John de Mol is a man who behaves childish and resentful, says former TV maker Harry Vermeegen. “He doesn’t give opportunities to apologize. I find that very lame.”
Harry Vermeegen was on television a lot in the 80s and 90s with football shows such as Pisa and De Regenjas. Nowadays he makes opinion videos on YouTube. Does he have any regrets when he looks back on his TV career? The Party he asks, resulting in quite a tirade about media billionaire John de Mol. “Leaving him was stupid.”
Wrong choice
Harry doesn’t want to call it regret, but: “It was stupid, a wrong choice. You can turn left or right at some points in your life, and I just took the wrong turn there. In most cases you can take the road back at the next exit, but that wasn’t possible for me.”
Then why did he leave John? “I once left him because people around me wanted to move to another production company. However, I had been with De Mol for years, so there was a problem. To accommodate those I worked with on a daily basis, I left De Mol. There was no personal reason for that for me.”
Angry and resentful
Harry says he has ‘always been treated very well’ by John. “But in my immediate working environment, some people were bothered by his company. When I left, De Mol resented me so terribly that he wanted nothing, absolutely nothing to do with me anymore.”
This happened in the late 1990s. “And afterwards I made twenty attempts to reach a reconciliation. But Mr. De Mol feels too big and too powerful for that. How long can you stay angry and resentful? He doesn’t give opportunities to apologize. I find it childish and lame.”
André van Duin
One thing is certain: Harry’s status has been considerably diluted. He is still in the picture, namely with his opinion videos on YouTube. He films it on the veranda of his home in Spain. “I find that fun to do, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get rid of it anymore. Now it is.”
He concludes: “There is often talk about André van Duin who has reinvented himself and changed his career. Well, that’s how I see it with me too. No one expected me to play this role.”