Mara Lejins, star of The Chase Australia, has been forced to apologise over an ill-timed food poisoning joke she made on the show.
The 27-year-old Chaser, who is better known as The Smiling Assassin, posted an apology on social media after the joke aired just two weeks after a deadly food poisoning case in Australia.
Mara was bantering with The Chase contestant Chris, who revealed that he enjoyed cooking when she made the joke.
“Hi Chris. I’m also an amazing chef and when my boyfriend gets out of hospital he’ll definitely back me up!” she said.
Chris and host Larry Emdur laughed hysterically at the joke, while Mara put her hands up and added, “I didn’t do it.”
Unfortunately, the quiz show scene aired on Australia’s Channel 7 just two weeks after the country was hit with a deadly food poisoning tragedy.
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Acknowledging that her comments might appear a little insensitive because of the episode’s delay in airing, Mara re-shared a news article that had picked up on it on Instagram to set the record straight.
Alongside it she wrote: “I swear this happened before the deadly death cap debacle.”
Full details of the case are still not known, but police have confirmed that deadly mushrooms in a beef wellington were the cause of the poisoning.
The tragedy occurred in Leongatha, a small town in South Gippsland in Victoria. Erin Patterson had invited four of her ex-husband Simon's relatives over for lunch.
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Simon was also invited but he couldn’t make it at the last minute.
Sadly, the lunch took a tragic turn when all four relatives — her former parents-in-law Gail and Don Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather and her husband Ian — were rushed to the hospital.
Gail, 70, Don, 70, and Heather, 66, sadly died as a result of the mushroom poisoning, while Ian remains is in a coma.
48-year-old Erin, who shares two kids with Simon, is currently a suspect in the deaths of her in-laws.
Police have since seized a number of her belongings, including a food dehydrator which she recently dumped at a tip. It is believed to have been used to prepare the mushrooms.
Simon also believes he was poisoned by Erin before they split in 2022 after a mystery illness left him in a coma.
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