Amid the furore over Sky News presenter Peter Stefanovic’s controversial on-air question to Million Dollar Fish competition winner Keegan Payne, a woman has come forward to share a heartwarming act he and his friends performed for her family when they were stranded after a car accident.
Sarrita King, an artist from Darwin, recounted to her followers on Sunday what happened when she and her family had crashed into a couple of buffaloes on the way home from Katherine in the Northern Territory at the end of last year.
Ms King said they were ‘totally stranded’ at the side of the road after her mother’s car was totalled in the incident before Mr Payne and his friends provided invaluable assistance.
Mr Payne, 19, made national headlines when he caught a barramundi worth $1million in Katherine, 317km south of Darwin at the end of April.
But his momentous win was overshadowed when Sky News host Stefanovic interviewed the teen on Wednesday, May 1 and abruptly questioned him about a past alleged theft.
Sarrita King, an artist from Darwin, (pictured) shared her feel-good story about the Million Dollar Fish winner and his friends, who she later described as ‘heroes’
Keegan Payne (pictured, left) helped tow Ms King’s (pictured, right) vehicle after she and her mother collided with a couple of buffaloes. The car was wrecked, leaving the family stranded until the mates came along and helped
Viewers called for the journalist to resign after the harsh questioning was widely viewed as racial targeting, and Mr Stefanovic has since apologised.
The Darwin mum never referenced the interview in her video, but did say she had ‘the best story of the week’ and posted it with the hashtag ‘goodnewsstories’ ‘keeganpayne’ and ‘legend’.
‘These kids came and actually towed us back to safety,’ she said.
‘So it was an hour out of their time, they unhooked a buggy, they were on their way to go fishing for the Million Dollar Barra, and they were absolutely amazing.
‘They restored both my partner and I’s faith in kids these days.’
Ms King said the friends made her and her family feel ‘really safe’.
‘For a terrible situation – the car was wrecked – they were the best,’ she said.
‘At the time we were like ‘I hope these guys have the best life’, they have so much going for them.’
The artist then went on to express her surprise that one of the teenagers who had helped went on to win the life-changing prize.
Keegan Payne with his whopping $1m prize after hooking a tagged barramundi in the long-running competition, which he was the first win in nine fishing seasons
Keegan Payne, (pictured centre) and his family were emotional after the huge life-changing win. The artist said he is deserves his prize and thinks he will be ‘someone in the future’
‘We have just been over the moon for him ever since,’ she said.
‘And we just can’t stop smiling and thinking about it.
‘So congratulations and how Darwin is that? Like, good karma.’
The mum’s followers showed overwhelming support for the teen and labelled the artist’s video a ‘beautiful story’.
‘Darwin kids have a heart of gold,’ one wrote.
‘His story just gets better and better, I think he’s going to be a full-on Aussie icon,’ another said.
The mum has since told NT News Mr Payne came across as a ‘wonderful’ young man.
‘He was kind, he spoke proudly about being from Katherine – where I’m from too, so we spoke about that,’ she said.
‘He spoke about his family and his love of fishing – it was just what you want your own kid to be like that at that age.’
Ms King called the teens ‘proper heroes’ who were confident and ‘calm’.
The artist also said the teen was deserving of his win.
‘The way he’s handled himself through everything, he’s going to be someone in the future – with all the pressure and all the scrutiny, he’s got his head screwed on,’ she told NT News.
EXCLUSIVEREAD MORE: Peter Stefanovic says he regrets confronting Indigenous teen after public backlash
Stefanovic says he regrets humiliating the teen on live TV after his question sparked a major public backlash
story and posted it to Tik Tok on Sunday, praising Mr Payne.