Tim Worner: Sex, texts and lies — Seven mistress speaks
IT was the excitement that first drew Amber Harrison to married Channel 7 boss Tim Worner. They quickly embarked on a torrid journey of sex and smutty messages — which ended in legal action.
NSW
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- Tim Worner’s mistress Amber Harrison wants to ‘explain my truth
- CEO’s disgruntled former lover reveals details of their affair
THE woman standing in the shadows of the faded Melbourne hotel lobby on November 21 was so inconspicuous she looked a ghost in dark sunglasses, her mid-length hair concealing the complement of a small face.
Her outfit – a misshapened T-shirt and loose work slacks that had seen better days – gave no clue to the character of the woman who within weeks would detonate the life of the powerful boss of the Seven Network, Tim Worner. Mine too, a bit.
Sighting me first, Amber Harrison approached and extended a polite but nervous hand.
Though I had seen photographs of her after first hearing her name whispered in association with Worner almost two years prior, she was not what I expected.
There might have been a day when Harrison resembled the model from the quirky 1980s’ Antz Pantz TV ad. But that was not this day. On this day her pale face was etched with worry and she looked like a woman who had fallen upon hard times – on the run from Seven and the threat of injunction – and wearing an outfit perhaps retrieved from a stockpile of old clothes parked at a relative’s house, her own wardrobe presumably now in storage in Sydney somewhere.
Unaccustomed to sneaking about in hotels in semi-industrial estates in Melbourne, I tried to sort out the problem of what had happened to our room — booked for four hours for our clandestine 11am meeting — when Harrison’s highly developed EA instincts kicked in. She shed some of her reserve and moved to my side in order to solve the problem, which together we manage to do.
It breaks the ice.
Since being sacked from her role as EA to Seven’s Chief Operations Officer Nick Chan in 2014 accused by the company of running up $276,000 in unauthorised charges on her credit card, Harrison’s name has been uttered in the backrooms at Seven and it’s magazine division Pacific Publications through curled lips and in jaundiced terms.
Though she would prove the vast bulk of the expenses were legitimately spent on corporate business – trips, lunches, gifts that was work related and often charged to her card by colleagues she maintains – she had been marked by people who had heard only what Seven executives wanted them to hear, that she was the woman who defrauded the company of thousands of dollars spent on flights, accommodation, massages, hypnotherapy and counselling. A Fairfax business columnist had even trotted the fraud line out on Seven’s behalf.
The truth, she would tell me, was that while this type of corporate fraud is endemic at Seven among senior staff, she had become the victim of a smear campaign, discredited and sacked so her secret affair with Worner – a married, churchgoing father of four — would never come to light in an industry in which men have always protected each other and prospered while women are still relegated to the sidelines and all too casually the hay, while executives don’t blink an eye.
The high life
HARRISON was living a big and exciting Sydney life when she met Worner in November 2012 at a Seven West board meeting.
Within a month the couple had become lovers who would retreat to her Balmain harbourside apartment for steamy spontaneous sex: “We started flirting and soon after Tim began texting and emailing me for sex,” she explained to News Corp in November.
A worldly 35 when her sexual relationship with Worner began, Harrison had been at Pacific since 2009 after moving across from Sony Music where she had worked as the personal assistant to Sony’s Marketing Director, John Parker, for four years from 2005. Harrison confirmed she was made redundant at Sony, where, sources say, she had also been inclined to the odd romantic dalliance with her colleagues. Before Sony she had worked at advertising firm Saatchi and Saatchi and Warner Music.
The intelligent and attractive Melburnian, sources say, was always drawn to excitement hence her affinity with the sometimes intoxicating and creative media and entertainment industries.
As Harrison would tell this writer during our meeting, Worner’s marital status was never a deterrent for her. “I knew he was married. It was never about love. It was about sex and power. I found our relationship, if you’d call it that, thrilling to begin with.”
A ex associate of Harrison’s suggests she may have inherited this love of danger from her father, Melbourne AFL club stalwart Garry “Harro” Harrison — one-time sideline “clipboard man” for his great friend Mark “Bomber” Thompson and mentor and friend to Gary Ablett Jr.
