Labelling himself an “ignorant tool”, Today host Karl Stefanovic has this morning offered up a sincere apology for making an offensive, transphobic joke on air yesterday.
Karl used the word ‘tranny’, a derogatory slur, while delivering a series of off-colour jokes about the attempted robbery of the show’s reporter Christine Ahern and her cameraman in Rio.
“Yesterday I got it very wrong. I used a word, which I will now say for the last time ever and the only reason I am now saying it is because all of you who didn’t see the segment yesterday can also learn from my mistake if you choose to,” he said in the three-minute piece to camera.
“By using the word ‘tranny’ I offended an awful lot of beautiful, sensitive people. I honestly didn’t know the hurtful impact that word has not only on members of the LGBTQI community but on their family and on their friends.
“Therein lies the problem I reckon. I never bothered to ask.”
He vowed never to use the word again, telling the his audience it was time to “throw [it] in the bin”.
The offending segment on yesterday’s show:
Karl also admitted he only learned what the acronym LGBTQI stood for yesterday after the segment went to air.