WATCH: Jeremy Hunt manages to out-gaffe Boris Johnson by forgetting wife's nationality
2 min read
Some men forget their wife's birthday, while others manage to misremember their wedding anniversary.
But it takes a special kind of man to somehow forget his other's half's nationality.
New Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, it would appear, is precisely that kind of man.
In Beijing for his first major overseas trip since taking on the post earlier this month, the Cabinet big-hitter managed to offend his hosts by mistakenly telling them his wife, Lucia, is Japanese. In fact, she is Chinese.
In doing so, he managed to out-gaffe his predecessor, the famously accident-prone Boris Johnson.
Trying out some small talk on Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, Mr Hunt said: "My wife is Japanese .... my wife is Chinese, sorry that was a terrible mistake to make."
Laughing nervously, the minister then gestured towards the watching journalists and said: "Re-do the cameras."
Desperately trying to retrieve the situation, he then ttold Mr Yi and other Chinese officials: "We spoke in Japanese at the state banquet. But my wife is Chinese and my children are half Chinese and so they have Chinese grandparents and we have strong family connections with China."
It is not the first time Mr Hunt - tipped by many as the next Prime Minister - has been left embarrassed in public, of course.
Who can forget the time he nearly decapitated an innocent bystander while ringing a bell during the London Olympics in 2012.
