Intern Pete of the Kyle and Jackie O Show has explained his bizarre gaffe during last night’s press conference with cricketer Steve Smith, where he compared the cricket scandal to Married at First Sight.
Last night, as a sobbing Smith apologised to fans for his role in the ball-tampering saga in South Africa, Pete Deppler – better known as Intern Pete – took the opportunity to ask a question, which wasn’t actually a question at all.
“I want to let you know from the non-sport community in Australia, to see you upset tonight is very sad,” he started.
“We asked our listeners, and, as I said, we’re not a sports show, we asked our listeners what we thought about this, and, we have, uh, we opened up to them and mate I gotta tell you… what’s actually been worse is what Davina and Dean did on Married at First Sight.”
The Out Loud team discuss what the Cricket Australia scandal means for us as a nation. Post continues.
Now, in an interview with news.com.au, Deppeler said his comments weren’t a set-up, nor was he asked by the show to say what he did.
“As everyone watching at home saw, the solemnness of the moment was extraordinary,” Deppeler told news.com.au.
“To many, it held a lot more intensity than one would expect for a sporting incident. Steve was so upset which surprised everyone in the room and I just wanted to let him know that it truly wasn’t the end of the world.
“It wasn’t my intention to make light of his personal situation, but to show him that the millions of Australians who aren’t obsessed with cricket empathise with him. But timing is everything and, on reflection, it wasn’t the best time to ask that.”
He went on:
“All week everyone had been acting like he was a criminal and I wanted to show him that many Australians don’t think the world has ended because of this tampering incident.”
As the press conference streamed live, social media exploded with criticism for the poorly-timed comment.
Deppler told news.com.au he felt “ironically”, the backlash and social media trolling reserved for the three cricket players had made its way to him.
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