“Harro” sat at Thompson’s right hand at Geelong until a tragic fall from a roof in 2004 left him a quadriplegic. He was conducting maintenance work as a hotel building manager at the time of the fall.
I knew he was married. It was never about love. It was about sex and power
Today he remains a spirited crusader who fights for rights for the disabled. He once drove his wheelchair slowly in the path of four frustrated tram drivers on Melbourne’s busy Burke Street as part of a one-man protest about the lack of wheelchair access from tram platforms - and for Seven’s AFL-friendly news cameras he confronted then transport minister Lynne Cosky and called her an “idiot”.
Now it’s his daughter’s turn to point the finger and confront those who she believes have been negligent.
“I just want to explode the bomb and get on with my life,” Harrison said, setting in motion events that would lead to last Sunday. “It’s been hanging over me for long enough. I’ve tried everything I can. Like I have exhausted everything. I would have happily walked (away from this) if they’d given me the job they offered as part of contract one but they had to do this. They had to just continue to roll out the ruining of my life.
“They know they’ve got me. Let’s say even if I found backing to go to court, they would frustrate the process for another five years. I’m 39 now, this has already taken up four years of my life.”
‘Cos I can’t wait to f--- you’
In a dossier presented to the Australian Human Rights Commission (HRC) in 2015 as part of a third failed attempt at mediation with Seven following two previous collapsed negotiations following her dismissal, details of the couple’s earthy couplings are laid bare in hundreds of texts presented by Seven.
Six months into the affair, in May 2013, the month Worner was promoted to CEO at Seven West replacing Don Voelte at the helm of billionaire Stokes’ vast media empire, Worner’s head is full of thoughts of the EA, who is 16 years his junior.
Worner, then 51, admitted he “could not stop thinking about being with” Chan’s EA
The executive was soon benefiting from his lover’s talents in the workplace as well as the bedroom according to Harrison’s HRC complaint.
“Most people say ‘thank you for working to make my welcome packs, and indeed my conferences, so amazing’… Rude,” Harrison texted in July 2013.
Worner: “Thank you for working so hard…I will show you rude..”
Harrison: “You’re annoyingly tanned.”
Worner: “Are you going up there Monday night?”
Harrison: “Maybe. Why?”
Worner: “Cos I can’t wait to f--- you.”
On June 21, 2013, in another text Harrison confirmed was sent by Worner, he suggests his sexual “performance” during a previous rendezvous was chemically assisted: “I think my performance was drug assisted. And if you can go dirtier I am slightly scared. But you are f--- hot so I will take the chance.”
Harrison’s revelations the couple used cocaine during their rendezvous last week shocked the Seven Board as did her allegations the Seven boss charged his taxis to and from her Balmain bolthole to the company.
You are f--- hot so I will take the chance - Worner
At a conference for 30 Seven West employees at Bells Killcare Conference Centre in July 2013 to celebrate Worner’s appointment to Voelte’s Seven West CEO post the pair, she said, took the drug and “partied hard”.
Last week, following an audit by the Seven West Board, Worner denied consuming recreational drugs at work, prompting a swift contradiction from Harrison: “He spent all night taking drugs with me. We were up all night, we barely slept. He partied hard … and then went off the next day and attended important work sessions.”
As well as actual sex, the couple engaged in phone sex and as much lurid sexting as was necessary.
While Harrison destroyed her file of “thousands” of texts at Seven’s instruction during earlier settlement negotiations, Seven submitted a file which reveals the EA had a talent for erotic prose while Worner’s sexts conveyed only the essentials, bluntly.
“My current fave is lying on the bed with you standing, forcing your ---- deeper and deeper in my mouth while I ------ myself.) Am I missing something? It’s quite easy. You text me. You come here. I answer the door in stilettos. And then I make you sit on my couch. And wait. And watch for a while...”
“BTW I would not last that long if you were around,” Worner texted Harrison in June 2013.
Harrison: “You went the distance just fine last time. And then some. We both did hold back of course. It’s manners not to pull out the dirtiest horniest sexual deviate version of yourself you can possibly imagine first time. Pretty sure manners are out the window next time. Which is ----ing exciting. F--- manners.”
