Matthijs van Nieuwkerk’s GP has prescribed him a dog for his mental problems caused by the DWDD scandal. “And then a puppy arrived.”
Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has given his long-awaited sorry interview. Not on screen, but with it NRC. Online today, on paper tomorrow. The newspaper liked him very exceptionally face to face speak instead of by email. “Otherwise it’s just about why I don’t want that,” said the presenter.
Horror boss
Twenty pages in a nutshell: Matthijs admits his misconduct in the workplace, finds it all very terrible and blames it on the high workload of a TV program. “Was it worth it that colleagues were broken by our program? The answer is: of course not.”
It is also about the psychological suffering that Matthijs has experienced after the revelations about his behavior as a horror boss. He lives in Almen in Gelderland, in the middle of the Achterhoek, and normally always starts his day in the morning in the café De Hoofdige Boer. They haven’t seen Matthijs there for a long time after the publication of de Volkskrant.
Door handle
Matthijs no longer dared to leave his house. “I think I went to De Hoofdige Boer on my bike two or three times during that time. I even stood with the handle of the door in my hand. But I didn’t dare, I was too embarrassed.”
Why? “Then I saw a table full of day trippers through the window and I thought: no. I will not do it. They can already see me coming. As if nothing happened…”
He has spent many days in a former sheep barn that has been converted into a kitchen.
soul searching
Instead of going to De Hoofdige Boer, Matthijs has focused on soul searching. For example, he responded to a letter from a viewer to take a walk where no one would recognize him. “And then I did. A blind date. Just meet somewhere in the country with a man unknown to me, someone with a large company, go for a walk.”
And then have lunch together. “We were talking about what leadership is. And he himself had experienced a few things in his life. We talked about that together. Simply, from person to person. It is, of course, quite a silly invitation. But I thought why not? I was investigating. On adventure…”
Puppy
Eventually, villagers decided to pull Matthijs out of the valley again. They organized a surprise afternoon in De Hoofdige Boer. “When I opened the door, the couple who run the inn was waiting for me with open arms. They said: hey how nice it is to see you, we missed you man.”
Matthijs became very emotional about it. And then the puppy followed, on doctor’s advice. “She came by and said: why don’t you have a dog? You have plenty of room for it here. And then you have to go outside. Have to imagine. Me, a dog. While I am very afraid of dogs. But we are crazy about him.”
Interview
The NRC interview with Matthijs: