King Charles’ cheeky remark to Aussie rugby player Mark ‘MG’ Geyer revealed
The cheeky comment came after Their Majesties had a go cooking ‘snags’ at a barbecue during their Australian tour.
Former Aussie rugby player Mark “MG” Geyer has revealed a cheeky remark made by The King when they met at a barbecue in Sydney’s west.
King Charles and Queen Camilla attended a community BBQ hosted by NSW Premier Chris Minns and his wife Mrs Minns in Parramatta Park on Tuesday afternoon.
The Crescent at Parramatta Park was turned into a makeshift showground for the lunch event, with food trucks and market stalls and displays of sheepdogs and backyard cricket.
Their majesties met Noemie Fox — who won gold in kayak cross in Paris — Indigenous entertainer Casey Donovan, writer, artist and comedian Anh Do, and Paralympic swimmer Timothy Hodge.
They also met Detective Inspector Amy Scott, the officer who tracked down, confronted and fatally shot Westfield Bondi Junction stabber Joel Cauchi, who killed six people and injured 12 at the popular shopping centre in mid-April.
Mr Geyer was one of the lucky few who had the pleasure of meeting King Charles III, telling Triple M’s Mick & MG in the Morning he was introduced by the NSW Premier.
“Chris Minns introduced me to him and said ‘Your Majesty this is Mark Geyer, former professional league player, he’s now on radio at Triple M’,” Mr Geyer told the program.
The King reportedly told Mr Geyer “You look like you could still play”, to which the rugby player replied “I’ve been retired for a while”.
“Why did you have to retire? Was it your knees? Was it your back?” The King asked him.
“No, it was my groin,” Mr Greyer replied.
“I know how you feel!” King Charles reportedly replied while laughing.
Mr Geyer also revealed King Charles has a “very strong handshake”.
“My first thought was ‘How big is his hand? My hand feels like a junior burger inside a Big Mac’,” he said.
“The protocol was that you could only do one, two, three shakes and then let go.”
Mr Geyer said he went for eight shakes, with security having to intervene.
“Security grabbed my hands and took it away from me,” he said.
It wasn’t the only cheeky comment from the King.
While making his speech at the “barbie”, a fumble of his notes caused the King to interrupt his train of thought.
“Ever since — God almighty, they’ve got two pages of this bloody thing — anyway, I must say it’s a real pleasure to have this chance to try this produce,” he said.
“But also crucially to meet the people who make it happen.
“Working tirelessly in all seasons and all weathers and developing an intimate understanding of the importance of caring for nature and making it part and parcel of their endeavours.
“So being here in Western Sydney also gives me an opportunity to see it firsthand what I’ve heard about before, and that is that Parramatta and the region around it has become one of the most dynamic, enterprising and diverse communities in the world.
“So thank you, everyone, for coming to join us at this barbie today. And more particularly, thank you for the contribution you make to your local communities and beyond.”
The royals managed to get behind the barbecue, turning over snags from the Blackbear Barbecue, who managed to serve up thousands of sausages along with tonnes of brisket.
The King turned over vegetarian sausages, while the Queen went for the classic beef.
However, their majesties didn’t taste the snags.
Despite this, they told Scott McCoy, who runs Blackbear Barbecue’s Blacktown restaurant, the sausages were “great”.
“I think they said they were great sausages, and they done the old ‘click click’ on the tongs … the Aussie classic,” the 42-year-old told NewsWire.
Mr McCoy said he was thrilled to meet the royals.
“It was amazing, it was everything it lived up to be, just sensational,” he said.