Student hits back at Royal flack from quiz show
POSTGRAD WOULD HAVE PREFERRED KARDASHIAN QUESTION
A Durham politics student who blasted the Royal family during an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has hit back at online abuse.
Hani Abdellatif left the ITV game show with £32,000 but not before saying that he had no interest in Prince Edward, disliked Prince Andrew and didn’t care about the family as a whole.
The 23-year-old Masters student at Hatfield College was called “rude”, “disrespectful” and a “snowflake” on Twitter for remarks made during Saturday night’s episode where he said he would have preferred a question about the Kardashians than the Royals.
But in an interview with The Chronicle, Hani, who previously cochaired the university’s Labour society, said that it was not his intention to cause offence and that he actually likes the Queen.
He said: “I think the Royal family is good, I actually like the Queen but I’m just not that interested in them.
“I’m not a republican, I guess I just really like the Kardashians. I really wasn’t trying to annoy anyone.”
He also said that people were taking him too seriously and that he was just on the show to have fun.
Hani made the original comments when pondering a £16,000 question that asked which of the Queen’s children was the first to marry.
He said: “Edward I have no interest in or idea about... Andrew I don’t like but I think it was around the same time as Charles, it was an Eighties thing... I’ve no idea about Edward, he was on television, he did a science thing but I’ve no idea if he was married or anything.”
He then added: “I’m just not interested in this family. I wish there was a Kardashians question or something like that.”
Outraged viewers took to social media during the show with one saying Hani was being “so rude about the royal family, idiot” while another hoped that he “loses the lot...not having an interest in the Royal family... off with his head!”
Yet some responded that they agreed with him and one viewer tweeted: “When he said he has no interest in the Royal family that pretty much sums up most of us Brits.”
The question baffled Hani and he was forced to use both his 50/50 and ‘ask the host’ lifelines.
Jeremy Clarkson, who took over from longstanding quizmaster Chris Tarrant last year, was “90% confident” that Anne was the correct answer which was revealed later to be right. The Royals were not the only ones to receive a withering putdown from the Durham postgraduate who also hit out at the previous contestant.
After storming through the first few questions, Clarkson said:
“You’re quite confident, you’re zooming along.”
Hani replied: “Well these questions are very easy, if I wasn’t zooming along it would be ridiculous.
“I think the last contestant was, and I don’t want to criticise my comrades, but she was too cautious I think and I’m just going to go for it.”
The student’s climb up the prize board was ended after he failed to identify the landmark which appears on a ten pound note, which the audience believed was St Paul’s Cathedral but was actually Winchester Cathedral.
Yet Hani left £32,000 richer which he said was “more money than I’ve ever had”. He said: “I’m not sure what I’m going to spend it on yet, probably something boring like a deposit for a house.”