‘That makes me just sick’: Tziporah Malkah breaks her silence on the Don Burke she worked with

THE former fiancee of James Packer, once known as Kate Fischer, was privy to Nine’s secrets. She reveals what she heard.

EXCLUSIVE

SHE was engaged to James Packer, worked closely with Don Burke and knew all the secrets at the “evil empire” Channel Nine. Except one.

Tziporah Malkah — the model formerly known as Kate Fischer — was left feeling sick last night as she was told the claims of misconduct being made against her former executive producer and mentor Don Burke.

“That makes me just sick — that disgusts me,” Malkah, 44, told news.com.au when told some of the graphic accounts made by former staff members who worked on the show Burke’s Backyard.

But the man she was exposed to was much different to the one many other women saw.

Perhaps it was her status as a politician's daughter and her place in Packer’s inner circle that meant Burke kept his dark side hidden from her.

“Maybe I’m playing Meryl Streep. I don’t know. Maybe I was protected because I was the boss’s son’s fiancee. Because I didn’t hear anything,” she said.

‘HE’S AWKWARD WITH WOMEN’

When Malkah met Burke, she was around 22 years old. Already a successful model, she’d also starred in the film Sirens with Elle Macpherson. And she was in a high-profile relationship with James Packer, the son of Kerry Packer, the revered owner of Channel Nine which broadcast Burke’s juggernaut gardening show.

Burke had come to the home of Malkah’s politician mother Pru Goward to makeover the garden and fix a dying lemon tree for a television segment.

He didn’t fix the lemon tree. But he did give Malkah a TV gig.

Burke offered her a hosting role on a new TV show called Time Out For Serious Fun. It would air for one season in 1995 on Channel Nine before Malkah decided to move on.

“He wasn’t touchy feely with me. I’m a hugger. And he’d never press himself into me. I know those men. They press themselves into you and they really wanna feel your nipples pressing into them. Don never did that,” she said.

‘He was awkward with women’ ... Kate Fischer was a high-profile star when she worked with Burke.

Power couple James Packer and Kate Fischer in 1997.

Malkah continually described Burke as “awkward with women”, a “dweeb” and a “dork”.

“He would make revolting comments — but it was always in competition with me. But it was always a bit awkward — he’d always look around the room to make sure it was funny. Like, he wasn’t quite sure of himself.

“He was definitely not a cool kid at school. He’s not slick. He’s not slick at all. He’s a dork. He reminded me of just a stupid young bloke.”

Talking about the “boys club” that operated in Australia’s entertainment industry in the ’80s and ’90s, Malkah said she was fortunate not to suffer the gross misconduct other women experienced.

“There’s a huge power difference there. A famous, well-loved man on television and a young woman,” she said of the Burke claims. “I don’t think I ever suffered that kind of power imbalance where I felt like I was forced to do something that I didn’t want to do because of their power.”

When she read some of the graphic incidents other women claim to have had with Burke, Malkah said they made her “shocked and sad”.

“That’s inappropriate ... that sort of stuff makes me feel quite sick,” she said.

She added: “He needs to explore his ... his Asperger’s,” she said, referring to Burke’s claims of undiagnosed Asperger’s he made during an interview on Monday night with A Current Affair.

‘IS HE SLEAZY?’

In the staggering number of claims brought against Burke in the joint ABC/Fairfax investigation, many describe Burke’s behaviour as an open secret in the industry.

But Malkah said she never once heard a rumour about Burke until she was approached a few weeks ago by a television network. But a particular conversation she had with a fan has stayed with her.

“One day, a punter said to me, ‘Hey, what’s Don like? Is he strict? Or is he stingy? Or is he sleazy?’” she recalled.

“I ran through the list in my head and said, ‘Well, he is nice, he’s strict. Is he stingy? No — he’s generous. Is he sleazy? No, I don’t think so.’

“The word ‘sleazy’ got in my mind and I went to Michael Freedman (the former managing director of Burke’s company CTC Productions) and said people asked me these questions about Don. And Michael looked at me and said ‘Sleazy?!’ And he burst out laughing and said, ‘Kate, no — he’s a dweeb! No! He’s a nerd’. And I was satisfied with that.”

Freedman went into bat for his former boss yesterday telling the ABC the allegations against Burke “do not represent the Don Burke that I know”.

Don Burke claimed to have undiagnosed Asperger’s while being grilled on ACA

‘THEY HATED HIM’

During her time on Time Out For Serious Fun, Malkah saw Burke as a mentor who was “firm” but “not hard”.

She was in the middle of her five-year relationship with James Packer — and privy to the most confidential information inside the network, dubbed “the evil empire”.

“James and I had a very real relationship where we could talk about things. Absolutely I would’ve heard,” she said.

“James and Leckie and Kerry all spoke very openly in front of me about people. ‘He’s a see you next Tuesday! And he’s a see you next Tuesday! Ah, don’t go near that one!’

“You’d hear all about the see you next Tuesdays. They hated Don because he made money and wouldn’t let [Nine] produce [the show] in-house. He fought with them tooth and nail and owned his own product and they hated him for it. Because they had to go with him because he made so much money. They hated him for it.

“And David Leckie and Sam Chisholm ... if they’re saying they’ve been hearing this for 30 years and they’re so powerful — then ... what the heck?”

As part of ABC’s report, former Nine chief executive Sam Chisholm described Burke as a “grub” and a “disgrace”. His successor David Leckie confirmed complaints.

Malkah’s high-profile romance with Packer spanned five years

Malkah added: “When I’d go to the Palm Beach house and I’d be there with the Packer family, never did anyone comment. [Either because] they didn’t know or because they were keeping it especially private just from me.”

One of the claims on Monday particularly shocked Malkah.

“... I love watching her rub her c**t on its back,” Burke allegedly told a reporter about watching a young female relative riding a horse.

“That makes me just sick — that disgusts me,” Malkah said.

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