The Chaser Report - A Royal APEC?!? | LIVE AND ARTY with Jennifer Forward-Hayter

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Dom and Charles are joined by the genuinely talented artist, Jennifer Forward-Jayter, who has done something truly incredible. Dear listener, if you've ever asked the question, "What if the Chaser's APEC stunt happened at Buckingham Palace?", then this episode has all the answers you need.---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is the Chaser Report. Let's bring in our special guest, Charles. Okay, so it is now time to have the very special Chaser Report live and Artie, live from the Soda Factory. Would you please go wild and give a big round of applause for Jennifer Ford Hater? Hello? Jennifer, well, Jennifer, well.

Welcome. Yes, sorry, there's just a picture of Pauline Hanson in the corner of my eye. If you could just close that down for me. And Barnaby Joie, yes, get rid of that, yes. So, Jennifer, when did we meet? When do we, how long do we go back? 2020 only, but it feels much longer. Yes, I know.

You keep saying a long, lifetime, long time, then. And you came out to Australia, and so it was just after the pandemic and you, what did you, you sort of embedded yourself in the chaser for a few weeks. Yeah, yeah. Back in London, I rang Charles because his number is so readily available. Do you want to give it out now? Yeah, 0-419, 282, 1 at 8. Everyone knows that. So I rang that at about 5 in the morning in London. I said, I'm from London. I'm a photographer. I'm coming over. Yes. And you said no words and said yes. And then I booked my tickets. And I was there in the office.

I think this is the most longest time I've spoken to Dom because I've just been in the office for a month and I did not speak to you at all. I'm very, I'm very unsocial. I don't give my phone number out. Red Leaves Charles. But no, it was great. We had a photographer. Also, I tried to avoid working there as much as possible. I mean, technically, it's looking after my then two-year-old, but actually it was just avoiding

everybody. But that's when we had the interns. The early days of the podcast, we had the interns. And you're... And once again, producer Lachlan, the only surviving intern. Well done. And so, Jennifer, your... The exhibition you were doing was to sort of capture different artists.

It was different journalists. So I went around... photographing, you know, really serious sort of financial times, journalists that had brought down whole governments, war journalists who had had their legs blown off, Chelsea Manning and people like, so does people with the WikiLeaks Foundation. And then I know, and then I thought,

who else have I got to photograph? What side of journalism am I missing? Yes, and you went hard-hitting, reliable journalism. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And so, and there was, the last time we did this was 2023. I was overseas, but there was. There was another Chaser Report Live and Artie in an art gallery with lots of pictures of us on the wall,

which is very ill-judged, but exciting. Thank you, Jennifer. Yes, but also, it also was like, didn't you go to Ukraine and stuff? I did, yeah, yeah. Like, during the war. Yeah, absolutely. I have no idea how we fit into this narrative, but I'm glad you came and took photos of us. No, you're going to, and covering real news and important things.

What was Ukraine like? Ukraine was really happy. It's much happier than the UK at the moment, you know. That does track. That does track. Do you know what? I met one of the Trump assassins in Ukraine. Really?

Yeah. And he was a weird guy, as you can probably imagine. Yeah, yeah. Which one? The guy, the really, the worst one. The guy that kind of hid in the hedge in the golf course and was found almost immediately and didn't get even a single shot. You were judging the worst one because he was the least effective?

Okay, interesting. The clots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And is he dead? He is unknown at the moment. He sort of disappeared, which is always good. Right. And what was he like? So he was an American, obviously, and he was so sure that he was going to save the whole of Ukraine.

And I think he was going to convince Chinese troops to come over and defend Ukraine. And this was his master plan. And he'd been rejected from the US Army, which I did not know was possible. Probably not now. I mean, frankly, well done US Army recruiting system, really, at this point. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not no expert on the Chinese military, but I think it's a bit. bit harder than just getting one American to convince them to come and help in the war in Ukraine.

A little bit more complicated than that. Oh, wow. Where did you meet him? We were just walking around town, me and a bunch of journalists that's sort of nine, 10 o'clock or whatever. And the journalist I was with just went, you should talk to this guy. This guy's mad. Yeah. Yeah. They're a great journalistic integrity there. Did you have any sense that he'd do something like that? Well, so he was trying to sort of attach himself to these sort of female journalists who were

going to go over the border and kind of do this. And they had sort of snuck out in the morning. They were all staying in the sort of same hospital. And they snuck out sort of in the crack of dawn to avoid this guy and to go into Ukraine themselves. This was like right on the border, you know. And so they'd already given him the slip. What were they more scared of? The Russians or this guy?

Yeah, the fact that they would prefer to go head first into a war zone. Then stay even a moment more where this guy is quite telling. Yeah. Okay. And then so after you came out in 23, whenever there was. You then went home and you joined a motorcade. Is that correct?

