Feuds, fights and failed romances, the biggest dust ups and bust ups from past 30 years
Feuds, fights and failed romances have turned into some of the biggest headlines in the past three decades. Here’s the locker room, boardroom and bedroom spats that are still whispered about today.
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Feuds simmering from the locker room to the boardroom, kitchen and bedroom have dominated headlines for the last 30 years, becoming the water cooler chatter still whispered about today.
Andrew Peacock vs. John Howard, 1990:
All was forgiven, kind of. Andrew Peacock lost the 1990 Federal election in his second tilt at the prime ministership after a feud with John Howard that threatened to destroy conservative politics. The Colt From Kooyong and his mate Jeff Kennett were overheard on a car phone conversation sledging Howard. Kennett, who was Victorian Opposition Leader, said he would go public, telling Howard: “You’re all a pack of sh--s and tomorrow I’m going berserk and bucket the lot of you.’’ The rant, taped on a scanner and given to the media, led to Peacock being sacked from the Coalition shadow ministry. He later toppled Howard who admitted another leadership swap would be “the greatest comeback since Lazarus.” He did and became Australia’s second longest serving prime minister.
Christopher Skase vs. Australian government, 1991:
The fugitive Christopher Skase was found on the Spanish island of Majorca after fleeing Australia overnight when his passport was mysteriously returned following charges he had improperly paid himself $13.5 million from his private company and had debts of more than $170 million. Attempts to extradite Skase failed and he died in Majorca in 2001. He was regarded as one of Australia’s greatest fraudsters, having bought and sold the Channel 7 network and bankrolled the Brisbane Bears football team, but with other people’s money. He once sent his private jet from Queensland to Melbourne to pick up a dress for his wife, Pixie who now lives a quiet life in Melbourne, renting an apartment from a friend and walking her dog.
Kevin Bartlett vs. Richmond, 1991:
KB didn’t take kindly to getting the sack as Richmond coach after four years in the job. He declared he wouldn’t return to the club until every last person involved in his axing had left. “Hungry” was true to his word, waiting 16 years before walking back into Punt Rd.
Gina Rinehart vs. Rose Hancock, 1992:
Claws were out when Gina Rinehart hired twice-divorced Filipino-born Rose Kuan as a housekeeper for her father. Mining magnate Lang Hancock and Kuan married. Months after Hancock’s death his widow wed real-estate multi-millionaire Willie Porteous. Rinehart and Porteous then fought a 10-year legal stoush over Hancock’s estate.
Paul Lynch vs. Babies, 1993:
Paul Lynch was taken to the Equal Opportunity Commission after refusing entry to a couple with a five-week-old baby. The South Yarra restaurateur said he “loved kids but they just don’t belong in a place like this.” The menu at the plush eatery showed a couple engaging in the sort of passionate embrace that usually leads to making a baby. The ebullient Lynch was found guilty of discrimination but continued to ban babies and breastfeeding mothers.
Derek Kickett vs. Kevin Sheedy, 1993:
Kickett played every game throughout the 1993 season before being dropped for the Grand Final. While Sheeds will point to the premiership victory as justification for his decision, Kickett, who left immediately to play for Sydney, has not forgiven him and the pair didn’t speak for years.
Sam Newman vs. Leonie Jones, 1997:
Footy Show scallywag Sam Newman got run over by his then girlfriend Leonie Jones after a “small argument” outside his Brighton home, which left him with a broken leg and a smashed ankle. “I got run over. I got backed over by a light Korean-model car,” said Sam. Sounds more than a small argument.
Steve Waugh vs. Shane Warne, 1999:
The two Aussie cricket greats had a falling out after Waugh, who was captain, made the decision to drop Warne for the fourth and final Test of the West Indies tour. He claimed Warne was still recovering from a shoulder injury, but Australia’s greatest wicket-taker didn’t take it well and has since labelled Waugh his most selfish teammate.
Wayne Carey vs. Anthony Stevens, 2002:
AFL superstar Wayne Carey was found to have had a fling in a toilet with Kelli Stevens, the wife of his then best friend and North Melbourne teammate Anthony Stevens. “If you wanted (it) that bad you would go to a knock shop wouldn’t you?” Stevens later said. Carey has consistently courted headlines. In 1997 he pleaded guilty to indecent assault after grabbing a woman’s breast on a St Kilda street, allegedly saying, “Why don’t you get a bigger pair of tits.” In 2007, he was arrested and charged in Miami after he allegedly glassed then girlfriend Kate Neilson in the face and neck. In 2008, Carey revealed on Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope that he was a regular abuser of alcohol and cocaine. That was then. Now, Carey is a high-profile commentator on AFL footy.