Worner is soon sounding smitten: “I love being with you. Too much. Too sexy.”
By January 2014, the HRC documents show the pair also met for sex in Melbourne during the Seven-sponsored Australian Open Tennis but the tone of Harrison’s correspondence had changed and it is clear the pair’s sexual arrangement was starting to upset and infuriate her.
Moved from Pacific Publications’ Eveleigh headquarters along with her boss Chan to Seven’s head office in Pyrmont in December 2013 following Chan’s promotion, Harrison told this writer she found it increasingly difficult to be near her lover who ignored her at work after sex — which they were sometimes having in the middle of the working day.
“I just love being ignored Tim,” Harrison wrote tersely at 11.35pm on January 25, 2014. “Makes me feel really A Grade after you’ve spent 2 hours ------ my mouth the evening previous. Doesn’t give me the shits at all. And you wonder why I turn into such a f (sic) nightmare. And I wonder why I don’t f------ (sic) learn what a massive dickhead you are.”
Dickhead or no, on the evening of March 19, 2014, a self-described “drunkish” Seven boss texted of being aroused while thinking of Harrison: “I was just going to tell you that I had a massive hard on and I was thinking about ramming it in your mouth.” He was similarly aroused on March 24 texts show: “I want to f--- you like a wild man.”
Despite the distraction of the affair, Harrison’s output at work appears to have remained of a suitably high standard judging from a letter Worner sent his lover on September 16, 2013, advising her she was getting a $10,000 “special bonus payment”.
She produced a copy of the letter on SWM letterhead: “We are really pleased to advise that you have been recommended for a special bonus payment in recognition of your exceptional performance and outstanding contribution to Seven West Media throughout what has been a tough year,” Seven’s chief executive officer wrote.
“I want to take this chance to recognise the hard work you put in and the considerable patience with which you do it. Sometimes we don’t take the time to recognise that. Next year is going to be an exciting one for SWM and we look forward to your contribution to it,” he finished, adding in his own handwritten note: “You are a champion. T.W”.
Yet by March 2014, the emotional disconnect with her boss-lover was “killing” the EA who had begged to “be fired”.
Her statement to the HRC, served in 2015 in a last-ditch attempt at mediation with Seven , would state that by this time she was having suicidal thoughts.
On February 8 she tried to put a stop to the sex: “I’m something that pops in your head to do when you are bored. Stop texting me. I’ll stop texting you. This is done.”
Apparently oblivious to her psychological decline, Worner responded: “I want to f--- you. Badly.”
On March 28, Harrison’s HRC complaint records she is struggling to come into the office: “I’m sitting in my car unable to come up.”
Why I don’t f------ (sic) learn what a massive dickhead you are?
“I want to leave so I don’t have to face this,” she writes on May 15. “And I really don’t want to f--- either of us in the process. So can you just help me please.”
Throughout this period, Harrison maintained Worner visited for sex. The couple had intercourse for the last time on June 13.
A month later, on July 11, Chan pulled Harrison aside to inform her she was being investigated over the misuse of her credit card. She was offered two months salary to resign from Seven over $14,000 expenditure. She refused to resign.
Chan, who learned for the first time about the affair between his EA and his boss when the fraud allegations came to light, recommended Harrison not be sacked but given a written warning, a one-week suspension and ordered to repay the $14,000 sum, which she later did, she said.
On July 17, a day after allegedly telling Harrison he was lobbying for her to be given a “second chance” over the corporate card abuse, Worner suggested their affair should end.
He stressed there was no link between it and the expenses hunt.
Following a meeting with Seven’s group executive HR boss Melanie Allibon on July 30 — at which she admitted her affair with Worner — she signed a deed of release the next day which, as per agreement with Allibon and Seven’s commercial director Bruce McWilliam, would see the EA offered two months leave, $100,000 and a new job away from Worner.
At the same time, according to Seven West Media’s remuneration report for 2014, Worner’s bonus dropped from $750,000 in 2013 to $650,000. In contrast McWilliam and Allibon both received handsome bonuses for the year — $250,000 for McWilliam and $90,000 for Allibon who left Seven in November 2016 following what Seven likes to call a restructure of the HR department.
