Tourette's Syndrome campaigner John Davidson uses strong language at the BAFTAs: Alan Cumming asks for understanding

This year, ‘Traitors US’ star Alan Cumming took over the reins for hosting the glamorous award show for the night. During one of his segments, Cumming thanked the audience for their understanding, as during many of the speeches, strong language could be heard in the middle of the live broadcast.

Alan Cumming thanks the audience for understanding John Davidson

Referring to Tourette’s campaigner, John Davidson, and his involuntary outburst at the award show, actor and host Alan Cumming thanked the attending audience members for their “understanding” in the matter.




During one of his speeches in the middle of the award show, the actor cited, “You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience. Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”

He further added another statement about the same and shared, “Tourette’s Syndrome is a disability and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s Syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you are offended tonight.”

About John Davidson

John Davidson has Tourette’s syndrome and was the main inspiration behind the 2025 film ‘I Swear’, which helped actor Robert Amarayo land two titles at the award show tonight. During many of the speeches, a lot of curse words and other strong language words were heard in the background of the live broadcast. During Michael B Jordan's and Delroy Lindo's announcement speech for the award for best visual effects to ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ Davidson was also heard shouting the n-word as well.

Variety shared that Davidson was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome when he was 25 years old. The man was diagnosed very late in life, although his symptoms began when was only 12 years old. This resulted in him having uncontrollable tics, many of which include derogatory language and questionable statements.Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”