For clarity on the Ryan Lochte incident, just look to his reality TV show

Even the most beloved moms are capable of embarrassing their children.

They show baby photographs to a new boyfriend or girlfriend. They spit on a tissue and use it to rub food off your face.

Or they initiate an international incident that gets you and your pals wanted for questioning by the Brazilian police.

It seems the latter is what Ryan Lochte’s mother, Ileana Lochte, has inadvertently achieved. It was Ileana who first told the media her son had been robbed. Ryan then came out to corroborate her story.

That led to the International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee, the Brazilian police, the FBI, the US state department and the US consulate in Rio to become involved and ultimately led to Ryan’s teammates getting detained at Rio airport.

Ryan, who dyed his hair before the Olympics – “It first started out as light bluish gray, and then it went to green. Now it’s going back to blue,” he told People magazine – is clearly in the wrong for lying to his mom in the first place.

It’s not her fault that the world suspects Ryan may have lied about the entire robbery, tarnishing the reputation of Brazil and the Olympics along the way.

But we have been here before. Not to the degree of Ileana inflaming international relations, but certainly in terms of her landing her son in hot water.

In an interview in 2012, regarding Ryan’s dating habits, she said her son only had time for one-time hook-ups.

“He goes out on one-night stands,” she said. “He’s not able to give fully to a relationship because he’s always on the go.”

Ryan, who wore an American flag dental grill at the London 2012 Olympics – “It’s just a unique way of showing personality out to everyone,” he told Speedo USA – had to clarify that his mom misspoke. He had “never” had a one night stand, he said.

“What she meant is that I do go out on dates,” he said.

But Ileana shouldn’t just be seen as someone who gets her son in trouble. He seems perfectly capable of doing that on his own.

Ryan’s short-lived reality TV show, which was cancelled after one season and has a 3.4 out of 10 rating on IMDB, gives an insight both into the Ileana-Ryan relationship, and into how he might have thought it was a good idea to allegedly continue lying about a robbery that allegedly never happened.

It turns out that Ileana’s true role is essentially that of an extremely patient full-time babysitter.

And the role of Ryan – who is known for saying “jeah” and had attempted to trademark the phrase, but a Milwaukee clothing company blocked it – is that of the sweet, loving, irresponsible, foolish boy.

The kind of boy who might not think too carefully about his actions.

It’s evident in the second episode of What Would Ryan Lochte do, when he takes his mom to Washington DC. He is there to speak to a crowd about the importance of muscular dystrophy research.

“Have you thought of what you’re going to say?” Ileana asks.

He hasn’t.

“I have never written down a speech ever,” Ryan tells the camera.

His mom convinces him to write a speech. He writes one.

Later Ryan and Ileana are at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Ryan says he wants to become the first person to urinate in the pool. His mom laughs. She doesn’t believe he’ll do it, and he doesn’t do it, but the idea is still there.

But as well as showcasing Ryan’s foolishness and irresponsibility, the episode shows the sweetness of the mother-son relationship.

There’s a bit where Ileana teaches her son – who was 28 years old at the time – to tie his tie.

“You’re like, the world’s greatest mom,” he says. “You know you’ve helped me out so much, throughout the good times and the hard times.”

Ultimately, if the show proves anything, it’s that Ryan is like a daft little puppy.

He might urinate in the corner – or in a national monument – but he didn’t mean it, he didn’t realise it was wrong, and now all he wants is to shower you with affection.

It’s just pretending you’ve been held up at gunpoint is quite different from peeing in a pool. And the Brazilian authorities are unlikely to be quite as forgiving as Ileana.