Martijn Kleermaker looks back on hilarious 'sh*t interview': ''There was no harm behind it at all''

Martijn Kleermaker managed to reach the fourth round at the 2022 World Darts Championship by, among other things, recording a handsome 4-3 victory over Joe Cullen. After that match, 'The Dutch Giant' drew attention to himself with a special interview on Sky Sports.

On two occasions, Kleermaker uttered the word 'shit' in the interview with presenter Emma Paton. The use of that word on TV is generally frounded upon in the UK and as such, Kleermaker was interrupted by the interviewer, who apologised to viewers for the Dutchman's use of language.

There is often a penalty for using such words, but the disciplinary committee showed mercy to Kleermaker. ''I never got a warning for it,'' Kleermaker said on the podcast Double Top.

The darter from Harderwijk went on to say that he is struggling with hearing problems. ''Especially on the right side,'' Kleermaker explained. ''I have had hearing problems since childhood. They may be big, but they don't work properly. Over the past year, I have been to the ear specialist several times. I have a hole in my drum loss. They could close those, but because of all the flying they pop open again anyway. So that's actually of no use. As a result, I often suffer from ear infections. A hearing test gave me a score of 45 per cent, so I will have to get a hearing aid a bit sooner.''

As a result of hearing problems, Kleermaker could not hear the Sky Sports interviewer's questions properly. ''When you win a match like that, you have to be put down in the middle of the audience (for an interview, ed.). I didn't get an earpiece in or anything, at least then I could have heard very clearly what is being said. The lady asked me some questions and I just assumed it was a particular question, because I didn't hear it. So at one point I just started saying something haphazardly. In my adrenaline, I then momentarily forgot that swearing on English television is not really allowed.''

After the presenter apologised for Kleermaker's words, the Dutchman caused even more hilarity by responding with; ''that's no problem for me'', or, ''for me that's no problem''.

''Also that answer from her (the words of apology, ed.), I hadn't heard. So I said something like 'I don't care about that at all'. So there was no harm behind it at all, only it was also just a conversation between two people who actually couldn't understand each other at all because of the noise,'' Kleermaker said.