Arj Barker’s “Babygate” is far from being over just yet. However, it would appear that the latest reports of the incident have tipped the scale closer to the comedian’s favor, as the alleged breastfeeding show-goer made questionable TV appearances with her baby.
Trish Faranda, a mother-of-three from Melbourne, has been identified as the woman whom Arj shushed out of his show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival on Saturday (April 20) in Australia.
New reports have since revealed that it was Clara, Trish’s seven-month-old baby, who made enough noise to disturb the stand-up star 15 minutes into his number.
Appearing on Australian current affairs news and talk show The Project on Monday (April 22), Trish said that she had “no idea things would turn out this way.”
Moments later, little Clara began to cry, prompting the Aussie mom to breastfeed her during the live interview, the Daily Mail reported.
Arj Barker’s “Babygate” saga continues amid questionable TV appearances with the alleged breastfeeding show-goer
As the baby girl continued to cry during the interview, The Project presenter Sarah Harris asked: “Maybe she can go to dad for a quick second?”
Trish reportedly went on to say that she’d already planned to leave the comedy show she’d booked a month in advance if Clara started crying, but she didn’t appreciate the way the American comic handled the situation.
The mom said: “I thought it would be really nice to do something I hadn’t done in a while and get back to a pre-baby me.
“He could’ve off-mic said, ‘It’s really disrupting me, do you mind?’ and I would’ve happily packed up and gone.
“Then he asked for support from the crowd, basically to say I should leave and they heckled a bit when we were leaving.”
On the same day, Trish also appeared on A Current Affair, another Australian TV program, where she said Clara was no louder than a person coughing.
She explained: “She started gurgling, babbling… but not for very long, because then I just gave her a quick feed, and she was quiet.
“I was vigilant, I was looking around, people weren’t looking at us so I thought, ‘OK, we’re not really impacting anyone that I can tell.’”
On The Project’s official X page (formerly known as Twitter), people were fuming over a clip of Trish explaining that Clara was “100% breastfed,” and that showed the little oblivious girl trying to play with her stuffed toy.
“I feel sorry for any new mum who paid for a babysitter so they could enjoy a rare night out at a show and had it ruined by someone else’s infant,” a person commented.
“I can absolutely understand why you’d take a baby on a plane. I cannot understand why you’d take one to a theatre.”
Trish Faranda was asked to hand her seven-month-old, Clara, over to her dad after the baby cried while on The Project
Another X user wrote: “How entitled can one person be?
“Save the sob story about ‘being a mum is hard’ if you really cared about all mums and not just yourself, you wouldn’t have ruined the whole show for all the other mums in the room who might be enjoying a rare night to themselves.”
Someone else penned: “She was very sweet, however, it’s selfish of her to take a baby to a show where people have paid hard-earned money for tickets… not to mention the performer being interrupted.
“What was she thinking?
“She chose to have a child knowing how her life would change.”
A separate individual chimed in: “The point was made when she had to hand the baby over to someone else because she couldn’t continue the interview with a crying baby that’s the problem with taking a baby to a live show.”
Viewers shared similar sentiments about Trish’s interview on A Current Affair, as an X user wrote: “Same thing happened on A Current Affair – baby was unsettled, mum tried to feed her, baby cracked it even more!
“Mum adamant that baby didn’t act like that at the show, but hey, proof is in the pudding !
“Massive backfire going on national TV twice & proving how wrong you were!”
Another person commented: “I couldn’t focus on what Ally Langdon was saying on A Current Affair because the baby just kept fussing.
“It is distracting, not just for the comedian but for those who are sitting near the baby.
“Nobody would expect a baby to be taken to a comedy show where it is very loud (where often the language is often very colourful) and the reason why the audience restriction is 15yrs +.
“I wouldn’t take my child and really nor should have she in my opinion.
“I get that she doesn’t get out much but she could have gone somewhere else.”
Nevertheless, other people took notice of the irony that saw Trish being asked to hand Clara over to someone else during her interview on The Project, as a person wrote on X: “Hilarious. The Project takes aim at comedian Arj Barker because he asked a mother/baby to leave & avoid disrupting a live show.
“At the 3 min mark Sarah Harris kicks the same baby off the air to avoid disrupting the show.
“Then they lock replies. You can’t make this up.”
Arj said in a public statement that he supported “public breastfeeding”
Arj said in a statement that the show was strictly for ages 15 plus, taking to his Instagram page on Monday to address an incident that he has since dubbed “Babygate.”
The 49-year-old’s “let’s clear the air” Instagram post followed the moment Trish and her baby had been “sensationally kicked out” of his show, sparking heated debates on the appropriateness of bringing infants to comedy events.
Over the weekend, Arj had been accused of asking Trish to leave upon noticing that she was breastfeeding. The claim has since been refuted by the comedian, who made it clear that he was in favor of “public breastfeeding.”
“I had just started my show last Sat night in Melbourne,” Arj explained on Instagram. “The Atheneum was pretty full and everyone seemed in a great mood.”
You can watch Trish’s appearance on The Project below:
Image credits: The Project
He continued: “Then I heard a baby – not crying but ‘talking’ as they do – a few rows from the stage.
“I made a few jokes about the baby not disrupting my show, and they were well received, then moved on. A few minutes later the baby called out again.
“Now I was quite concerned. In my experience of doing comedy for nearly 35 years, an audience focus is a delicate thing.
“If a noise or movement distracts people mid-joke, the payoff can be greatly diminished.”
The Californian went on to explain that with 50 minutes remaining of his show, he chose to make the “difficult” decision to “calmly” inform the woman holding the baby to leave.
“I felt bad doing so and stated this at the time as well as several times throughout the remainder of the show,” Arj wrote. “As she was leaving, I offered for her to get a refund, as a gesture of goodwill.”
The comedian emphasized the decision had been a “very rough call” that he made on behalf of the “other 700 or so audience members who deserved to see the show they had paid for, uninterrupted.”
He later clarified: “This was all to do with audio disruption of my show, nothing more.
“For the record, I support public breastfeeding, as it’s perfectly natural.”
He finally concluded: “I’ve nothing against babies, in fact, I was one once, for almost two years.”
Trish’s TV appearances continued to ignite divided opinions