After returning from her negotiated leave on November 8, Harrison was called to another meeting with Allibon at the Darling Hotel in Pyrmont. At this meeting Harrison hoped to learn about the new job Seven had in mind for her.
I am obviously filled with the deepest regret and shame — Worner
Instead she was told there would be no job and McWilliam, valued lieutenant to Seven chairman Stokes, would make what Harrison called a “surprise” appearance and produce a document outlining broader allegations of corporate fraud against her. The investigation, documents show, was undertaken by independent auditing company Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu following their engagement by McWilliam on August 1 — the same day on which Harrison entered into the first contract with Seven promising her a new job.
The wide-reaching Deloitte investigation alleged Harrison was responsible for $262,000 of corporate fraud starting in 2009. It even swept the corporate credit card of Harrison’s boss, Chan, into the search for evidence against his EA.
There is no suggestion Chan engaged in any fraud yet within months he was made redundant – the victim of more of Seven’s “departmental restructuring”.
On November 9, stunned by the new fraud allegations, Harrison retained Harmer’s Workplace Lawyers, specialists in sexual harassment, to help her fight the new allegations. Harmer’s brought Seven back to the table on November 14 with a new deed of release contract offering Harrison more than $350,000 as payout — a typo in the contract would have entitled the EA to over a million dollars in fact had she wished to prosecute it.
Harrison said she later disproved all but $40,000 of the alleged $262,000 in expenses but by the time she had gathered evidence to do so, Seven had, she claimed, breached the second contract while she had run up $150,000 in legal fees with Harmer’s leaving her financially spent.
In June 2015, as Worner was promoted to the board of Seven West Media, Harmer’s submits to the HRC for mediation on Harrison’s behalf.
In the document Harrison cites bullying, victimisation and sexual harassment by Worner, Allibon and Seven.
Negotiations fail in May 2016 prompting Harrison to sack Harmer’s who now claims they are owed $300,000. Lawyer Sam Macedone is employed for one final attempt at resolution.
When that falls over Harrison finally returned this reporter’s call.
More alleged affairs
HARRISON initially asked if News Corp would pay her for her story.
Despite her conviction to blow the lid on the affair, she was down to her last $700 in November and life’s practicalities have her looking for finance.
Despite her newly desperate circumstances, she understands when I refuse. The integrity of her tale in all its sordid glory will be compromised if she tries profiting from it now and she doesn’t need persuading. She agrees.
Seven has already paid her in the area of $150,000 to go quietly — most of which was burnt up employing lawyers, some of it spent on overseas trips — and what she really needs is a job, It is the very thing that has propelled her this far in her battle with Seven – the hope of seeing them honour their original offer, made in August 2014, to relocate her within the company.
She had hoped for a job in television production — away from Seven’s administrative centre at Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont. She is adamant this arrangement was offered to another EA who had an alleged affair with Worner.
The woman, whom Harrison named in documents submitted to the HRC in her third failed attempt at mediation, was moved into a role on Seven’s drama unit after her alleged affair with Worner ended with the pair engaging in shouting matches in full view of staff.
Harrison’s allegations Worner has a history of having affairs with women at the network brought a swift denial from Seven last week.
At last count, seven current and former employees — including an on-air presenter and an actress who last week engaged defamation lawyers have been named as being the object of Worner’s desire — creating more headaches for the network.
No apology
WORNER has apologised for his behaviour to his family, Seven’s Board, shareholders and staff.
“I am obviously filled with the deepest regret and shame,” he said in a statement released swiftly on Monday night after Seven’s share price plummeted by $100 million that day.
“My focus is to continue to work through this in private and minimise the distress to my family. They are the most important people in the world to me and I will continue to fight to repair the damage I’ve caused.”
Worner will awaken on Christmas Day in the $9.5 million oceanfront Manly home Kerry Stokes’s money bought him earlier this year and, possibly after a trip to his local church with his devout Christian family, will continue on, Harrison fears, relatively unscathed by the scandal and protected by the arrogance that comes with being top dog in television.
There will be no apology for her and she is resigned to it.
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