Barry Humphries on #MeToo: ‘ Who knows whose knee I put my hand on in 1965? ’
AS THE man behind the outlandish Dame Edna Everage and the lecherous Sir Les Patterson, Barry Humphries has never paid much heed to political correctness.
And even the swathe of #MeToo accusations about sexual misconduct in the showbiz world are not offlimits to the 84-year-old.
The comic has joked that his drink and drug-fuelled lifestyle at the height of the Swinging Sixties could put him in the firing line.
‘Who knows whose knee I put my hand on in 1965?’, he said in an exclusive interview with today’s Event magazine. ‘
It’s all about the wrong knee, isn’t it?’
And he has quipped to his wife: ‘Don’t be surprised if there’s a knock on the door.’
Humphries admitted that he doesn’t have a ‘very vivid memory’ of the 1960s, and recalls an awkward exchange in San Francisco with a ‘beautiful young blonde’ 15 years ago who claimed he used to be close friends with her mother. He said: ‘My wife was with me... so I was a bit sheepish.’ The comic, who is still touring, said he was ‘a bit relieved’ when the young woman reappeared to say: ‘I forgot to tell you, I’m not your daughter.’
Despite the memory black spots, Humphries said he had no concerns about his past coming back to haunt him.
He also said that he has patched up his relationship with his son Oscar after a very public falling-out.