We did. So we had a motorcade in that we had a golden carriage pulled by horses. And the rest of the crew, we were all on black motorcycles. And we were driving down a place called the Mal in London. Oh, the Mal, yeah. One of the rules of London is that nothing is pronounced the way it's written. So it's written Mall pronounced Mal. And is it Pal Mal like on the Monopoly?

Is that Pal Mall? That's, no, Pal Mal. It's Pal Mal. There you go. And I don't get too excited. I'm not going to be talking about a Westfield for the next five minutes. Very well. And yes, and it was the time of the coronation of King Charles.

And so the whole of Buckingham Palace had sort of an iron fence around it. And they just spent, you know, 100 million pounds on this security. And they were all getting ready for this, you know, once in a lifetime, although I'm sure I'm going to probably experience about free coronation in my time. I have such happy memories of APEC at this point. There you go. And in our gold carriage, we have two lookalikes. We have a King Charles.

and we have a Camilla. We also have a journalist sort of hidden in the sort of the footpit. And we decide, oh, wouldn't it be funny? Because we were going to drive around sort of Soho and the rest of London. Soho is where all the sort of sex workers and stuff are. And we're like, this is funny.

We'll bring the gold carriage for sex Soho. And we were like, wouldn't it be funny? So drive up to the gates of Buckingham Palace and obviously they're not going to let us in. They're going to just turn you back here. That's what we said in the production meeting ahead of APEC. Yeah, they'll definitely, spending $160 million on security. They'll definitely check out.

They'll identify our motorcade with the big sign saying joke motorcade instead of the security bus. Right. Enter what happened. We're slowly approaching. Bear in mind, our Charles and Camilla lookalike are not good. The guys vaguely got big ears. They're not good, okay?

We're driving down and we're like, oh, this is this going to be funny? Is this going to be funny? The gates open. The guards, wave us in. Oh, wow. Presumably their high-tech security system, like if you'd scanning things, for Prince Charles, you're just doing the ears, right? That's all it is.

And so we very quickly ended up in Buckingham Palace. Didn't know what to do. Yes, what did you do? And so obviously very quickly, they then realized, okay, I don't think Camillo is black, you know, whatever. How prejudiced. Wait a minute, is that Megan Markle? Quickly.

He wouldn't have been able to get rid of them. He wouldn't have been allowed in. And so, you know, we had all the police and all the guys. guys and the bear hats come over and start, you know, you have to leave right now, leave, leave, leave. Are you telling me the bear hack guys are actually security? I don't know. They'd never done it before.

Oh, if I'd be working here for 20 years, I'm actually a threat. Oh, my God. And so then they sort of pushing us out, and we're in with all the motorcycles as well. So we're all kind of turning around sort of slowly. A carriage pulled by horses has got quite a big turning circle, you know. So we're sort of slowly turning around. Did you have to do like a three-point turn? Can you reverse with horses?

Wow. And so then we're going back up the mall, but now we have a police escort. So obviously all the tourists are like, this is the real life. Oh, so you can actually. Hello, your majesty. And presumably it's fairly slow, isn't it? Yeah. So you're getting kicked out of somewhere on horseback could be so painful.

That is hilarious. The Chaser Report, less news more often. Oh, that's so good. I have a lot of questions, Jennifer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, I mean, we very easily, because of the APEC story, we just got a regular motorcade. They're not hard to get.

Just get a stretch limo. Where the hell do you get a golden carriage and horses? Or is that just a British? No, that's in England. Yeah, you just got to... We still use a knife. Nigel. We just got a spare golden carriage.

Were you at college with someone who has a golden car? How does it work? Well, so this was all with another photographer called Alison Jackson. And she is a member of the aristocracy. She is a connection to Gilein Maxwell. So we were once sat in a bar and Galeen had just been spotted. Is that why they let you into Buckingham Palace? Oh, that's one of Geline's friends.

Fresh meat. Oh my God. Yeah, just mentioned Galeen. You can get it anywhere. And it was sort of during the period where she was not in prison, but nobody knew why she wasn't in prison and she was sat out at a bar or whatever. So we were at the bar and we were at the bar,

and we were like, should we ring Gailene? So we just rang a number? So does everyone have her number as well? Is it common as Charles? I must say, I do feel slightly sorry for Gailene Maxwell. Merely because her name is Gailene. It's, I mean, it's, it was the beginning and the end, I think. I feel like, I mean, there weren't many people being called Glein before.

And now the name's finished. There are no Gailene speak on. Nowadays, I speak. What are you named your baby, Glein? Oh. Right. Okay, so this aristocrat, you know, happened to have a spare golden carriage. Yeah, so, funeral. I want to get born, I want to get reincarnated to see British aristocrat next time.

That's why we still look down on all the Australians, you know, because we're still with the gold carriages, you know. But the best thing it was, obviously the police was embarrassed, you know, and that's the worst crime you can commit embarrassing the police. So they pulled us all over, and they were going through all the kind of driving records of the motorbikes and checking they had all their lights and all their things. Any speeding ticket they were going to find, they were going to find, you know. We'd already check them so there was nothing.

