Dom Harvey's tweet about Chrystal Chenery has been deleted.
Dom Harvey's tweet about Chrystal Chenery has been deleted.
Radio presenter Dom Harvey has hit back at Dancing With the Stars runner-up Chrystal Chenery after she demanded he be sacked over a revealing photo he posted of her on social media.
Harvey, who co-hosts The Edge morning show, posted a screenshot of Chenery from Sunday night's live final, withthe caption: "Chrystal just showing Art what he missed out on."
The photo showed Chenery during a lift with dance partner Jonny Williams, exposing her underwear.
Yesterday Chenery told the Herald she was furious about the post and would like to see Harvey disciplined for his actions by MediaWorks, which owns both TV3 and The Edge.
Harvey remained on air this morning on the breakfast show he co-hosts with his wife Jay Jay, who also competed on the dancing show.
He said he had apologised and removed the photo as soon as he heard Chenery was unhappy. He accepted he was wrong in posting the photo but said he thought it had been dealt with and was disappointed with Chenery's comments.
"I thought it had been dealt with yesterday in the way she (Chenery) wanted," he told listeners. "But then she basically came back asking for compensation."
He indicated Chenery had asked him to pay for a hotel bill. "It was a crass joke... I apologised on social media... we offered her the opportunity to come on (the show) and chat about this but she wasn't keen."
Jay Jay Harvey conceded her other half had an often crass sense of humour that upset people at times. But she supported him and the apology.
"Let's just hope Chrystal can find peace," she said.
Harvey appreciated he would lose fans and listeners over the issue. "I've got to take it on the chin," he said.
He said he had posted a similar screen grab on social media when surfer Maz Quinn was dancing on the show earlier in the season.
As Quinn did a sideways thrust Harvey captured his hip area, captioning the photo with "text (Quinn's voting number) to keep his bulge in the competition".
He said there had been no negative feedback after that.
Chenery said she would like Mediaworks - which owns both TV3 and The Edge - to discipline Harvey for his actions.
"He has made a long list of errors of judgment on social media and on air and as far as I am concerned he should go," she told the Herald.
"These guys should be held accountable for their bad behaviour and I encourage listeners to look elsewhere for their entertainment."
The former Bachelor contestant said she was especially hurt by Harvey's actions as his wife had also competed in the dancing competition.
After initially defending the post as a joke, Harvey removed the photo and apologised.
He told the Herald he removed the photo after learning Chenery wasn't "overly happy" about it. "The intention of it was to be humorous and certainly not to harm anyone. I like Chrystal a lot and I've got a lot of time for her and that's why it was removed."
Chenery says his response and apology is not accepted.
"I am proud of what Jonny and I achieved, we raised a lot of money for my charity Home and Family, and just before the show last night a private fan donated $10,000, which made the competition so worthwhile. Then we made the final, which was just amazing and yet today all I read about is Dominic Harvey's antics."
@GillianParkinsn fair opinion. I am gross. Definitely not disrespectful to women though. Thanks.
• Gossip columnist Pebbles Hooper tweeted an offensive slur suggesting the deaths of Ashburton mother Cindy George and her three children was "natural selection". She received widespread condemnation for her tweet and deleted her social media accounts in the aftermath. • It's not the first time a tweet by radio DJ Dominic Harvey has offended people. He faced backlash about a tweet that connected child rape with a New Zealand X Factor contestant failing to progress to the next stage. In an apparent reference to theOnce Were Warriors film Harvey tweeted "Poor Gracie! First molested in her own bed by uncle bully. And now kicked out of #xfactornz", after contestant Grace Ikanasio failed to make it through to the next round. • Jeremy Clarkson yesterday posted a photo of himself and Richard Hammond outside the Margaret River Fudge Factory in Australia with the caption: 'We have got jobs at last. Here. As packers'. His joke was a nod to a phrase commonly considered a slur used to describe gay men, and caused uproar. • Kiwi weight-lifter Douglas Sekone-Fraser, of Invercargill, posted two photos from Papua New Guinea to Instagram with the hashtag "#cannibals" and pulled out of the Pacific Games for the offensive posts on social media. • BBC journalist Ahmen Khawaja swiftly deleted a tweet announcing that Queen Elizabeth had died. She said the tweet had been sent after someone at home had picked up her phone, however BBC said in a statement it was a rehearsal for an obituary gone wrong.
