Television veteran Kerri-Anne Kennerley has attracted the wrong kind of headlines – again – after asking a female colleague live on air on Studio 10 on Friday if she’d forgotten her pants.
The 10 daily Senior Reporter and director of Media Diversity Australia, Antoinette Latouff, was on the panel for a segment on Friday’s show.
https://twitter.com/Jan__Fran/status/1205648034966589440?s=20
After discussing whether words like ‘woke’, ‘thirsty’ and ‘salty’ should be added to the dictionary Kennerley turned to Latouff and asked “Did you forget your pants today?”
The facial expressions this immediately provoked on fellow co-hosts Natarsha Belling, Joe Hildebrand and Angela Bishop confirmed it was wildly inappropriate. The discomfort was palpable but Kennerley was undeterred.
Appalling words out of #KAK yet again, not to mention the double standards! https://t.co/UpRegEYizh
— Mariam Veiszadeh (@MariamVeiszadeh) December 14, 2019
After being informed by a measured and diplomatic Latouff that she was actually wearing a playsuit, Kennerley rammed ahead. “And she’s gonna be thirsty,” Kennerley inexplicably added, speaking over the top of Bishop who was trying to ameliorate the situation.
Kennerley was using the term ‘thirsty’ in the manner she had, just moments earlier, learned millennials do – to express their lust for another person.
Asking your colleague if she “forgot her pants” on live television is disgraceful. @antoinette_news deserves much, much better from KAK (and so does everyone else).
An apology is needed at the absolute bare minimum.
— Alex Bruce-Smith (@alexbrucesmith) December 14, 2019
As writer and broadcaster Jan Fran observed on Twitter, imagine a man making this comment to a colleague.
“Like, imagine being asked ON LIVE TV (or anywhere TBH) by a colleague whether you forgot your pants and then having them suggest you’re “thirsty” How is that okay? Damn, i would feel so humiliated!”
It’s a terrible enough thing to say in any setting, but to a colleague on live television? Abysmal.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley has so far resisted calls to make an apology.