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Australian TV legend Don Burke has been accused of indecent assault, sexual harassment and bullying of women during his time as the star of Channel Nine's ratings juggernaut Burke's Backyard.
Key points:
- Two former TV researchers claim Burke groped their breasts
- One of the researchers alleges he put his hand down her top during a work trip
- Former Channel Nine boss David Leckie describes Burke as a "dreadful piece of work"
- Burke says the allegations against him are "baseless" and supplied statements of support from three former colleagues
A joint ABC/Fairfax investigation has uncovered claims from a number of women who worked with Burke in the late 1980s and 1990s.
It comes in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, with women all over the world revealing their experiences of workplace sexual harassment.
Two former TV researchers claim Burke groped their breasts, while a young actress claims he told her she would have to do an audition topless for his G-rated show.
One of the researchers said Burke once showed her a bestiality video. She also said on another occasion he attempted to remove her clothing and put his hand down her top while the two were travelling for work in central Australia.
The second researcher said the TV star once grabbed her breast while they were alone on a rooftop above their production office to demonstrate how he would read nametags at cocktail parties as an excuse to grope women.
In a statement on Sunday, Burke strenuously denied all the allegations. He said they were "baseless" claims of ex-employees with grudges.
"The bitter irony is that I have had a life-long opposition to sexism and misogyny," he said. "Burke's Backyard was a lone bastion of anti-misogyny from its inception in 1987."
He said he had chosen many women to be presenters on the show because they were the best in the field and "not the typical media female aged under-30 and with Barbie-doll figures".
Journalists and production staff have also spoken out about Burke's sexualised comments, including comments about a younger female relative.
The claims have received some support from three former Channel Nine executives. Former Nine CEO Sam Chisholm described Burke as a "grub" and a "disgrace".
"Don Burke was a disgrace because of his behaviour internally and externally. This precluded him from ever becoming a major star," he said.
Mr Chisholm's successor, David Leckie, said there were complaints about Burke but Channel Nine never paid anyone to stay silent.
While no-one has alleged Burke's behaviour was more serious than indecent assault, Mr Leckie said his general behaviour was unpleasant.
"I've been trying to think of Harvey Weinstein-type people, and the only one I can ever come up with is Burke," he said.
"He's a horrible, horrible, horrible man. He's a dreadful, dreadful piece of work … he was a really dirty old man."
Nine's former director for news and current affairs Peter Meakin said he never received any official complaints, written or verbal, about Burke.
"There was gossip about inappropriate language and he was incredibly demanding," Mr Meakin said. "If someone fell short of the mark, he would excoriate them. He was unforgiving."
Women have reported that Burke's behaviour extended beyond his offices.
One former entertainment writer said he once interrupted an interview to tell her she would be a "demon f***", and that he bought a horse for a female relative so he could watch her "rub her c*** on its back".
The journalist said she gave the taped interview to Channel Nine and received a bunch of flowers.
The claims raise serious questions about why Channel Nine did not act on complaints about Burke's inappropriate behaviour towards women.
Former colleagues have told the ABC it was tolerated because he was such a big money earner for the network.
But despite many long-serving Nine employees being well aware of his reputation, Burke continues to appear on programs like A Current Affair and Today.
Burke's Backyard was one of the most popular shows on Australian TV for 18 years until it was unceremoniously axed in 2004.
It was produced in-house at Channel Nine for its first four years until Burke established his own production company, CTC, which stands for Cut The Crap.
The show was always dogged by rumours that Burke, its creator and host, was a tyrant who was extremely difficult to work with.
This is the first time women have publicly alleged his behaviour extended to sexual misconduct.
'He was trying to take my top off'
Louise Langdon, who moved to the US nine years ago and is now a psychologist, worked as a researcher on Burke's radio and TV programs in the 1980s.
"Dealing with Don Burke was an endurance test in terms of his persistence in commentary about anything sexual," she told the ABC.
"It started very early on when I worked with him at the radio station 2UE, and the comment was, 'Did you get your rocks off last night?' Meaning, did you have sex last night? That was his way of greeting me in the morning.
"He would often refer to a video he had in his possession which showed a woman having sex with a donkey.
"He encouraged me to look at this video which was exactly as he described it. I was just speechless. What do you do when your boss is showing you this thing?"
Ms Langdon said during her career Burke's behaviour escalated and on a number of occasions he indecently assaulted her.
"It was things like pulling at my bra strap, flicking a bra strap … pulling up my shirt to see what colour underwear I was wearing," she said.
"There was one occasion when I remember he … pushed into me with his foot into my backside and then remarked that I hadn't been working out."
She said while travelling for a radio broadcast in Alice Springs, Burke sat next to her on a shuttle bus, put his hand down her top and tried to remove some of her clothing.
