Sunrise star suffers embarrassing blunder live on-air: 'I'm so sorry'

Sunrise reporter Shaun White found himself in a rather awkward situation during Thursday morning’s broadcast when he asked the breakfast show’s host Natalie Barr about her dog, Madonna, one year after the pet had died.

The consumer correspondent was presenting a story about how much money Australians spend on their pets when he asked Nat the awkward question.

“How's Madonna going?” he asked innocently as his colleagues gasped in horror.

After a pause, Nat sadly replied: “Madonna had to be put down.”

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The presenters then began to yell over each other and jokingly tease Shaun for his faux pas.

“Oh, Shaun! Why did you bring that up?” David ‘Kochie’ Koch chimed in while putting his arm around Nat.

Meanwhile, Edwina Bartholomew held her hand to her mouth in an attempt to hide her laughter and Mark Beretta said, “Oh Shaun! Oh no!”.

“I didn’t know, I’m so sorry,” Shaun said quietly with a panicked expression on his face. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Didn’t you know? We had to have her put down. But thanks for bringing it up,” Nat responded. “And Flash (her cat) we had to have put down last year too. Within a year of each other!”

“Thanks for bringing up my dead animals,” she joked, while Kochie said, “Are you okay? I’m sorry on Shaun’s behalf”.

Edwina tried her best to help Shaun, telling viewers through laughter: “That wasn’t even a stitch-up, poor Shaun didn’t even know”.

After he apologised again, Nat said it was okay and she understood losing a pet was inevitable.

“We all know it’s part of nature, we all know it has to happen. I’ve come to terms with it,” she shared. “Thanks, Shaun.”

'Poor Shaun'

After a clip of the awkward on-air moment was shared on social media, a number of viewers quickly took to the comments to defend Shaun.

“Poor Shaun, he didn't mean to upset you Nat,” one person wrote, followed by another who added, “Doubt he meant any harm Nat”.

“The poor bugger! We’ve all been there and done that at some point, said something that we never knew had happened,” a third remarked.

“I think it was pretty bad making Shaun feel so terrible and on camera too,” someone else shared.

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