Paul Hogan reveals the Queen apologised to him when they first met

Australian actor Paul Hogan has shared details about his controversial meeting with the Queen and Prince Philip at the Sydney Opera House in 1980.

The 83-year-old Crocodile Dundee star made headlines at the time for wearing a cut-off flannel shirt, shorts and footy socks when greeting the royals, which he later explained was his “summer working uniform”.

Speaking with Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair, Paul said he “got a lot of flack” over his outfit but the Queen didn’t mind.

He went on to share the story of how the late monarch apologised to him after his performance in the Royal Charity Concert.

“The show that we did at the Opera House for entertaining her, part of the thing I did was to pretend to draw the lucky seat prize,” he detailed.

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“I drew two names out, which obviously was the Queen and Philip, and said the prize that they'd won was dinner at my place and told them how to get there, what bus to catch and all that kind of stuff - it was all funny.

“But when I met her, she then leaned over and said, ‘I'm sorry dear, I don't think we'll be able to make dinner’, which is great, she's got a sense of humour.”

‘She was funny and flirty’

Elsewhere in the interview, Paul spoke about his encounter with Charles and Diana at the Melbourne Concert Hall during the first official tour together in 1983 - just two years after their wedding.

“I loved them, they were great,” he said. “Charles cops a lot of flack, but he’s got a great sense of humour, and a terrible job! And Princess Diana, who didn’t love her? She was great. She was funny and flirty.

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“She pulled my bow tie off, which was a clip-on, and said, ‘Oh they’re just like the real thing, aren’t they? Especially for people who don’t know how to tie them’. She was being sarcastic.”

He added that his then-wife Noelene Edwards was “delighted” by the interaction and couldn’t wait to tell her friends that the Princess of Wales had flirted with her husband.

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