Carole Baskin ‘felt horrible’ about Rolf Harris prank: ‘If he harmed a cat I would know who he is’

Carole Baskin: Tiger King star tricked into paying tribute to Rolf Harris

Carole Baskin said she “felt horrible” about her infamous Cameo video in which she accidentally gave a shout out to convicted paedophiles Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile.

In 2020, the Big Cat Rescue founder and bisexual Tiger King star was tricked into leaving a paid-for video birthday message to Harris, while also giving a shout-out to Savile.

Australian Tom Armstrong paid Baskin £165.17 for the message, in which she said: “Hi, Rolf Harris. All your kids wanted to get together and tell you that you have really touched them and that they love all that you have done for them.

“I hear there’s a lot of great stories about you and your best friend, Jimmy Savile – can’t wait to hear those.

“Happy birthday, Rolf!”

Baskin, dressed in her trademark leopard print and flower crown while clutching a tiger toy, signed off by blowing a kiss into the camera.

If there’s not a cat involved I wouldn’t know anything about it.

This week, Baskin responded to the incident, saying she “felt horrible”.

She told Metro: “I felt horrible that I didn’t know the situation – frankly, if there’s not a cat involved I wouldn’t know anything about it.

“If he had harmed a cat I would have known who he was.”

Baskin continued: “The fact that people would spend that kind of money to have me do something just so they could say, ‘Look what we made her do,’ it’s like, what kind of cruelty runs in the minds of some people to do that?”

Carole Baskin came out as bisexual last year

Carole Baskin come out as bisexual to PinkNews in October, 2020, explaining that she first felt that she was part of the LGBT+ community in the 1980s.

“It was during the 80s that I discovered… I had just as equal feelings for women as I did for men,” she said.

She added: “I have always considered myself to be bisexual.

“As far as the way I feel about us, I think we are all one and I just don’t see us as being different genders or different colours or anything.”