Barry Keoghan responds to his name ‘being dragged across the internet’

Irish actor Barry Keoghan has responded to his name being “dragged across the internet” by asking for people to “please be respectful”.

It follows reports that the Saltburn star, 32, and his girlfriend, US pop star Sabrina Carpenter, have split.

On Saturday, the movie star from Dublin said he had deactivated his Instagram account because he can “no longer” let the hatred he has received “distract from my family and my work”.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, he said: “I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don’t respond too.

“I have to respond now because it’s getting to a place where there are too many lines being crossed.

“I deactivated my account (on Instagram) because I can no longer let this stuff distract from my family and my work.

“The messages I have received – no person should ever have to read them.

“Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine.

“Dragging my character and everything I worked extremely hard for and stand for.

“Talking about how I was a heroine baby and how I grew up and dragging my dear mother into it also.”

Keoghan has one child, Brando, with a former partner and has been outspoken about his difficult childhood, which saw him grow up in foster care and his mother die after struggling with drug addiction.

He added: “Each and every day I work harder to push myself on every level to be the healthiest and strongest person for that boy (his son).

“I want to provide opportunities for him to learn, fail and grow.

“I want him to be able to look up to his daddy, to have full trust in me and know I will have his back no matter what.

“I need you to remember he has to read ALL of this about his father when he is older.

“Please be respectful to all. Thank u x.

”Keoghan said he had read “absolutely disgusting” comments about his appearance online when he appeared on The Louis Theroux Podcast last month.

He also spoke about his son being used as “ammunition” against him.

“If I didn’t have tough skin or the strength to have, I wouldn’t be sitting here. Of course, (my childhood is) going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from,” he said.

“People just read that (as) laziness and go, ‘Oh, that’s no excuse to be an absent father’. I’m not an absent father.

“But it’s just, again, people love to use my son as ammunition or whatever. ”

In 2023, Keoghan won the Bafta best supporting actor prize for his role in dark comedy The Banshees Of Inisherin and also received an Academy Award nod for the role.

His other film roles include Martin in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017) and Dympna in Calm With Horses (2019).