She was announced as one of the star guests at the RTL annual review "People, Pictures, Emotions 2022", but because of a cold Sarah Connor could not appear at short notice. Instead, the 42-year-old was only connected by phone - and had to listen to a nasty saying from moderator Thomas Gottschalk during the conversation.

"I said to my employees: It was a shitty year, but there is also good news: Sarah Connor canceled," said the 72-year-old. In the live broadcast, the singer tried not to let anything show, later she vented her displeasure on Instagram. "Ok, what was that?" She wrote in a story and added the hashtags "Old white men" and "I don't have to put up with it".

Thomas Gottschalk now tried to explain his misstep. "Such a cancellation shortly before the show is always annoying and with the saying 'There is also good news' I just wanted to express that we couldn't help it that Sarah wasn't there. A few days before she was still happy on 'breakfast television ' twirled around. I thought she knew me well enough not to take such a saying seriously as it was meant," he told the "Bild" newspaper. In fact, Connor was a guest on the Sat.1 show on December 6th. In the meantime she has apparently contracted an infection.

At the RTL annual review, the singer said: "It's definitely a bad cold and that was kind of to be expected because everyone around me fell down in rows. I thought the whole time I'd get through it, but now it's me I got it. I'm really sorry I can't be there." She suspects that she got infected from her children.

Thomas Gottschalk does not think that his saying was completely wrong. "I have to put up with much tougher gags from Barbara Schöneberger. That used to be part of the business. But everyone, except me, has probably become a little more sensitive." He himself says that he is a fan of Sarah Connor, but then he cannot resist another tip. "As a rock tube, I prefer Sarah Connor to her Christmas record. Mariah Carey is enough for me," said the moderator.

Sources: "Bild" newspaper, RTL