A Channel Seven reporter has broken her silence after Sam Worthington snapped at her in an awkward moment at the GQ Men of the Year Awards on Wednesday night.
Sally Bowery made headlines when her red carpet interview with Australian actor Sam, 48, got off to a bumpy start with a tense exchange over wife Lara’s last name.
Sally referred to Lara by her maiden name ‘Bingle’ rather than her married name ‘Worthington’, prompting an irritated reaction from Sam.
‘Her name is Lara Worthington,’ the Avatar star snapped at Sally, before adding: ‘It’s only been ten years.’
Sally quickly apologised for her mistake, before adding: ‘That was my slip.’
Now, Sally has broken her silence on the unfortunate encounter and revealed how she really feels about Sam’s tense reaction to her error.
Channel Seven reporter Sally Bowery (pictured) has broken her silence after Sam Worthington snapped at her in an awkward moment at the GQ Men of the Year Awards on Wednesday
Her red carpet interview with Australian actor Sam, 48, got off to a bumpy start when they got into a tense exchange over Sally using his wife Lara’s maiden name ‘Bingle’
Writing in a column for Seven, the experienced reporter admitted she is ‘at a loss’ about why her blunder caused so much offence as she criticised Sam for his reaction.
‘I said Lara’s maiden name. Not the wrong name. Just a name she had used for a big part of her life. One that was a household name, long before she met her husband,’ Sally said.
She insisted Lara herself didn’t seem ‘the least bit bothered’ by her slip-up and laughed it off as she shared her confusion about why Sam wanted her referred to by her married name.
Sally argued: ‘So why then at an event celebrating what it now means to be a modern man didn’t her husband? A married woman’s identity is far more than her husband’s surname.’
She then went on to cite Sam’s own acceptance speech when he was crowned Man of The Year hours later, in which he spoke about the need to move past outdated notions.
‘[He told] the crowd that men ”can love others unconditionally and respectfully, without having to live up to some outdated standard or some stereotypical, archaic, and just plain sad idea of what a man should be”. I couldn’t agree more,’ she concluded.
Sam and Lara began dating in 2013 and married secretly in 2014 and have since welcomed three sons – Racer, eight, River, four and Rocket, nine.
Sam recently reflected on how he has balanced being famous with being a father in a candid interview with Stellar Magazine.
Breaking her silence on the encounter, Sally admitted she is ‘at a loss’ about why her blunder caused offence given Lara (pictured with Sam) didn’t seem to mind
‘I’ve tried to handle [fame] carefully. It is hard; there’s no book to tell you how to do it. There’s no set of rules,’ he told the publication.
‘I have made a few mistakes. And that’s okay. You grow from that.’
Sam said it’s important that his sons know a normal life full of sports and cartoons like any other child, far from the trappings of fame.
‘Now I’ve got kids, it’s more a case of protecting my kids from [attention],’ he went on.
‘At the moment, my kids don’t care what their dad does. They don’t look at my job in any spectacular way.
‘They just want me to take them to soccer practice and hang out and watch Paw Patrol. You’re doing your best to have this balance, and that’s all you can do.’