"He decided that it was okay for him to put his hands on my T-shirt and try and pull my bra strap, my bra, off and somehow remove my clothing. He was trying to take my top off," she said.
"He was saying it in a joking way, 'It's too hot up here. It's too hot up here. You don't need so many clothes on'."
In his statement, Burke insisted this incident never happened.
She also said Burke one day remarked that she'd lost weight over summer. Ms Langdon suggested perhaps her "brain got bigger", to which Burke replied: "Who cares about your f***ing brain?"
Ms Langdon said she complained to senior producers at Burke's Backyard about his general behaviour but nothing was done.
"The reason given that they couldn't do anything about the behaviour was that my job was expendable and Don's wasn't," she said.
"Don was a ratings juggernaut, he was a ratings success, he was bringing a lot of money for the network and that if I wasn't able to tolerate the behaviour, then they would find somebody who would."
'He was lewd and he was crude and he loved … to shock you'
Bridget Ninness was Burke's main female producer for seven years. She said she was never sexually harassed by Burke but she was bullied relentlessly.
"He was lewd. He was lewd and he was crude and he loved …to shock you, it was always of a sexual nature so it was always designed to confront you and to demean you," she said.
She recalled her first overseas work trip with Burke, to Greece.
"Don pulled me aside and he said 'I'm just going to tell you that if anything goes wrong on this trip I'm going to rip your f***ing head off, and shit down your throat'. So — and I actually vomited, I was actually so nervous that I vomited," Ms Ninness said.
"I've tried so hard to put this experience out of my head."
Burke said in his statement that he "absolutely" disputes claims of bullying made against him.
Ms Ninness said she complained to Peter Meakin, who looked after lifestyle programming at the time.
"[He] said, 'Look, you've got broad shoulders, Bridget, you just got to take this on the chin'."
Mr Meakin told the ABC he could not remember the specific incident but always "thought very highly" of Ms Ninness.
She said the final straw came years later, when Burke referred to a young researcher as a "dumb slut".
Ms Ninness said she stood up for the woman and was demoted. She decided to take legal action, and spoke to then Channel Nine boss David Leckie about what she was planning.
"He said to me 'Think seriously about that, Bridget. Don is a major money earner for this network. We wouldn't want to crush you'."
Mr Leckie insisted there was "no way" he would have said something like that and he didn't recall Ms Ninness approaching him.
In 1997 Ms Ninness reached a settlement with Burke's production company, CTC.
Mr Leckie said during his time at the helm of Channel Nine, the network received complaints but it ended there.
"Through all this period, while all this was bubbling along, I was never challenged by anyone at Nine to say, 'You've got to stop this' — as in him."
'You'll have to audition, but you'll have to be topless'
Wendy Dent met Burke at the Melbourne Garden Show in the mid 1990s. The then 21-year-old was hired to perform as the children's entertainer, Stardust The Fairy.
"Don Burke was a very big deal, I think at that time he had the highest rating show on TV. They started filming me, and Don Burke was doing his piece to camera while I was actually performing," Ms Dent told the ABC.
"He came over and chatted with me and the crew, and it was at some point then I said 'I'll give you a fairy wish', which was part of my routine.
"He kneeled down in front of me and the crew and entourage, and onlookers were gathered around, and he was kneeling in front and I said 'Close your eyes and think of a wish and if you really truly believe in it, it will come true'.
"I wave my wand over him and then I throw stardust over him and I said 'Okay, now open your eyes'. And he said, 'It didn't work, you've still got your clothes on'. It stunned me."
Ms Dent said a crew member later warned her to be careful of Burke. But when Burke offered her the chance to appear on his show, she decided to take him up on it because it was such a huge opportunity.
Talking to Burke on the phone, the gardening guru suggested Ms Dent had "real charisma".
"He was talking to me about being able to help make my TV career, but starting with having me on Burke's Backyard as kind of a featured mermaid. And he suggested, 'Well you'll have to audition, but you'll have to be topless'."
With that remark Ms Dent said she politely declined his offer and hung up, in shock.
"I went from feeling like this talent with a future to feeling like I was just a pair of boobs to him, to be honest. All of a sudden it was like this loss of this big break," she said.
Ms Dent moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career but soon became disillusioned.
"I thought, 'Oh my god, they're all like Don Burke'. After years of experiences - just as bad as Don Burke, or even worse. Yeah, I gave up and I feel really sad and annoyed and angry about that."
'He asked me what position he thought that I would enjoy sex'
The ABC has learned that Channel Nine knew about Burke's behaviour as far back as 1988.
A former entertainment reporter, who asked not to be named, interviewed Burke on a number of occasions.
