Ricky Gervais has been accused of bullying by former comedian and touring partner Robin Ince.

Ince, who quit comedy in 2015, made the allegations on an episode of podcast Starting The Line in July, but his comments have now resurfaced.

Ince was Gervais’ opening act during his stand-up shows in the 2000s and alleged that the bullying was so severe that it affected his health. He also said that Mackenzie Crook, Gervais’s co-star in The Office, once had to intervene.

“People who knew me did not like the way that relationship worked,” he claimed. “I am not saying it is a traumatic experience, but after two weeks, I came out in red lumps that my doctor said were a stress rash. I think my hair is coming out in clumps.

“I look back now, and I think it is bullying – really it is,” he said of the experience. “I’m very good at sometimes just acclimatising to things, in which you go, ­’Actually, this is really weird’.”

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Ince added that he hasn’t spoken to Gervais since 2022, when he called him out for making offensive comments about the transgender community.

NME has reached out to Gervais’s representatives for comment.

In other news, a Gervais skit was shown in a court hearing of a man who claimed he was copying the comedian when he allegedly did a Nazi salute outside a Jewish museum in Sydney.

In a clip played to the court, Gervais performs a mock Nazi salute while pushing his hair down to mimic Hitler, saying: “I do that quick so no one can take a picture of me doing that. Not a traditional subject for comedy the old Holocaust.”