Danny Nelissen is ‘broken’ now that the whole country knows that he is Marijn de Vries at The Evening Stage harassed with dirty talk. “Couldn’t she have just called him?”
Marijn de Vries has been brave enough to come forward with name and shame about her experiences with the work culture at NOS Sport. By describing how she was structurally harassed with dirty talk at De Avondetappe and how management refused to intervene, she contributes to relevant discussion about a safe working environment.
First boyfriend
Marijn herself did not mention a name in her column, but it soon became clear that it is about Danny Nelissen. The cycling commentator does not want to respond for the time being, but his ex-girlfriend Leontien van Moorsel did yesterday. “I know them both very well,” she says Show news. “He was my first boyfriend.”
Leontien can well imagine that Marijn felt very uncomfortable in the car with Danny – the employees of De Avondetappe make hours-long journeys through France. “Yes, Danny may have shared too much there. Shared too much about who he found attractive and who he would like to do it again.”
Failed leadership
The management could have nipped this in the bud, thinks Leontien. “I can imagine that Marijn did not experience that as pleasant. Marijn has also indicated this to the editor-in-chief. Then I think: if that already happens at the beginning of the Tour de France, why don’t you put those two at the table? From: what do you no longer want and what do you no longer want?
She continues: “No, what are they doing? They say: ‘From now on you will go in that car and you in that car.’ And you don’t speak that out with each other. Then six years later you get this. Then I think: should he lose his job because of this? He is one of the better analysts we have.”
“Why does she do that?!”
Patty Brard finds it doubtful that Marijn wrote a column about her experiences at De Avondetappe. “Why does she write such a column?! Grab a phone!”
Leontien: “She really didn’t feel well, didn’t she? Which can. The moment someone shares those kinds of stories with you… Every person is different and if she has not experienced that as pleasant, you can indicate that.”
Colleague Dyantha Brooks: “Instead of sharing this for the whole of the Netherlands, could she also have called him and said: ‘Do you actually know that six years ago you hurt me a lot mentally and made it difficult for me? ‘”
Leontien: “Yes, I also don’t understand why they didn’t just drink a cup of coffee together sooner. It’s quite such a thing now.”
‘Danny is broken’
Just like his NOS colleague Tom Egbers, who has also been discredited, Danny is also through it. “You just feel: he is broken. I had both of them on the phone today and I felt like I had two victims on the phone.”
Danny will later come out with a statement, Leontien knows. “He chooses to tell his story somewhere.”
Marijn points out in a response that she is not targeting Danny. “I am not concerned with this person, I have not mentioned this person’s name. I am concerned with failing leadership with far too great consequences for all parties involved. I wanted to denounce that, and I will continue to do so.”