During his four-minute speech in Parramatta King Charles appeared to momentarily lose his cool with a remark about his speech that drew confused reactions from the crowd.
The king and queen’s Australian tour is already at an end and what a memorable trip it’s been. Although not necessarily in a good way, as Charles and Camilla have been snubbed by all of the state premiers, heckled by an Indigenous senator, and threatened with an ambush from their supposed “secret love child” all within the space of a week.
In fact, it’s been a pretty wild ride from start to finish, but hey, they made it to the final day, and just to tie the whole thing together Charles gave us one more minor hiccup before the royals jetted off for Samoa.
Charles lost his temper in front of the Parramatta crowd
Charles and his wife made an appearance at a barbeque event in Parramatta Park where they sampled the food and flipped some sausages on the grill. Afterwards the monarch addressed the crowd where he praised the barbecue and the “truly outstanding food and wine” from the New South Wales farmers. He went on to compliment the food from Sydney as a whole, “It is no wonder, I think, that Sydney is world famous for its cuisine, whether it’s smashed avo, a pav, or a Cab Sav and that is what I hope has been on display.”
But things went south as the king appeared to struggle with the pages of his speech. Midway through he appears to say, “God almighty, they’ve got two pages of this bloody thing.”
Now it’s true, that isn’t the worst meltdown we’ve seen in front of a crowd recently, (a certain American con man has that honor) but it kind of gives the impression that he doesn’t really want to be there. Call me crazy but if you’re giving a speech praising the community and culture of Sydney, you probably shouldn’t pause to moan about the length of your speech, it gives away the fact that your words aren’t genuine.
Perhaps it was the heat, perhaps it was the culmination of all the bad things that happened on the trip thus far, or perhaps Charles was just eager to get the whole thing over and be done with the country for good. Who knows. Luckily the crowd took it as a joke and the King quickly regained his composure and moved on with his speech heaping more praise on the local people, “anyway I must say it is a real pleasure to have just had this chance to try this produce, but also crucially to meet the people who make it happen.”
Compared to everything that’s gone down on the royal’s trip down under this is a minor speed bump, but it seems rather fitting that their final day in Oz should end this way. Charles and Camilla will be well on their way to Samoa by now if they haven’t already touched down, somehow I doubt they’ll be heading back to Australia anytime soon.
