After an embarrassing slip up, Prince Charles’ host for a charity event has taken to the press to defend herself against claims she got a little ‘familiar’ with the royal.
Janine Kirk, the Chief Executive of The Prince’s Charities Australia, garnered some frisky media attention when she was pictured placing her hand mysteriously close to the Prince’s bum during an event.
Just minutes later, the internet exploded with cheeky headlines, like ‘Prince Charles given a pat on the Royal rump?’ and ‘The cheek of it! Welcome to Arse-tralia’!
But Ms Kirk was quick to douse the flames.
Responding to the rumours, Kirk replied, “I didn’t touch him. I was guiding him around the event. It is just a funny camera angle.”
“As if I would touch his bottom. it is just ridiculous.”
Later, in a statement, Kirk elaborated, “This is all a bit silly. I hope this coverage will not detract from the core focus of the event, which was to highlight what is being done to help frontline disaster responders and survivors (like military and emergency services personnel) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”
The touch in question.
The Palace also took the time to release a statement about the misplaced hand, where they commented, “The Prince was focused on the event, which was about what Prince’s Charities Australia and other organisations are doing to help frontline disaster responders and survivors (like military and emergency services personnel) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“Nothing should distract from that.”
Prince Charles was in Sydney attending the Skills for Psychological Recovery Roundtable meeting, where he met with emergency service responders and similar staff.
His wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who is also accompanying him on the tour, later joined him on a trip to Government House.
The Duke and Duchess are down under to undertake a 12 day tour of New Zealand and Australia, where they will visit various regions.
