Waleed Aly ‘not picking sides’ in Carrie Bickmore, Chris Walker split
Ben Fordham has defended The Project host Waleed Aly after he was accused of siding with his old boss Chris Walker following the television producer’s split with Carrie Bickmore.
Walker, the former executive producer of The Project, was photographed with Aly at an AFL match last Sunday – sparking speculation that Aly had ‘picked sides’ after Walker and Bickmore’s breakup in January.
The pair’s catch-up at the footy raised eyebrows from media insiders, given that Aly and Bickmore had been friends and co-anchors for years.
But on his 2 GB breakfast show on Thursday, Fordham said Aly took “no sides at all” and “the premise of the story is utter bullshit.”
“In my experience, when two people go their separate ways, people support them both,” Fordham began.
Ben Fordham has defended The Project host Waleed Aly (left) after being accused of siding with his old boss Chris Walker following the TV producer’s split with Carrie Bickmore (right)
Walker (left), the former executive producer of The Project, was pictured last Sunday with Aly (right) at an AFL match – sparking speculation that Aly had ‘picked sides’ after Walker and Bickmore’s breakup in January. The pair’s catch-up at the footy raised eyebrows among media insiders, given that Aly and Bickmore had been friends and co-anchors for years
“If you’ve been friends with them and you love them both, then of course there will be occasions when you hang out with her or him,” he added.
“Just because a picture pops up with one of them doesn’t mean you’ve taken a side and are against the other.
“The premise of the story is utter nonsense. Just because you appeared in a photo with someone doesn’t mean you’re on their side. Divorce is hard enough.”
It comes after Aly, who sat alongside Bickmore on the Channel Ten news program panel from 2015 to 2022, spent Sunday at an AFL match with her former partner.
On his 2GB breakfast show on Thursday, Fordham (pictured) said Aly “didn’t take sides at all” and “the premise of the story is utter bullshit”
Walker posted a photo to his Instagram Stories, sharing a photo of the two smiling men in the stands wearing Richmond Tigers merchandise.
The mates had a matching grin as they leaned in for the photo.
“Second best Tigers date after Evie,” he captioned the post, presumably referring to the birth of his eight-year-old daughter Evie.
It comes three months after Bickmore announced her split from longtime partner Walker in January, saying the pair were focused on co-parenting their three children.
She had been in a relationship with him for 11 years.
Bickmore (right) announced in January that she had split from her longtime partner Walker (left), saying the couple focused on co-parenting their three children
“It is with immense sadness that Chris and I have decided to part ways,” she said.
“While this is a difficult time, our focus is on parenting, loving and supporting our three children Ollie, Evie and Addie with everything we have.
‘They’re doing great. We will not comment further.’
The love story of Bickmore and Walker captured the hearts of Australians.
They met as colleagues on The Project – she was a presenter and he was a producer – and they started dating in late 2012, two years after she lost her husband Greg Lange, the father of her eldest child Ollie, 15, to brain cancer.
Despite his terminal diagnosis, Bickmore had married Lange in 2005 when she was just 25 years old.
After Lange died in 2010 at the age of 35, a widowed Bickmore started the charity Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer in memory.
Two years later, Bickmore had found love again with Walker, who became a stepfather to Oliver, and with whom she later had Evie, born in 2015, and Adelaide, born in 2018.