Chrissie Swan has come under fire for her bizarre response to MasterChef star Minoli De Silva’s cancer battle.
The 35-year-old home cook appeared on Monday night’s episode of The Project to chat about her appearance on the current season of MasterChef.
During the live interview, Minoli revealed that she found out her breast cancer had returned the same day Channel Ten producers asked her to return to the hit cooking show.
“It was probably the day that had the biggest high and the biggest low I ever had. It seemed surreal,” Minoli told Chrissie and co-host Sarrah Le Marquand.
“In the morning I got a call from my doctor and he told me that the breast cancer had come back from an ultrasound that happened a week ago and I cried just more tears than I can remember crying in a long time.”
“Then, MasterChef calls me up in the afternoon and it was like, ‘We’ve got some news that might be really shocking.’ I didn’t say anything and they told me I had got a chance to come back into the MasterChef kitchen.”
But fans were left baffled by Chrissie’s response to this heartbreaking story.
Seemingly ignoring what Minoli said about her cancer battle, Chrissie instead responded: “Wow from the sublime to the ridiculous, I don’t know which one is which!”
Minoli appeared slightly take aback before Sarrah awkwardly changed the subject to jaffles, completely disregarding her cancer story.
“Let’s talk jaffles. Your jaffle saved all of the favourites from elimination last night. We want to know how did they thank you?” Sarrah said.
The Project fans were quick to call out the co-hosts for their reactions to Minoli’s diagnosis.
“Did The Project just brush over Minoli’s cancer diagnosis?” one viewer Tweeted.
“Chrissy saying ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous’ after Minoli talked about getting a cancer diagnosis and a call from MasterChef on the same day was really poor. How about “how are you feeling,” another wrote.
Others used the hashtag “whatwouldcarriedo”, referring to regular host Carrie Bickmore, who Chrissie is currently filling in for.
“I am dumbfounded @theprojecttv …not one of the commentators at least said they were sorry to hear about it, or I hope things have improved now… nothing! They just completely ignored it and talked about jaffles,” another comment read.
“‘From sublime to ridiculous”. What a dreadful and thoughtless comment… what on earth did you mean? How about asking Minoli instead about her incredible and inspirational journey.”
“Jeepers @theprojecttv… a MasterChef contestant just opened up to you about a breast cancer diagnosis, and because it wasn’t scripted for your panel with prepared responses, they just froze & completely ignored it?!”
Woman’s Day has reached out to Channel 10 for comment.