It’s a mess at BNNVARA: not only Matthijs van Nieuwkerk is still under fire, but Theo Maassen is also under fire. What about Astrid Joosten? Also misconduct?
Now that we are still in the middle of the aftermath of the report on the abuses in Hilversum, we ask MAX Magazine wonders whether Astrid Joosten has ever crossed people’s boundaries. She answers this affirmatively in an interview; the presenter of Twee voor Twaalf has indeed thought about this for a while.
Shooting out of hand
Astrid says she did not misbehave. “I think I have always behaved normally, even though I have sometimes been out of my depth before, when I was inexperienced and insecure.”
Nowadays that is absolutely never the case anymore, according to the 65-year-old presenter. “As you get older and gain experience, you know that you are no longer falling through the ice, then you can become calmer and more pleasant to be around. That’s why I still don’t understand the conditions at DWDD.”
On the cabinet
Astrid absolutely cannot understand Matthijs van Nieuwkerk’s misconduct. “Why would you upset people if you are so proven to be successful? In any case, I can say that I have never humiliated or verbally abused people.”
Still, Astrid did ask about it. “To be sure, I did ask the people I have been working with for years: are there things about me that you find less pleasant? But that wasn’t the case. There have never been any complaints about me.”
Victim
Could Astrid have been a victim? “I also experienced things at the beginning of my career. I’m not going to elaborate on that now, but just bad jokes, bad insinuations… Pretending that someone has slept with you when that is not true at all. That kind of wrongness.”
She concludes: “Which I always managed to hold my own very well. These were mainly things that occur among young girls. I am no longer prey.”