"He would interrupt the interview quite often by saying things like, 'I bet you're a demon f***. I bet you love cock', which obviously I found incredibly untoward and rude," she said.
"The next year … it continued again — talk about my breasts. He asked me what position he thought that I would enjoy sex."
She said she was so appalled by his behaviour during one interview at his rural property that she sent a tape recording to the network.
"I was sort of asking the other reasons that he decided to make the country change, and he said one of the reasons was he wanted to get horses because he had a [younger] female relative — I'll put it that way — who he liked to watch rub her c*** on its back.
"I felt really physically sick … I took the tape recording to the head of publicity and said 'I want action'. And the next day I received a bunch of flowers and that was the end of it."
In his statement, Burke said he "never commented on the body shape of any family member".
The reporter later went to work for Channel Nine but stipulated that she would never have any contact with Burke.
She said even considering the era, Burke's behaviour was unacceptable.
"He was one of the worst, if not the worst."
A Channel Nine spokeswoman said it had no records of payments to any complainants and Burke's Backyard was produced by Burke's production company.
The spokeswoman added that Burke had not been employed by Nine for many years and recent stories on its programs were not paid appearances.
'This was not a clumsy move. It was a calculated action'
One researcher, who does not want to be identified, worked for Burke's Backyard on a number of specials in the late 90s and described Burke as a "pig", "revolting" and even "menacing".
"There is a difference between someone who is lecherous and someone who is really sinister. There was something very cold about him," she said.
"He is the kind of person who invades your personal space."
The woman said Burke's behaviour was so well-known that when she got a cab to his house for her job interview one evening, the driver offered to wait for her.
"I thought doing the interview at night was because he was very busy but it was all about power and control," she said.
"While I was interviewed for the job Don said, 'Our nickname for the receptionist is The Fat C***, so make sure you call her that'. I think he was testing me to see whether I would be shocked."
The woman went on to work for Burke, but one day while she was having a cigarette on the rooftop of their production office she said Burke took his inappropriate behaviour too far.
She claims he grabbed her breast and explained how he would use the guise of reading women's nametags at cocktail parties to touch their breasts.
"This was not a clumsy, oafish move. It was a calculated action," she said. "He sneered, 'You've got small tits, no-one would want to touch them'."
Burke said in his statement this incident never happened.
'He was obsessed with sex'
Former production crew members have also described Burke as like a "rock star" of his era who let fame go to his head.
While on the road they said the TV star who would go "on the prowl" for women and would be "sniffing around anybody with a pulse".
One told the ABC there was also "no shortage of women queuing up to head home to the hotel with him" and crew would often hear reports of his exploits the next day.
However they were never too sure whether his stories were true or not.
"Don talked about sex 24/7. He was obsessed with sex. And because of his position he had access to that as much as he wanted," one person said.
While Burke's behaviour was reportedly disliked in Nine's head office, crew said Nine's inaction sanctioned it.
One former production crew member said they didn't think it was their place to report Burke's behaviour and senior producers were responsible.
"He would often have women in tears. He used to take great delight in it. It was like a sport to him."
Along with his total denial of the allegations made against him, Burke also supplied to the ABC statements of support from three former colleagues.
Those colleagues included Jackie French, who regularly appeared on Burke's Backyard, and two former CEOs of the program, Michael Freedman and James O'Sullivan.
Ms French, who was Senior Australian of the Year in 2015, said in the decade she worked closely with Burke she never saw "any hint of sexual harassment nor heard gossip about any".
'The name that kept popping up was Don Burke'
The ABC and Fairfax have spoken to dozens of people with similar stories. Even after 20 years, many are still too afraid to speak on the record for fear it could damage their careers.
One media veteran investigating claims of misconduct in the media and entertainment industries is journalist Tracey Spicer.
"In the wake of the Weinstein scandal I put out a very small tweet saying I was investigating … people in the Australian media," she said.
"I'd expected to get perhaps a handful, a couple of dozen women responding. To this day 470 people have come forward."
She said a number of people complained about Burke's sexual harassment and bullying, and Channel Nine's failure to pull him into line.
"The name that kept popping up again and again and again was Don Burke … In the case of Channel Nine, this protection racket went to the very top."
The women who have spoken out hope their stories will force change in the TV industry. They also want Burke to acknowledge the harm he has done.
"I would like him to apologise. I don't know if he's man enough. If you're listening to this - just apologise. Own up," Ms Dent told the ABC.
"Take away his Order of Australia … This is not a man who should be representing Australia."
With additional research by Kate McClymont at the Sydney Morning Herald.
Topics: community-and-society, arts-and-entertainment, television, television-broadcasting, information-and-communication, broadcasting, women, australia
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