New Delhi, India

Emilia Clarke needs no introduction. The actress rose to international fame thanks to her role as Daenerys Targaryen in 'Game of Thrones'. Recently, her millions of fans were filled with outrage after a CEO of an Australian television company Foxtel, Patrick Delany called Emilia a 'short, dumpy girl'. However, the network has issued an apology if ''his remarks were misunderstood.''

Delany made the controversial remark while he addressed the premiere event of HBO's most-anticipated sequel show 'House of Dragon'.

During the Sydney premiere, Delany was talking about the massive following 'Game of Thrones' had, when he started talking about Emilia's lead character Daenerys and made fun of her iconic scenes from the show when she steps into the burning fire. 

“I was like, ‘What’s this show with the dumpy-looking girl who walks into the flames?’” he said about Emilia's character, as per Crikey. 

However, as per the reports, everyone was left shocked.

“It felt like he was expecting us to laugh along but people in the room were obviously shocked by it,” one said. 

“There was a bit of a gasp,” another said.

Later after the outrage, Foxtel issued an apology on behalf of its CEO, who has been one of the networks' heads since 2018 and clarified his message. 

Further, they added on behalf of his comment, that for him the fantasy series was a very different thing: ''The aim was to convey that for him, Games of Thrones was something very different for television in 2011 and that Emilia Clarke went from relatively unknown to one of the most recognised and most-loved actors in television and film,' a spokesperson said on Wednesday. 

''On behalf of Mr Delany, the Foxtel Group apologises if his remarks were misunderstood and caused any offence.''

Emilia is not part of the forthcoming series as the show will tell the origin story of her house Targaryen. She has also not reacted to Delany's shocking comment. 

The HBO show 'Game of Thrones' is one of the most popular dramas of all time and is based on George R.R. Martin’s fictional book series.