Seven's chief executive Tim Worner. Photo / Getty Images
Seven's chief executive Tim Worner. Photo / Getty Images
Detail of a scandalous affair with an executive assistant have left Seven West Media's chief executive Tim Worner embarrassed and ashamed this week and caused the company's share price to tumble.
Now Amber Harrison, the former Seven employee who went public with explicit details of the inappropriate consensual sexual relationship, has revealed how the affair caused her to "unravel".
What began with flirty texts and moved quickly into a full blown and "thrilling affair" eventually led her to suffer an "emotional breakdown" and, she believes, led to the end of her career with the television network.
In a detailed statement sent to the media, Ms Harrison shared a comprehensive timeline of the dalliance between the married executive and administrative worker, and the spiral of depression it sent her down.
The CEO's mistress said she began to struggle with the relationship when and made to feel "invisible" when Mr Worner ignored her at work, but happily visited her for sex.
The 35-year-old admits she did not object when the powerful media executive first began flirting with her via text message in November of 2012.
The flirting escalated into sexual rendezvous at Ms Harrison's Sydney apartment, Seven functions including a conference in Canberra celebrating Mr Worner's promotion to CEO in 2013, and events like the Seven-sponsored Australian Open tennis tournament in January 2014.
According to Ms Harrison's account, the affair was "thrilling to begin with".
"I knew he was married. It was never about love. It was about sex and power. He likes having a bit on the side," she said.
According to Ms Harrison, the couple heightened their sexual experiences with recreational drugs and Mr Worner expressed his satisfaction and enthusiasm for their encounters in sexually explicit text messages.
She claimed the TV boss sent her a text in June 2013 referring to his drug use: "I think my performance was drug assisted. And if you can go dirtier I am slightly scared. But you are...hot so I will take the chance."
About eight months after the relationship began, in July 2013, Ms Harrison says it began to take its toll.
The "turbulent emotional shift" coincided with her immediate boss, Nick Chan, then CEO of the company's magazine division, being promoted to chief operating officer of Seven West.
This involved Ms Harrison and her boss moving offices, meaning she and her lover were both now working at the Seven West headquarters in Sydney's Jones Bay where Mr Worner was based.
It was then that the relationship, and working at Seven, became "difficult", Ms Harrison claimed.
"I could feel myself unravelling because I now had to see him more frequently," she said.
"He would walk past and not speak to me or acknowledge me and it became extremely difficult to manage the situation in the workplace."
Although Mr Worner allegedly ignored his mistress at work, Ms Harrison claimed the meetings for sex continued.
The 35-year-old says Mr Worner continued to bombard her with sexually explicit text messages. But she grew increasingly "angry" and "depressed", and worried about her career, but her lover and boss ignored her requests for a new role, and to end the relationship, she claims.
She said she became increasingly angry and resentful that she was "invisible" to her lover in the workplace.
In her statement Ms Harrison claimed around this time she suggested the pair cease their affair and she be "moved internally into a new role - possibly into a production role away from administration and Mr Worner".
When this request was ignored, Ms Harrison claimed she "suffered an emotional breakdown".
Ms Harrison claims her text messages provide evidence of her "increasing desperation" at the affair's futility, and "growing frustration" about her career.
An "unusual" bonus of $10,000 awarded to Ms Harrison by Mr Worner, who she did not directly report to, appeared to come as an attempt to appease her concerns.
In early 2014, Ms Harrison claims to have sent a text message to her lover saying: "I actually don't know what to say to you anymore".
The message was in reference to her confusion between the man she knew in the bedroom with the one he was at work, she claimed. But she said the message just prompted another invitation for sex.
Ms Harrison claims she was depressed and "started having panic attacks at work" around this time. She began "habitually taking sick leave" and claims she informed Mr Worner the situation was "killing me" and begged to "be fired".
She claims Mr Worner responded with reassurances about her future at Seven, and by continuing to visit her at home for sex while she was on sick leave.
The relationship finally ended in June 2014, almost two years after it began.
In the weeks that followed the couple's final rendezvous Ms Harrison allegedly sent "several heated texts" to Mr Worner alleging multiple affairs with other women previously and currently employed at Seven.
Ms Harrison said she received $100,000 as part of a confidentially settlement in August 2014, however was made redundant in a second agreement in November 2014, in which the company offered to pay her $350,000.
Her redundancy coincided with an investigation into Ms Harrison's use of corporate credit cards and personal expenses.
Ms Harrison says payments from the second agreement were not made, and decided to go public with damaging details of the affair following a "complex and "frustrating" severance negotiation.
Ms Harrison said she believed her affair with Mr Worner had ended her career at Seven West, and was concerned it may have also led to Mr Chan's redundancy, which came months after hers.
"During the past four months of negotiation I have tried everything to secure a third contract to replace the two Seven were never going to honour because that was their plan," she said.
"They wanted me frustrated by the legal process, unable to get to court, broken and penniless and they wanted to cover up the affair with Tim, and the cover up of Tim. How does one individual fight this massive company with unlimited resources?"
Seven has rejected the claim that its investigation was a "vindictive reaction" to the relationship.
The company said the audit arose from "standard expense reconciliation inquiries" before management became aware of the affair. Seven claims it is "entitled to withhold payment for non compliance with the settlement deed".
In a lengthy statement sent to news.com.au after details of the affair and expense saga were published, a spokesman for Seven said Mr Worner had expressed his "deepest regret and shame" over his affair, however the network strongly rejected claims of other inappropriate relationships between Mr Worner and current or former female staff.
Seven condemned the inappropriate sexual relationship with Ms Harrison, 35, as "completely unacceptable" and "deeply regrettable".
Mr Worner apologised for the affair, which began before his appointment as chief executive. "This relationship finished some years ago and I apologised at the time, and am still trying to make amends," he said in the statement.
"I am obviously filled with the deepest regret and shame.
"My focus is to continue to work through this in private and minimise the distress to my family. They are the most important people in the world to me and I will continue to fight to repair the damage I've caused."
Seven's statement also claimed Ms Harrison's statement was full of "wideranging inaccuracies". It did not address allegations of Mr Worner's drug use.
Seven failed to respond to specific questions from news.com.au regarding the effects of the affair on Ms Harrison's mental health and Ms Harrison's suggestions the affair may have affected Mr Chan's career and her own.
