Fred van Leer and Richard Groenendijk have come into conflict with each other in a very serious way. The result? Complete radio silence. “This is about timing, emotion and loyalty,” he said.
They currently form a successful podcast duo: Fred van Leer and Richard Groenendijk. The two are good friends, but sometimes clash. “Yes, he can be rigid and persistent. If he thinks someone is wrong, he gets stuck in it. Or if he wants something, he pushes on,” says Richard in conversation with Panorama.
Real argument
Who is the most mature in this type of conflict? “I’m the one who says to myself: let it go, then we can move on. That works. Yet we keep each other sharp by pushing back. We stimulate each other, say everything, laugh and move on. It’s almost like family. And when one of us gets angry, we are very angry.”
However, there have also been real arguments, according to Richard. “Yes, once, in 2020. He would do Ahoy with Fred & Friends and I would play my character Jopie Parlevliet there.”
Small setting
However, that performance was canceled. “Everything was canceled due to corona, no one could do anything about that. But then I was asked by someone else to play in the same Ahoy Jopie in a smaller corona setting, so with a distance of one and a half meters, coincidentally also on the original date of Fred & Friends.”
And then? “Fred became furious. While someone else might be surprised by such a strong reaction, I knew immediately: this is not about that performance. This is about timing, emotion and loyalty.”
‘I let it go’
How did Richard react? “So I let it go for a while, there was a silence between us and later things turned out well again in exactly the way that suits Fred. Not through a conversation at the table or deep reflection, but with one photo of us together on Instagram. I texted him: ‘So it’s okay again?’ Then it was good again.”
He concludes: “We are never angry for long.”