JAMIE Oliver claims men hated and wanted to punch him for showing the world men can cook.

The TV chef said early in his career other men were abusive towards him as their wives and girlfriends expected them to cook as a result of The Naked Chef series.

Jamie said: “When men stopped thinking of me as the competition - after about two and a half years - men would stop wanting to punch me.”

Speaking of the impact his show had, Oliver said: "I didn't realise it was political at the time, but 20 years ago women, en masse, were going to work...

"Women and men, husbands, boyfriends were coming home from work, they'd sit down at six o'clock and go 'Ahh, f****** tired', and men across Britain would look at their wives and go 'What's for dinner?'

"And they weren't having it. And rightfully so.

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"They had both done a 12-hour day, their feet both hurt, they're both contributing to the rent - so I didn't know it because I was too young and stupid, and I was just enjoying life way too much - but women around Britain made me succeed."

Oliver continued: "And then that's why, if you look back in the papers and study it, men hated me for two years, and I got chased and punched a few times, I had loads of abuse. Men f****** hated me."

Oliver said that when The Naked Chef was on TV, he looked "about one-year-old - almost like a foetus", which then inspired women to tell their partners to cook more.