Abbie Chatfield breaks down over Australian Open incident

The media personality has been left in tears after a man approached her while she was working at the Australian Open.

TV and radio personality Abbie Chatfield has been left in tears after an incident while working at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

The 29-year-old took to Instagram on Thursday afternoon to share a video of a since-deleted clip posted by a man who approached her while she was doing a presenting gig for Canadian Club.

In the video, the man approached Chatfield and asked her, “Who are you, cuz? Who are you? Who’s that?”

Chatfield let out a big sigh before responding: “I’m the high kick champion of the Australian Open, I’m kind of like a ball boy”.

But the man quipped back, “You wish, you wish cuz you were hick kick champion”.

He captioned his video, which amassed 1.1 million views before it was deleted: “Another crumb of the universe”.

Chatfield later showed the clip on her Instagram page and, through tears, explained how infuriated she was by the confrontation.

“I was being silly, and I was doing high kicks in front of the camera, just having fun with the crew,” she told her audience.

“And this man comes up to us with this camera and says something to me, and I’m obviously trying to be silly back … I thought he was asking who I was.

“It turns out he was actually saying awful things and trying to film me to get internet clout because he hates me so much, and he knows that his right-wing little buddies, insecure men, will love this.”

She then called out “emboldened men” who felt they had a right to film and mock her online while she was simply “existing”.

“You have to understand that I’m a normal person at work, and someone filmed me, and that video has 1.1 million views so far, and the comments are horrific and awful to me.”

A man mocked Chatfield while she was working at the Australian Open. Picture: Instagram/AbbieChatfield

In her Instagram stories, Chatfield shared screenshots of some of the vile comments, including one from a man who said, “Love this. She sucks,” and another who called her “disgusting”.

“Literally, all I do is talk about left-wing politics, women’s rights and domestic violence, to then be abused further by a man – I’m just so tired of it. I’m so exhausted,” she said.

“No one can understand this happens to me every day in my DMs … but to have that happen in real life and then see a viral video …”

In her caption, she urged her male followers to call out people who had “ideals like this”.

“It’s a dangerous combination to lack intelligence yet be full of aggression, particularly toward women.”

News.com.au reached out to Chatfield, who responded that she would be releasing a podcast episode about the incident next week.

The video got 1.1 million views before it was deleted. Picture: Instagram/AbbieChatfield

People flooded her comments section with support, with survivor and advocate Harrison James writing, “Emboldened men will never even be able to comprehend the concept of what you’ve done to support women and survivors. We are in debt to you. Sending you love.”

Her friends and fellow influencers Allira Potter, Kath Ebbs and Steph Claire Smith also sent their love.

Chatfield then took to her stories to share an update with her followers.

“Love how they always backtrack and say, ‘I didn’t mean anything’,” she wrote over photos of the DM exchange she had with the man who made the video.

After she messaged him to ask what his problem was with her, he replied, “Hey Abbie, nothing untoward or harmful was said to yourself. Just thought a bit of playful banter was had. Only thing that was said was ‘You wish cuz’, as you’ve seen a million times.”

He then said he was “happy to have a conversation about it over the phone,” and then tried to call her multiple times with no response.

News.com.au reached out to the man, whom Chatfield identified, for comment.

Originally published as Abbie Chatfield breaks down over Australian Open incident