“I’m sorry for any hurt I’ve caused him”: Hadley responds to bullying accusations

Former Assistant Editor

Ray Hadley has responded to accusations that he bullied former 2GB staffer Chris Bowen.

Bowen recently took to Facebook to clear the air about “16 years of intense bullying” he experienced under Hadley whilst he was employed at 2GB.

Bowen also claimed that management ignored his complaints, saying “complaining was about as effective as setting yourself on fire.”

2GB Mornings host Hadley responded on his show today.

“Given I’ve previously admitted by shortcomings earlier in my career, I feel obliged to defend myself here,” he said.

“The Bowen, as he was known, was my panel operator for my first shift back in 2001… until he moved to another program 15 years later.

“Through our years together we became very close, more like a father and son relationship.

“Given what he had to deal with personally, I tried to help him through some very difficult situations.

“At times our relationship could be volatile, he could go off and so could I. It certainly wasn’t like that weekly, as [Bowen] has portrayed.

“One of the saddest times in my broadcasting career was the end of our relationship.

“He has revealed he is suffering significant problems in the post, and apparently the post is part of his treatment.

“I thought he was coping but obviously he wasn’t, and isn’t. I’m regretful I wasn’t more supportive.

“I’m sorry for any hurt I’ve caused him. I’d like to think as part of his recovery we could catch up into the future and talk about all the good times we had.

“I wish him no harm. At the bottom of the story he’s a fairly decent person who’s having some troubles at the moment.

“I wish him well.”

For his part, Bowen then posted a screenshot of a message from Hadley that he received during a recent exchange on March 17 whilst he was “attempting to clear the air”.

“That’s your entire problem,” Hadley is shown to have written. “You thought you had the ability to go straight to the chairman over everyone’s head.

“You’ve learned nothing. No more texts thanks.”

Bowen finished the post by saying that he would now be grouping with others to take his complaint and “go over everyone’s heads with the new owners. Channel 9.”.

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Peter Johnson
25 Mar 2019 - 5:02 pm

Hadley has form in this area. It wasn’t that long ago that he was in trouble for referring to his colleague Justin Kelly as a “spastic”.

John Laws has said on his program many times that Hadley is a bully

Paul
25 Mar 2019 - 5:37 pm

Always has been, always will be.
Unless he’s looking for understanding and compassion

Peter
25 Mar 2019 - 7:05 pm

But of a Clayton’s apology if you ask me. Bowen didn’t say it was at the start of his career only …. not acceptable then or now Ray

Truth Bomber
26 Mar 2019 - 1:21 pm

Singo did this ha ha, because he’s left them in their pond and now shareholders are being asked to keep their skins clean. NEWSFLASH they won’t because they’d rather 4 cents in the dollar for 50 years than dips and dives. Content monsters are a thing of the past. Talent and personality is no longer a commodity, you can see this by who they are growing in the podcasts, boring though hungry children – because all the interesting people don’t care about radio and won’t be trophies for content directors. Poor old Hamish and Andy at least pretend to have taken notes. It could be argued that the most successful have always been the ones PD’s wish would leave or stop being a thorn, or the ones who knew what a PD needed to get a consultant gig later… who was feeding which beast. Then whats left?? the answer? boring nerd Children dying to be heard, applying observed processes and talking about the day they had yesterday, in a RADIO station. YAWN

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