Peter Brock vs. Bev Brock, 2005:
Peter Brock, nine times the winner of Australia’s greatest car race, the Bathurst 1000, broke up with Bev Brock, the mother of two of his children, “Peter Perfect” had been married twice. Bev Brock took his name and he referred to her as his wife. There was another partner after Bev. The “King of the Mountain” was killed in a crash during a rally in Western Australia in 2006.
Rove McManus vs. Kyle Sandilands, 2003:
A 15-year-long feud started when TV host Rove McManus dissed radio star Kyle Sandiland’s ex-wife Tamara Jaber over the release of her debut album. “When he started sinking the boot in, I started hating him,” Sandilands said on his radio show in 2011. “Everyone thinks he’s cookies and cream, when he’s a little p----. He’s a little a---hole.” McManus and Sandilands buried the hatchet last year, happily not in each other’s back.
Bert Newton vs. Derryn Hinch, 2005:
Human Headline Hinch has had enough blow-ups over the years to launch hot-air balloons. He drew the ire of Bert Newton when he asserted on his 3AW radio program that Graham Kennedy’s death from pneumonia was AIDs-related. Hinch apologised. Newton said there had been a “cesspool” of innuendo and rumours concerning his friend and former partner’s death. “I thought it was disgraceful given the manner in which he died,” said Newton. “Shame!”
Bob Jane vs. Laree Jane, 2007:
Bob Jane was granted an intervention order against his wife after he accused her of threatening to shoot him and menacing him with a kitchen knife. Laree Jane was later found not guilty and they divorced. Jane, a champion driver and businessman, met his wife at the Bathurst car race, which he won four times. She was 37 years younger. Jane’s son Rodney took over the family’s multimillion-dollar tyre business when it was threatened with collapse before his father died two years ago.
Peter Costello vs. John Howard, 2007:
Peter Costello and John Howard formed one of Australia’s longest political partnerships before the Howard Government lost power. There had been a bitter falling out when it was confirmed Howard had failed to hand the Liberal leadership to Costello after promising to do so. The Liberal treasurer believed making him leader was the Coalition’s only chance of winning the election that saw Howard lose his own seat.
Kym Valentine and Jane Hall, 2008:
It was far from neighbourly on the Logies red carpet when the Ramsay St cast had to walk in two groups. Stars Jane Hall and Kym Valentine wanted to keep their distance over an awkward love triangle with Underbelly star Vince Colosimo. Valentine began dating Colosimo after he separated from Hall, his partner of 11 years.
Ian ‘Dicko” Dickson vs. Mark Holden, 2008:
Mark Holden was fired as a judge on Australian Idol, saying his axing from the television song fest was “a shock” and blamed fellow judge Dicko Dickson. “Dicko had completely put me in his pocket … he played me like a violin,” said Holden. Dicko knows how to court controversy, famously fat-shaming Paulini Curuenavuli, saying she should “choose more appropriate clothes or shed some pounds”.
Tracy Grimshaw vs. Gordon Ramsay, 2009:
Following an interview with Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair, potty-mouthed UK chef Gordon Ramsay shocked an audience at Melbourne’s Good Food and Wine Festival calling Grimshaw a fat, lesbian pig in a putrid tirade. Grimshaw returned fire on ACA reading a statement to viewers calling the celebrity chef an arrogant, narcissist. She said she would not allow him to bully her. “Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn’t find him attractive must be gay. For the record, I don’t and I’m not.”
Ricky Nixon vs. St Kilda Schoolgirl, 2011:
Kimberley Duthie was dubbed the St Kilda schoolgirl after she published naked images of St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt and Nick Dal Santo on the internet. It was later revealed Riewoldt’s footy agent-manager Ricky Nixon was involved in an inappropriate relationship with the 17 – year-old. Cue more leaked images, this time of Nixon in his boxer shorts in a hotel room and allegations of cocaine.
Kevin Rudd vs. Julia Gillard, 2013:
Kevin Rudd retired after losing the Federal Election following one of the greatest bust-ups in the Labor Party’s turbulent history. He won the prime ministership in a landslide victory in 2007 but was brought down by Julia Gillard and other plotters in 2010. The bitterness continued with Rudd resigning as foreign minister and losing a leadership spill in 2012. Rudd won another ballot in 2013 but his second term as prime minister lasted less than three months. Gillard and Rudd were barely civil to one another during the leadership wars.
James Packer vs. David Gyngell, 2014:
Billionaire gaming mogul James Packer was embroiled in a vicious fist fight with his former best man and the head of Nine Entertainment Group David Gyngell outside Packer’s multimillion-dollar Bondi Beach home. The paparazzi pics packed a punch. Barefoot and in trackies, the wealthy pair of red faced men fell to the ground before being broken up by Packer’s security guards. The media scion turned casino baron’s enduring animosity toward his former best mate was revealed in Damon Kitney’s biography, The Price of Fortune. Follow the money.
