Traffic Reporter Rips Body Shamer Who Criticizes Her ‘Pregnant’ Appearance: 'I Lost My Uterus to Cancer’

'Global News Morning Calgary' reporter Leslie Horton was praised as having the “clapback of the year” after responding on-air to a rude email

A Canadian news reporter is being praised for her on-air response to a troll who criticized her appearance, which was documented in a now-viral TikTok.

Leslie Horton, a traffic reporter with Global News Morning Calgary, was giving her usual traffic report on November 27 when she paused to respond to a rude viewer.

“I’m just going to respond to an email that I just got saying, ‘Congratulations on your pregnancy,” Horton began, while standing in front of the news station’s green screen.

The email continued, “If you’re gonna wear old bus driver pants then you have to expect emails like this,’” Horton, who has a teenage daughter, said.

“So thanks for that,” she replied dryly. “Um, no, I’m not pregnant. I actually lost my uterus to cancer last year. And um, this is what women of my age look like.”

The 59-year-old, who has been with the network for 26 years, shared that she was taking a leave of absence in January 2022. She wrote on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that “So.... sometimes the road ahead is not smooth sailing!  I'll be stepping back from 3:45 am wakeup calls for a while to take on a battle with cancer.  Let this new journey begin.... .”

The Vancouver native, who returned back to work last April, concluded her response to the troll by saying, “So if it is offensive to you, that is unfortunate. Think about the emails you send.”

Horton didn’t name the person who sent the email on-air, however their comments were nearly universally criticized after TikToker Sarantium posted the video, which has been viewed more than 560,000 times.

“This just makes me so mad. How dare someone reach out and say something so s—y,” Sarantium captioned the video, later commenting “She managed to call them out in such a beautiful and professional manner. I don’t think I could’ve been that composed.”

On X, Horton replied to fans and coworkers alike, including fellow Global News Canada TV Reporter Sean O’Shea, who labeled Horton’s reply the “clapback of the year.”

"Calling out the callous and cowardly critics on air:  announcing she had cancer,” O’Shea wrote.

After reading through the influx of positive messages, Horton wrote on X, “Thanks for all your kind messages this morning It took me hours to stop shaking...  but I'm shaking it off.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.