Mooney apologises to cancer sufferer after live TV gaffe

RTÉ presenter Derek Mooney has been forced to apologise after upsetting a cancer sufferer live on air.

During RTE One’s live Millionaire Raffle Draw on New Year’s Eve, Mooney mistook a turban worn by audience member Máiréad Lynch as a novelty hat.

The presenter, unaware Máiréad was wearing the turban of necessity after undergoing chemotherapy, then asked her if she was having a “bad hair day”.

Máiréad’s boyfriend, Stephen McGinn was one of two audience members selected to help with the draw live on air. Mooney asked him who he was with, to which Stephen replied: “I’m with my girlfriend Máiréad, her mam, her auntie and her sister.”

Turing towards Máiréad, who was sitting near the front of the studio with her relatives who were all wearing party hats, the tactless presenter spotted her black turban and quipped: “Oh very good. Why is she wearing that little thing on her head?” He then chuckled, before asking: “Is it a bad hair day, Máiréad?”

Máiréad, from Dublin, looked momentarily stunned, before replying: “You could say that, yeah.”

After the show, the website rollercoaster.ie was flooded with complaints about Mooney’s remark.

But Stephen yesterday confirmed the presenter had apologised profusely to Máiréad after the show.

“Máiréad was upset by it, but Derek was very apologetic after the show.”

However, the on-air bloomers didn’t stop there. When a second audience member joined Mooney to select the night’s second millionaire, he was given a dressing down by the presenter for not having a straight tie.

Mooney said to Jim Fitzsimons: “Who let you out tonight, for heaven’s sake?”

Then, straightening the audience member’s crooked blue tie, he added: “Fix your tie. Is your wife with you in the audience?”

After Jim confirmed her presence, Mooney said: “And she let you out like that? What were you doing with him in the audience for heaven’s sake?”