The disappearance of Madeleine McCann was once used in a stand-up routine by comic Joe Lycett.
The Great British Sewing Bee star has now said that the reaction left him feeling “mortified”.
Madeleine disappeared from her holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
She was aged just three years old.
Madeleine McCann disappearance: Joe’s joke falls flat
As could pretty much be expected, Joe admitted his cruel joke about Madeleine fell flat.
He recalled a stand-up challenge that he took part in while at university.
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Now 33, Joe has reflected on the joke, and as a result it appears to be something he regrets.
He explained to the Changes podcast: “People get up and the audience have cards. If they don’t like you they put the card up and you get gonged.
I had one joke which was about Madeleine. Silence was the reaction of the room.
“I had one joke which was about Madeleine. Silence was the reaction of the room,” he said.
Joe continued to say: “I wasn’t gonged off, I just walked off – I was mortified.
“Friends there didn’t want to be with me,” he said, as a result of the joke.
Joe then went on to explain what it was that made him crack a joke about the missing child.
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“I thought comedy was saying something shocking,” he said.
Thankfully it seems Joe learnt his lesson and, as a result, didn’t reveal what the joke was that he told about Madeleine.
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The admission comes just after the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Her mother Kate McCann was said to have “fought back tears” as she read a poem at a vigil held to mark the anniversary.
Meanwhile, it’s also been claimed that prime suspect Christian Brueckner had “face-changing surgery” just four months after Madeleine’s disappearance.
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