Twitter pulls Sky journo Adam Boulton's leg as he confuses convicted spy Chelsea Manning with cycling great Bradley Wiggins live on air

It’s easy to get people’s names confused – we’ve been guilty of it ourselves at road.cc at times – but Sky journalist Adam Boulton has had his leg pulled on social media this week after mistakenly referring to former US soldier Chelsea Manning as Bradley Wiggins during a live broadcast.

The gaffe is down to the fact that the Manning, a trangender woman, went by her birth name of Bradley until 2013.

That year, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison for espionage after giving information to Wikileaks, and said the day after she was jailed that she wanted to be known as Chelsea and to undergo hormone replacement therapy.

Earlier this week, in one of his final acts as President of the United States, Barack Obama commuted her sentence meaning that Manning, who has been held in an all-male prison and has twice attempted suicide, will be released in May.

It was in a report on the commutation of her sentence that Boulton, Sky’s most senior political journalist, confused her name with that of Wiggins, winner of the 2012 Tour de France with Team Sky and Great Britain's most decorated ever Olympian, but who has been dogged by controversy in recent months over his use of medicines to treat his asthma and allergies.

More Bradley Wiggins revelations from 2009 as seen on Sky News this evening pic.twitter.com/rzGScr8In8

— Matt Moran (@MattMoran33) January 17, 2017

Unsurprisingly, Boulton’s slip of the tongue drew some witty replies on Twitter.

@MattMoran33 @richardmoore73 I don't see Wiggins going to Assange with secrets to be exposed any time soon

— Gavin (@GavinMatheson) January 18, 2017

@MattMoran33 @richardmoore73 now we know what was in the Jiffy bag

— Austin (@ajb1072) January 17, 2017

@MattMoran33 Helping achieving regime change through marginal gains

— bongo beach (@bongobeach33) January 18, 2017

@collaborant @MattMoran33 dude. Come on. The news anchor flubbed Bradley Manning's name and said "Bradley Wiggins"...

— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) January 18, 2017

Boulton, in Washington DC for today’s inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, held his hand up and apologised for his error.

Yes apologies to all concerned. Sentence commuted on Chelsea Manning formerly Bradley Manning nothing to do with cycling. https://t.co/hTTXf3lvR0

— Adam Boulton (@adamboultonSKY) January 17, 2017