How 2022 became the year the party was over for Chris Smith

By any measure, it had been a hectic, boozy three days of Christmas parties leading up to right-wing talkback radio firebrand Chris Smith’s latest career-ending fall from grace inside Merivale’s Establishment last Saturday.

In the days leading up, Smith, 60, was on a high. He’d worked assiduously for years to rebuild his reputation after creepily similar scandals over more than 20 years, for which he has been repeatedly taken off-air – albeit briefly.

Chris Smith will not return to 2GB or Sky News.

This week I have spoken with yet more women who have claimed similar incidents which for various reasons, ranging from fear of professional retribution to being smeared in scandal, have largely gone unreported.

At last count, I have heard of at least 10 women who have alleged to have found themselves the subject of Smith’s unwanted attention across multiple workplaces.

And yet, incredulously to many, Smith, who a fortnight ago celebrated 22 years on 2GB (apparently not factoring in his off periods), has been able to inch his way back into the tight-knit Sydney media pool every time – even after first becoming a social pariah in the late 1990s when he allegedly exposed his penis to disgusted female colleagues at Channel Nine.

He faced another round of allegations in 2009 when he reportedly made inappropriate comments to young female colleagues at the 2GB Christmas party, which was owned by John Singleton’s Maquarie Media at the time. Again he was taken off-air, momentarily.

In 2022, things were different. Several women at the after-party protested. One slapped him in disgust.

Undeterred, Smith fought his way back, taking any gig he could get. Initially filling in on Sky and 2GB during his years in the wilderness, his broadcasting experience eventually assuaged any doubts about his ability on air.

His bosses at 2GB, which along with this masthead is owned by Nine Entertainment, considered him a good broadcaster, able to generate content from the daily news cycle that resonated with listeners, a handful of whom even protested outside the station with suspicious-looking placards when a line-up reshuffle saw him out of a job in 2019.

Chris Smith asks followers to pick his tie before going on air.Credit: Instagram

As the years passed and memories faded, Smith continued to work hard to scrub the stain of previous scandals. Two years ago, a weekends opening became available at 2GB. Smith assured slightly circumspect radio bosses he had overcome his demons. He was hired and returned to the 2GB fold.

Before long he was in the plum position as Ben Fordham’s regular fill-in host on 2GB’s prestigious weekday breakfast slot.

For all intents and purposes, Smith gave the appearance of a changed man. On social media there was nary a hint of the marital troubles he had been experiencing with his celebrity nutritionist second wife Susie Burrell, with whom he bought a $3.6 million home with in Naremburn in August.

Smith, who has publicly apologised for the latest incident and is seeking professional help, regularly shared images playing the doting father to his four children from two marriages. He’d also playfully ask his followers to pick which tie he should wear before going on air.

It was working. Until the events of last Saturday, Smith was scaling what would have been the pinnacle of his mostly “off Broadway” broadcasting career.

On the preceding Thursday night he’d even found himself being embraced within the inner sanctum of the most powerful media circle of all: the Murdochs.

Smith, who first went public about his battle with alcoholism and bipolar disorder on the front page of the Murdoch-owned Sunday Telegraph in 2009 following the drunken incident at the 2GB Christmas party, was “perfectly well-behaved” – drink in hand – at Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch’s exclusive, invite-only Christmas party in their vast Bellevue Hill mansion.

Smith was clearly conscious of not putting a foot wrong within proximity to such influential company as former supermodel Sarah played gracious hostess in her designer cocktail outfit and her all-powerful husband Lachlan anointed his current crop of “favourites”.

Smith found himself again in privileged company the next night, among the elite “stars” invited to the swanky Aria restaurant for the Murdoch-owned Sky News Christmas celebrations for its “top-tier talent”.

Seated at the table was the woman considered the most powerful executive within the Murdoch-owned Australian News Corp operation, head of broadcasting Siobhan McKenna.

In the days before, Smith had posed for publicity shots. Plans were under way to announce his new gig on Sky in the Murdoch press the following Monday.

Smith was to join the ranks of Peta Credlin, Chris Kenny, Andrew Bolt and Paul Murray, kicking off evenings with a new show at 5pm. Reinforcing the Murdoch imprimatur, McKenna publicly reinforced the corporation’s backing of Smith, even when others still believed he was a ticking time bomb.

And so, after three days of booze and back slapping, Smith was letting loose with his lower rung colleagues on Saturday, including women half his age, when his allegedly lecherous old habits resurfaced.

But in 2022, things were different. Several women at the after-party protested. One slapped him in disgust.

After writing about Smith for nearly two decades, I found the headline-making events were hardly a surprise. However, the fact he ended up in a situation where he could do it all again, quite frankly, beggars belief.

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