But everyone was terrified. We're like, oh my God, we're never going to be seen again. We're going to be disappeared into M-I-9. Can they still send you to the tower? Absolutely. Or a Paris tunnel? Maybe in a horse and carriage it wouldn't crash very well. To be fair, that would never have happened if there was, if Diana was in a horse and carriage.

It would still be alive today. It's true. Very sad. So everyone was freaking out. I had to be the sort of carving voice and be like, don't worry. there is a precedent. Can I guess how this got resolved? Yeah.

The aristocrat just went, just see, no, this is my golden carriage. And it was just like, oh, I'm so sorry, lady,

whatever your name is. Is that how it got resolved? No, do the police gave up? They gave up. Because they knew there was precedent, obviously, you know?

And they waved us free. We were following police instruction. Oh, well. So they just had to let us go. There was nothing on it. They probably just thought you were mates of Prince Harry's. That's amazing.

I don't think we have, we did a stunt outside the front of Buckingham Palace. I'm trying to think during our one series that we did international pranks with the chaser before we got radically cancelled. But no, I mean, it is quite funny up close how bad security is. This is the things we found out.

We talked about this on the podcast before, but with the whole APEC thing, just down on Macquarie Street, not far from here, the two things that I most enjoy are that, firstly, and I can't remember this is absolutely true, but let's just assume that it is true because there's stories that are too good not to be true. But when you're about to go to trial, if you're accused of, you know, if you ever committed

crime, just so you know, you'll get to see what the police's evidence is against you. And so we got the evidence brief from the police. And in the evidence brief, there were two things that I absolutely love. Oh, yeah. The first was, and I'm sorry if you've heard this one before, but the first one was that the day before, again, I just hope this is true. the day before John Howard's motorcade had been delayed from getting into the opera house

because they lost the key. They lost the key to the gate and he was there for 45 minutes. 160 million dollars on security. People remember there's barricades all over Sydney and the Prime Minister, I don't know why he was going down there maybe he wanted to see an opera, maybe it was a test run. Actually, Sean Howard, there's no way he was seeing an opera.

He couldn't get through the gate and so they just went after that all motorcades just waved them straight through. You can't have any delays for motorcades. and don't lock the bloody gate again because that would be terrible. So when we turn up with a motorcade, they were just like, oh my God,

this could be John Howard straight through, didn't check anything. And that was, we always assumed would be turned away. That's why it actually didn't, it actually went far better than we could have thought. And that's why Julian freaked out and went, I'm just going to do a U-turn.

And they didn't realize it was a fake motorcade until, despite the fact that all the passes said fake, this is not a real motorcade. They waved them straight through because they didn't want to get in trouble with John Howard. That and then the second thing that I absolutely love, and this may be true in your case as well, I'm not sure, is that there was this, a very famous AFP agent, the federal police agent.

He was this incredibly, I think he was known as the skull. I can't remember his name of it. He was a legendary AFP agent. He wrote a book at one point about his adventures as an AFP agent. He looked bizarrely like Kerry Oak Keith, the poor man. But he had that morning given a briefing on how to recognize the chaser. And they had all everyone's photos and all the details. And this guy was the guy who went,

on you go. Straight through. The thing that wasn't as funny was the fact that there were secret service snipers on the roof. So it was outside the Intercontinental. And didn't Chas meet one years later? Yeah, I think so.

So we had no way of knowing at the time because they didn't say where George Bush was sleeping for security reasons. He was asleep at the Intercontinental right next to where the motorcade was within a couple of metres and there were snipers on the roof. And the snipers were smart enough to

realize it wasn't the real Assam bin Laden. Thank goodness, because they had Jazz in their sights. I mean, was that the best outcome for comedy? We'll never know. Was it the best outcome for Chaz's family? Again, we'll never know. Nevertheless,

that's how it went down. No, we later discovered, they let us in because this was just a stroke of great timing. The real King Charles and the real Camilla were at the other end of the Mal doing some kind of ceremony, and they were just on their way back. So they would have heard in the air, yeah, yeah, the guys are coming, you know, make way, make way.

Big ears is rolling. Wow. That's, well, that is, what happened with the kind of, what did you do with it, the recording in photos? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just a big, into the ether. It hasn't been kind of, that's great. But you took photos. Yeah, well, yes.

Have you done an exhibition of it? No, no. Is this the first time this has been? It was advertising another exhibition. Of course, that's a great publicity. So none of us had planned, you know, we just thought the shop was going to, to be King Charles arguing with a policeman outside the gates, you know, that's the funny shot.

Oh, yes, yes. I think if you go to Golden Carriage, it's rude not to do a prank down at Buckingham Palace. And so, is this the first time this has ever been discussed in public? I think so, I think possibly, yeah, yeah. Exclusive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're part of the Akeland Clace Network.

Thank you for tomorrow. Thank you for joining us, and so you weren't here with us in the Soda factory.