Ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek Blames Bob Iger For Ouster In New Memoir

Bob Chapek, fired as Disney CEO in 2022 after less than three years, lays the blame for his ouster squarely on Bob Iger in a upcoming memoir, according to the New York Times, which obtained a copy.

Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth comes out Sept. 29 from Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

“My abrupt dismissal hurt my reputation, leaving those close to me, outsiders and some within the kingdom trying to figure out what I did wrong,” Chapek writes. “The answer, again, is nothing.” Instead, he claims that Iger, who had handpicked him for the job, relentlessly and intentionally sabotaged him.

Chapek’s belief on that front is no secret but he lays out his thoughts and defends his tenure publicly at length for the first time in the book. He calls himself a disrupter and writes, “I didn’t get a chance to finish what I started.”

Iger resigned abruptly as Disney CEO in February of 2020 after an epic run but remained as executive chairman for two years, retaining control over creative endeavors at the company and reporting directly to the board of directors. Chapek reported to both the board, and to Iger. The two clashed. Chapek suggests that Iger believed he could reclaim the job whenever he wanted, the NYT says.

Describing Iger’s exit from Disney, Chapek wrote, “I have been told by several high-ranking people both in government and private business that in their opinions, the real reason he left the company so abruptly was his anticipation of the arrival of Covid.”

Disney declined to comment.

The company has denied the pandemic had anything to do with Iger’s exit. Iger has said he wanted to wind down after a successful run. He felt at the time that Chapek was the right person for the job.

“I had been CEO for about 15 years. I started the company in 1974m at ABC. I had been around a long time. There were plenty of things in the world that I was interested in that I either wanted to do or wanted to learn more about. I had not really had a day off in I don’t even remember,” Iger told a NYT DealBook conference in 2023 about his departure. He said he was “disappointed in what I was seeing, both during the transition period when I was still there and while I was out. But I really worked hard at distancing myself from it because one, I couldn’t do anything about. It in a way, it wasn’t my business at all, really. It was his business to run.”

Soon after he started as CEO, Chapek was being pilloried on several fronts including management decisions that vexed key executives, and a public fight with star Scarlett Johansson that alienated talent. The company’s response to legislation (dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill) in Florida angered both Disney employees and Gov. Ron DeSantis. His ouster came shortly after Disney reported a greater than expected $1.5 billion streaming loss for its latest quarter.

Chapek’s apparent rubber stamp by the Disney board, followed by his rocky tenure, was used as ammunition by activist investor Nelson Peltz in a bruising proxy fight with the Mouse House.

Iger returned as chief executive after Chapek was fired and remained in the job through March of this year. Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney’s giant theme parks and experiences business, was named CEO after a considerably more robust executive search process.

Chapek, a 30-year Disney veteran, had also been running parks and experiences when he was anointed chief. He had worked with D’Amaro and says he was instrumental in the current CEO’s ascent. “I consistently suggested the idea of promoting him,” Chapek wrote. “He had been a relative unknown in the corporate hierarchy before I singled him out.”