand in the narrative (excuses) - not least because 'thank you' was spelled correctly! Jack had previously alleged that she was unable to update her Patreon for many (lazy) reasons, including that Caroline had the admin password and hadn't shared it with her when she left.

Prior to 'Dear Patrons' appearing, there was some 'cleaning up' and attempted damage limitation both on the Patreon site (removal of all previous posts and negative comments), an update about Teemill on Jack's blog (see Wiki 1 for this update) and the apparent appearance of Jack's previous assistant 'Caroline' on Tattle in the week preceding (for more on this, see the Dramatis Personae section of wiki page 5).

All became clear as to the purpose of the great 'Clean Up', when within 24 hours on 1 November 2022, Jack started promoting pre-sales on Twitter of her new tome: Grifty Kitchen (or should that be Thrifty Kitchen)? So hard to keep up these days! This latest work can be yours, for the princely sum of £9.99 of your hard-earned - out in January 2023.

The sad demise of Essex Police Celebrity Squad (RIP) (#425)
During 2022 Jack stated a number of times that as a result of being hounded online, Essex Police had visited her property and were actively monitoring her social media at all times, for signs of nefarious behaviour. They had apparently also advised her that she must take a bodyguard with her for all public appearances (although there has been no sign of one to date). Following a Freedom of Information request, we were disappointed to learn on 3 November 2022, that Essex Police Celebrity Squad does not in-fact exist (bad & sad times).

Grifty Kitchen pre-promotion (#426 onwards)
Jack's new book - Grifty Thrifty Kitchen is out in January 2023 and the pre-promotion for it started officially around 1 November 2022. Tweets put out by Waterstones and by Bluebird Books (her publisher) have not met with a positive response however. It's also been noted that Jack's Twitter bio no longer contains a link to her agent. Stay tuned for details of book sales in the NY.

Turkish Barber Palaver (#429 onwards)
After weeks of silence on Twitter, Jack resurfaced on 19 November 2022 with cheerful tweets about moving house and a new haircut. She was keen to specify the barber was Turkish and they were best friends, despite her being GREEK. Predictably, she switched off commenting and ignored any mentions of her Patreon. In these tweets, Jack mentioned expensive home renovation plans and buying Farrow & Ball paint, along with sharing a photo where she was obviously wearing her Tiffany earrings but had blurred them out. This obvious display of wealth led squigs to question if she was renting or buying her new home, and exactly how much she was raking in from Patreon. Genuinely poor people, who had donated to her in good faith, wanted to know where their money had gone.

Jack picked up on this and her tweets took a darker tone, saying Certain People - "you know who you are!" (presumably including the canal) were making her suicidal with their comments about her. She ranted about her mental health and threatened legal action, then deleted her Twitter again for the second time in as many months. Just before she deactivated, she appeared to have been tweeting from her camera roll (or WhatsApp images): including the famous trifle, what looks like SB in a Wetherspoons, and an old photo of Allegra. Was it drunk, accidental, or is there another explanation? Jack's friendship with the Turkish barber seemingly didn't last, as less than two weeks later she had yet another new hairstyle.

If you're too EXHAUSTED to read the full thread from the weekend, then there's a great summary of 24 hours on Twitter from @Zelda.

Cancellation, Cancellation! (#432 onwards)
On 23 November Jack was due to speak at the CHC Annual Conference in Wales as headline act. On the morning of the conference, her keynote speech at 11:00 was replaced (and really, thank goodness as she knows nothing about poverty in Wales) by Liz Zeidler. Right up until the evening of 22 November, the draft timeline had been shown as her attending. What could have happened?

Concurrently in the same 24 hour period, on 22 November the Guardian started advertising a ticketed 'live' on 11 January 2023 with Jack. Within 24 hours the event had been pulled due to 'unforeseen circs' aka - many neggy comments online.

Cancellation at last??? Or a flounce? Time will tell.

By December 2022, the Guardian's list of contributors no longer highlighted her as a writer on food, even though she'd written three or four articles for them that year. Is this connected to her event being cancelled?

Silencing the TROLLCLAIMS (#436 onwards)
On 6 December 2022, clout chasing anon Twitter accounts that repost Tattlers' comments posted a recap of some of Jack's past shenanigans including her Patreon grift. Jack said on Twitter that she would address some of the criticisms aimed at her, aka "TROLLCLAIMS." She shared a selfie to prove that she didn't have "£500 worth of Botox" in her forehead. That doesn't mean she hasn't had Botox before; and the lines on her forehead appeared to have been outlined with pencil to make them look deeper. Jack then said she was going to bed and would return in the morning.

She resurfaced in the middle of the night saying SB was very ill and having trouble breathing. If that were true, she should have called an ambulance or at least be watching him - not tweeting. She tried to suggest he was affected by Strep A or black mould, both of which were in the news after the deaths of children. Jack appears to have been "inspired" by a well known account that had recently made a touching post about their son.

Squigs asking about Jack's Patreon rewards were not deceived, and called her out on using her child (who probably was ill, just not to the extent Jack said) as a distraction. Much to the canal's sorrow, she vanished and did not address any more TROLLCLAIMS.

Agent musical chairs (#438 onwards)
Ever since the Potatopocalypse, Jack had been uncharacteristically quiet on her main Twitter account (she's still been arguing with people on alt accounts.) In early December 2022 her agent tweeted to remind her they were due to have a "chat." Less than two weeks later, the canal discovered Jack was no longer with this agency (United Agents) and had gone back to her old agent, Adrian Sington. He is now at Kruger Cowne, but was previously at DCD Publishing where Jack worked with him before switching to United. This is very interesting, because Jack has repeatedly claimed that her agent before United stole a large amount of royalties from her. It's also unusual for someone to change agents right before their new book is released.

Was Jack asked to leave, or was she dissatisfied with United? (Perhaps she blamed them for her losing work, or didn't like being asked to rein in her social media tantrums.) Why go back to her old agency? Has her career really tanked so far she had no choice but to return to an agent she cannot trust to pay her? Or was that another lie - if so, why is Adrian happy to work with someone who has tried to publicly discredit him and DCD (of which he was the CEO at the time?) We wait to see if any of these questions will be answered in future.

Jack's new profile - for speaking engagements at Kruger Cowne, is here.

This concludes 2022. 2023 highlights start in Wiki 3.

2022 Patreon stats

The analysis of her Patreon income through December 2022 is available here. Thank you to @heretoreaditall2019 for the sterling work on the tracker. 2023 stats are in Wiki 3.