While it seemed the entire nation was obsessed with the “Don’t blush baby” interview between Mel McLaughlin and Chris Gayle last month, in truth the Channel 10 reporter says it was one of the furthest things from her mind.
It turns out that behind the scenes, McLaughlin, 36, had been suffering with a very personal loss: The passing of her older sister Tara to lung cancer in May of last year.
Tara, 39, was a police officer and a mother of two. Despite never smoking, she fell victim to an aggressive and rare lung cancer resulting from a genetic mutation.
A much-loved member of her local Terrigal community, Tara was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Her police funeral was attended by hundreds, with photos of her three-year-old boy Flynn dressed in her police hat and her mourning family members covering the pages of local newspapers.
Top Comments
I'm sorry she lost her sister.
I think the issue wasn't the incident itself that keeps this alive, more so the debate as to if it was a massive overreaction to it. Everyone can see the incident. Ok, he was being a smart ass, he was being sleazy, he was not acting professionally. But really, did he make the sky fall? Did his words lead to woman being put in chains? Did he cause her a mental breakdown? Did he break the Law?
And then there's the double standard. When a female tennis player chatted up a male reporter, where was the census? Where was the fine? Where was the social media outrage? Nothing. Not a thing.
Unwillingly she is copping the growing backlash of people fed up with the double standard, PC professional outrage at almost anything these days.
Both sides should let it go. There's nothing to be gained for either party now by going on with it, is there?