Kerri-Anne Kennerley is blowing the lid off the Don Burke sexual harassment allegations, admitting he’s not alone.
The TV veteran admitted “there are a whole bunch of people” who are guilty.
KAK was chatting to Triple M Adelaide’s Roo and Ditts, explaining she’s known 70-year-old Don Burke for many years.
“I’ve done several stories with him, two in my home in various times,” she shared.
“There wasn’t any question his language was appalling. I’m not a shrinking violet … but to me he always was just that little bit worse.”
“It was the language school of Kerry Packer and it went downhill from that. All of his executives spoke the same way and they were all colourful. But Don, sometimes, was just a little bit more.”
WATCH: Kerri-Anne speaks about Don in the video below!
KAK has known Don for years
The celebrated Australian gardener and former host of the Nine Network’s Burke’s Backyard, Don Burke has been accused of indecent assault, bullying and sexual harassment by more than 50 people.
“A lot of us knew but in those days there were a lot of men who did push the envelope,” KAK said on Triple M.
“Boys will be boys. But many of us in that era drew a line in the sand and said: ‘Watch my lips. Do that again and I will hit you!’”
“The simple answer was, that was an era. It was all going on for young and old. There are a whole bunch of people involved, but that said, it was part of an era.
“I’m not trying to justify it,” the 64-year-old said. “It has to be dragged out now because no young woman should ever have to put up with that.”
Don and his wife Marea in 2014.
Two former Nine CEOs David Leckie and Sam Chisholm have corroborated the claims to Fairfax.
Sam remarked, “Don Burke was a disgrace because of his behaviour internally and externally.”
While David voiced, “I’ve been trying to think of Harvey Weinstein-type people [in Australia] and the only one I can ever come up with is Burke.”
Kerri-Anne commented on their views, musing, “They’re saying he’s a horrible person simply because he used to give them strife when he’d go in and try and renegotiate more money every year.”
“They hated that. He was a bully with them as well as everyone else.”
Susie has bravely spoken out.
Among Don’s victims – Eight-time Olympic medalist Susie O’Neill has told the The Sydney Morning Herald that she endured “crude and belittling” comments from Don Burke during an interview at her home in the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Don apparently looked at a painting of a flower in her home and asked Susie, “Is your c— as big as that?”
Susie lodged a formal complaint, resulting in Kerry Packer personally calling the TV star, ordering him to behave.
“You can imagine how colourful that was,” KAK said about the phone call.
“He [Kerry Packer] would be one of the few people who could yank on Don Burke’s chain.”
Don Burke has commented on the accusations made against hime, admitting to A Current Affair that he “wasn’t a nice person” but denies the allegations.
“I’m not that man at all,” he said. “Some of these things are despicable. It is not that a man should never say to a woman, it’s that no one should say it.”