Barnaby Joyce vs. Pistol and Boo, 2015:
Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce unleashed on actor Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard after discovering they smuggled their two Yorkshire terriers into Australia. Joyce, who Depp later said looked like “he’s inbred with a tomato”, issued an ultimatum: “It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States” before being “euthanised”. Depp and Heard complied with the doggy death warrant and Pistol and Boo were sent back on a private jet. The canine crisis was the least of the couple’s problems, which included an ugly confrontation at the rented Gold Coast mansion of MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan which was mentioned during a defamation suit brought by Depp in the British courts this year.
Billy Brownless vs. Gary Lyon, 2016:
Shockwaves swept through the AFL after it emerged Garry Lyon, Billy Brownless’s best mate and Footy Show colleague, had started a relationship with the Geelong larrikin’s wife of 16 years, Nicky. Lyon quit the footytainment show and took some time out to deal with mental health issues. Brownless was emotional over the messy family feud, telling Sam Newman on The Footy Show, “You don’t touch a man’s wallet, you don’t touch his wife” after the relationship went public
Matt Preston v Marco Pierre White, 2016:
Marco Pierre White, a cantankerous chef at the best of times, revealed he quit Channel 10 cooking show MasterChef over Preston’s comments about White’s son. “With my hand on my mother’s grave, I will get that man,” the UK chef vowed. Preston talked about the son’s extra-curricular habits and facial tattoos in a radio interview, but refused to add fuel to the fire in the kitchen other than to say: “I don’t want to get involved in a street fight!” Hot potato!
Grant Hackett vs. himself, 2014:
Former Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett found himself in hot water after been photographed by casino patrons wandering into the Crown foyer after midnight, searching for his young son while wearing only his underpants and clutching a singlet. In other incident, Hackett was questioned by police after an alleged assault on another airline passenger. He was taken off the plane at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport with claims he tweaked a passenger’s nipple. Hackett later sought help at a US rehabilitation centre and was mentored by US swimmer Michael Phelps.
Craig Hutchison vs. David Schwarz, 2017:
The first thing Hutchison did when he took over sports station SEN was to axe popular drivetime duo Schwarz and Mark Allen. Threats of legal action followed and the bad blood continues to boil three years on.
Karl Stefanovic vs. Lisa Wilkinson, 2017:
TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson has done little to repair her acrimonious relationship with former Today co-host Karl Stefanovic following her departure from the Nine Network for a bigger pay cheque at Channel 10’s The Project. Wilkinson was reportedly unhappy at the unequal pay gap with her male breakfast TV co-host. Stefanovic was making headlines over his marriage breakdown with wife of 21 years Cassandra Thorburn and his new relationship with his now wife Jasmine Yarborough. Stefanovic was later fired and rehired from the Today show following public scrutiny, bad ratings and the Ubergate scandal. Stefanovic and brother Peter were heard bitching about the network and their colleagues by a Uber driver. Wilkinson said later it was difficult working with “big egos”.
Solomon Lew vs Myer, 2017:
Premier Investments boss Solomon Lew sent Myer chairman Garry Hounsell a message saying, “This is round one, we are only getting started”. Three years later and the richlister ragtrader appears to be getting the gloves on again, gearing up for another attempt to topple Myer management after the department store chain reported a $172 million loss for the year.
Con Ilio vs. Alin Le’Kal, 2019:
It was feather boas at 20 paces when Melbourne couture designers Con Iliopoulos and Alin Le’ Kal threw down the gauntlet last year. Iliopoulos claimed there were “remarkable similarities” to his patterns and designs at Le’Kal’s couture collection last year. Ilio quoted Oscar Wilde, saying: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay greatness.” Le’Kal said all designs “were created by my team and me over twelve months ago in preparation for our January 2019 Haute Couture Week Paris Show.” Was there a stitch up?
Warwick Capper vs. Fifi, Fev and Byron, 2020:
He was meant to be their movie reviewer, but when Warwick Capper turned against FOX FM hosts Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Byron Cooke, it was a grab-your-popcorn moment. After a dispute over payments, Capper quit the proposed film critique segment. “That’s FOX FM for you,” he said. “You can’t trust them. I always liked Triple M better anyway.” The spat followed two incidents where the radio hosts were forced to hit the dump button on Capper during live interviews. After being censored, an undeterred Capper labelled them a “bunch of boring p — ks.”
Neil Mitchell vs. Eddie, 2020:
A simmering feud between the radio titans went nuclear after Mitchell labelled the Collingwood prez “Untouchable Eddie”. Mitchell took aim at McGuire for saying how Geelong should have handled star midfielder Jack Steven’s stabbing issue. The 3AW host called McGuire a “world champion hypocrite” and accused him of double standards. McGuire returned fire, calling Mitchell “an over-puffed windbag” on his Triple M radio show.
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