Amber Harrison ‘tried to destroy reputation of radio executive’ before Tim Worner affair

SEVEN wants Amber Harrison to pay their legal bill, which could stretch into the hundreds of thousands, for “flagrantly” breaching a contract by going public about her affair with CEO Tim Worner.

SEVEN wants former employee Amber Harrison to pay their legal bill, which could stretch into the hundreds of thousands, for “flagrantly” breaching a contract by going public about her affair with CEO Tim Worner.

At a NSW Supreme Court hearing the former executive assistant was accused of “huge malice,” and of allegedly trying to destroy the reputation of a radio executive with whom she had an affair before Mr Worner.

Former Channel 7 employee Amber Harrison. Picture: John Grainger

Harrison did not show for the hearing after giving up her court battle against Seven last week, dismissing her legal team and stating she would consent to a court order preventing her from speaking about her affair or saying anything disparaging about her former employer.

Lawyer for Seven Andrew Bell SC tendered emails between Harrison and a colleague from June 2014 when she allegedly boasted about leaking stories to journalists in “a revenge campaign that stopped the city” about an “executive at Nova (FM radio) that f***ed me over.”

“I splashed it across the papers for three weeks,” Ms Harrison emailed.

Dr Bell said the email exchange showed, “a previous act of vindictive revenge in which she boasts of orchestrating to humiliate and harm a person with whom she had a relationship in the media industry.”

Another email by Ms Harrison read “hey Timo, I want to kill him seriously I am plotting my revenge and will make Nova look like a turkey slap.”

Mr Bell accused Ms Harrison of being a person of, “huge malice and enormous arrogance and vindictiveness.”

Seven boss Tim Worner had a two-year affair with Amber Harrison. Picture: Kym Smith

He said there had been “flagrant breaches,” of the Deed of Agreement that Ms Harrison signed when she left the company in 2014.

Mr Bell asked that on top of a gag order against Harrison that she pay Seven’s full legal costs.

“We have had to continue to fight…we had to bring the case in the first place not withstanding multiple requests for undertakings and observations about clear and obvious breaches.”

Although Ms Harrison did not appear in court she was active on social media Tweeting, “The irony is I consented (aside from the request for costs) to the proposed court orders they seek last night – so who has the sour grapes?”

MS Harrison gave up her court battle on Friday just before a scheduled three-day hearing in the Supreme Court beginning Monday.

The Australian reported that Seven West Board had been offered a settlement by Harrison’s team last week in which $50,000 would have been given to her lawyers, Patron Legal.

In return Ms Harrison would apologise to the four women named in her Australian Human Rights Commission complaint which was made when she was represented by lawyer Michael Harmer.

Amber Harrison. Picture: Supplied

But Ms Harrison later Tweeted that negotiations had failed because of Seven’s request that she apologise publicly.

The legal drama began in 2014 when Ms Harrison reported her two-year affair with Mr Worner to management after she was accused of misuse of company funds.

Ms Harrison agreed to leave the company on the condition that Seven pay her in instalments a total of $427,418 including $100,000 for “alleged injury, including loss of professional standing and reputation”.

The Deed of Agreement required Ms Harrison to not speak about the affair or say anything that would bring her former employer into disrepute.

But in December last year Harrison went public about the affair on Twitter prompting Seven to seek a gag-order on the former employee in the Supreme Court.

Harrison recruited top Human Rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC to fight the gag order.