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Tinder CEO Sean Rad at the Web Summit last month Web Summit

A supermodel has been 'begging' me for sex: Tinder's CEO

Sean Rad’s bosses have already disowned his comments.

TINDER CEO SEAN Rad revealed a supermodel has been “begging” him for sex – but he’s a bit confused by the meaning of the word ‘sodomy’.

In a car-crash interview with the London Evening Standard, the co-founder of the hook-up app said despite being “addicted” to the service he was an old-fashioned romantic who had been turning down a sex with a “really famous” model.

“She’s one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen but it doesn’t mean that I want to rip her clothes off and have sex with her,” he said.

Rad continued by saying there was a term for people like himself who were “turned on by intellectual stuff” – before he took a wrong turn on an apparent hunt for the word ‘sapiosexual’.

“What’s the word? … I want to say ‘sodomy’?,” he said, before looking up the definition on his phone and realising his error.

What? No, not that. That’s definitely not me. Oh, my God.”

Sportsfile (Web Summit) Web Summit Web Summit

Bad timing

The interview came at a particularly sensitive time for Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, which is going public in a float that will value the online dating group at about $2.9 billion (€2.7 billion).

Under strict US financial rules, companies have to observe ‘quiet periods’ in the lead-up to a launch on the stock market.

The Rad interview included figures attributed to “analysts” that gave the app 80 million users worldwide.

The CEO also revealed he had done his own “background research” into the journalist behind an unfavourable Vanity Fair article, titled Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’, and discovered “some stuff about her as an individual”.

India Social Dating Apps Associated Press Associated Press

In a statement to US regulators late yesterday, Match was quick to distance itself from the Tinder CEO’s comments, adding that some of the numbers provided – although not attributed to Rad – were wrong.

“The article was not approved or condoned by, and the content of the article was not reviewed by, the company or any of its affiliates,” it said.

(Rad) is not a director or executive officer of the company and was not authorised to make statements on behalf of the company for purposes of the article.”

Brazil Carnival Tinder Associated Press Associated Press

Elsewhere in the interview, the Tinder CEO also said he was thrilled his audience at the Web Summit was “bigger than Instagram’s” with the crowd full of “screaming fans”.

It was like a concert … tech, I guess, is more important than it was. It’s like the new rock.”

READ: How a company made infamous by piracy is trying to reinvent itself >

READ: Leonardo DiCaprio is putting his money into a startup ‘growing’ real diamonds >

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28 Comments
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    Mute Patricia O'Reilly
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    Feb 6th 2020, 12:31 PM

    Marian is irreplaceable, but Brendan O’Conner is doing a great job. Let’s hope RTE doesn’t shaft him again.
    Also I can’t believe Ray D’Arcy numbers have gone up. He’s getting worse and talking waay too much about him and the wife. Only good on kids shows of old

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    Mute Valerie Hanlon
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    Feb 6th 2020, 4:19 PM

    @Patricia O’Reilly: completely agree with everything you said. No disrespect to Marian RIP but Brendan filled in for her quite a few times of the months of those ratings. I feel RTÉ have treated him very harshly in the past. If Brendan wants to be the permanent replacement, the job should be his

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    Mute alan
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    Feb 6th 2020, 12:23 PM

    Shame to see Matt coopers popularity dropping off. Used to like it, well worth listening . Now like last weeks Hello magazine at the hairdressers.

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    Mute Sim0n
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    Feb 6th 2020, 12:26 PM

    @alan: Well for some that have hair that requires hairdressing.

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Feb 6th 2020, 12:49 PM

    @alan: the last word gained listeners according to the article?

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    Mute Keith Grant
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    Feb 6th 2020, 9:11 PM

    @alan: didn’t the article say modest gains for all todayfm shows except breakfast with Dempsey?

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    Mute Kem Trayle
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    Feb 6th 2020, 12:40 PM

    The only time I used listen to the radio in the car was when Eoghan, Jen & Bernard were on in the morning but 2 FM decided to replace them with whatever that white noise is that occupies the slot now. I actually switched to the radio this morning for the first time in months when dropping the kids to school and after a quick scan of the channels it was straight back to Spotify again.

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    Mute Caroline Otoole
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    Feb 6th 2020, 4:14 PM

    Weekends will never be the same again.

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    Mute 2thFairy
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    Feb 6th 2020, 10:14 PM

    I like the Ray D’arcy show…!!!
    There I said it :)

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    Mute silveryD
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    Feb 7th 2020, 12:15 AM

    Is this just an ad for RTE or something.
    Absolutely no breakdown for Ireland’s largest independent radio station Today FM apart from 3 lines

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