“Vegan tyranny winds me up” declares Chrissie Hynde in BBC biopic

The Pretenders front woman and animal rights activist Chrissie Hynde has condemned what she has called a “vegan tyranny”.

Hynde made the comment in an interview with the American comedian and singer Sandra Bernhard, which forms part of a new BBC profile called Alone With Chrissie Hynde.

“There’s a few tyrannies around that are kind of winding me up,” Hynde tells Bernhard. “The vegan tyranny winds me up. It’s all become about nutrition. I find that quite offensive. It’s not about compassion any more.”

She adds: “As a matter of fact, to my vegan brethren I am in practice vegan but in theory vegetarian. They don’t like that.”

Hynde became a vegetarian in 1969 at the age of 18, later describing at “the best thing that happened to me”. She is also a long-time supporter of PETA and the animal rights group Viva!.