Anne Hegerty, 61, shared a surprising story about the origins of her The Chase alter ego, The Governess, in view of her 126,000 followers. The ITV favourite revealed who chose her name on the programme as she weighed in on a debate about a new female Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle character. Anne spotted a Twitter user addressing another fan who believed people were “upset” about the character’s gender. They wrote in response to the suggestion: “I’m only seeing people upset by her name breaking the tradition and her using multiple weapons instead of just one.
“I ain’t seen a single person p****d that she’s female except by virtue of them wondering why they didn’t just bring the other chick turtle back.”(sic)
Anne shared her thoughts about the turtle’s monicker in response, as she replied: “I wish they’d called her Artemisia #gentileschi #bada**.”
The Chaser’s discussion about names prompted one of her fans to ask who came up with her nickname on the game show.
They tweeted: “Out of interest, who chose your name on #thechase? You or the production team?”
Anne admitted neither of those options were correct, as she responded in reference to Bradley Walsh, 59: “Neither. Bradley.”
After reading the star’s revelation, The Chase viewer replied: “Haha, of course!!”
“Tell me, was there a composed called Beethoven?” she asked the fan.
They replied: “Not trying to cause an argument, just observing,” alongside a laughing emoji.
“So, Beethoven?” she pressed.
“There could be, but he/she wasn’t half as famous as the great van Beethoven,” the viewer insisted.
Proving her original point, Anne adamantly wrote back: “So you never call him Beethoven, OK, but many would, including Chase question verifiers.”
The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV.