ABC used me as clickbait, says Amber Harrison, whose Four Corners interview was dumped at the 11th hour

Amber Harrison, the former lover of ex-Seven boss Tim Worner, conducted a three-hour interview for Four Corners investigation. Despite appearing in an ad, she was cut from the final broadcast.

Amber Harrison, pictured in 2019. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Amber Harrison, the former lover of former Seven West Media chief Tim Worner, has accused the ABC of using her as “clickbait” to promote Monday night’s Four Corners investigation into the media company, after she didn’t appear in the program’s final cut.

The Four Corners episode, Don’t Speak, was heavily promoted last week, with Harrison included in the trailer.

However, after Seven issued a legal letter to the ABC late last week, the promo was taken down from all ABC platforms.

When Four Corners aired on Monday night, there was no mention of Harrison nor Worner – her one-time boss with whom she had an affair – and their protracted court case in 2017, which resulted in gag orders placed on Harrison.

Speaking to The Australian on Tuesday, Harrison said: “If I was cut because Seven made legal threats to the ABC after I appeared in the promo, I feel that I was used as ‘clickbait’ because … I don’t think they had anyone else in the Four Corners program who would have generated publicity like me.”

Harrison said she conducted a three-hour interview with Four Corners journalist Louise Milligan ahead of the program, and was mindful of the legal restrictions on what she could and couldn’t say. “I knew my legal (boundaries) and I stayed within those,” she said.

“I would have expected to have been included. It’s weird that a Four Corners episode called Don’t Speak – which is obviously what I can’t do – didn’t include any reference to me after using me in the promo.

ABC reporter Louise Milligan outside Seven's former headquarters at Martin Place in Sydney.

“I had no idea I was going to be cut and I wasn’t told by Louise that I was to be dropped.”

Asked her thoughts on the final cut of the Four Corners episode that went to air, Harrison said: “I think anyone who speaks out about Channel 7 is very brave. But I think the program would’ve held a bit more weight if they included someone like me who was really taken down by Seven.”

The ABC and Seven both declined to comment on the matter.

The ABC also refused to comment on the public broadcaster’s use of non-disclosure agreements, despite Milligan taking aim at Seven for employing the legal tactic.

“Many former on and off-air staff who allege sexual harassment and bullying have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements that have silenced their right to tell their story,” she said.

The 49-minute program made only passing reference to the internal crisis at the ABC, which is currently undertaking a “racism review” in the wake of Stan Grant’s announcement that he was leaving the broadcaster because of the racial abuse he had experienced after being involved in coverage of the King’s coronation in May 2023.

The ABC is also reviewing its handling of sexual harassment ­allegations in the workplace.

In June, a confidential survey of the public broadcaster’s news division revealed that almost 100 ABC staff claimed to have been sexually harassed at work and a further 186 employees claimed to have been bullied.

The findings of the survey prompted ABC managing director David Anderson to demand “cultural change” within the ­taxpayer-funded broadcaster, and he warned of serious consequences for those staff who have “behaved in (such a) manner”.

The ABC declined to comment when asked why the serious allegations about misconduct within the public broadcaster were barely mentioned in Monday night’s Four Corners episode.