Why a Royal was kicked out of top restaurant by chef

AS THE Duchess of Sussex’s friends suggest she will address the thorny subject of race in her explosive TV interview with Oprah Winfrey tomorrow night, Buckingham Palace faces an entirely different race row.

Top London chef Richard Corrigan has revealed that he threw a member of the Royal Family out of one his celebrated restaurants after they allegedly mocked his Irish heritage by referring to him as a ‘paddy’.

The word ‘paddy’ can be used as an offensive term for an Irish person, but it is also sometimes used in an affectionate way.

He refuses to name the royal, but will confirm only that it was a woman.

‘I have witnessed very little racism, or racist kind of remarks, to me in over 33 years of living and working in London,’ Corrigan says.

‘ I mean, [ there were] the odd times that they did pass comments. There’s been a few [times a] minor member of the Royal Family called me “Paddy”.’ Referring to the incident, he says: ‘I made her pay her bill and kicked her out on the street, so that word goes around very quickly.’ The 57-year- old chef adds: ‘ I’ve always associated racism and comments like that with the bullies, so if you give it straight back into their eyes, they tend to shut up and go away, and stay quiet around you.’ But he says that the prejudice he faced was nothing compared with that endured by Irish immigrants in the past. ‘It has happened in the previous generation going there [to London], the Irish people that went there in the Fifties and Sixties, they got it between their two eyes.’ Yesterday, Corrigan (pictured) said he would not be naming the Royal in question or saying any more on the matter. Friends say he does not want to do anything to damage his businesses, which include such successful restaurants as C o r r i g a n’ s Mayfair, Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill, and Bentley’s Sea Grill in Harrods.