Hélène Hendriks is so fed up with Jack van Gelder that she doesn’t feel like calling him or having coffee for a while. “That will certainly happen, but not this week,” she says.
Never in her TV career has Hélène Hendriks been so disappointed in a colleague as this week: Jack van Gelder decided to and square public to attack and portray as a traitor. As someone who didn’t make an effort to keep him at the table on her talk show. And with that he seems to cause a definitive break with Hélène.
Slap for Hélène
Hélène is quite fed up with Jack. “Sometimes you get a slap, right, in the media landscape. We are all used to that. And if it is justified, you just have to keep your mouth shut and be quiet, but this slap was quite unjustified and I found it difficult for a while, yes. But I actually don’t feel like responding to it again.”
She continues at the table Today Inside: “The only thing I think is very important to say is: he forgets one very important detail, because I have of course always said that we would always like to have him there in the summer, at the World Cup, but he himself has closed the door. He himself said: ‘I don’t want it anymore.’”
Credibility
Why did Jack say that? “That had to do with the number of turns, among other things. Well, okay, fine, that’s how it is. That’s not a bad thing at all, that’s his choice, but two days later, if you change your mind again, I can’t move heaven and earth for the fourth time at Talpa, at the editorial office, to get him back on board.”
That’s why Hélène has given up. “At a certain point I also have to deal with credibility, of course, towards the editorial staff, towards Talpa.”
Sound people
Thomas van Groningen summarizes all events. “Because behind the scenes you continuously said: ‘Let’s just do it’, and then they said: ‘All kinds of things have happened with sound people and there’s a lot I don’t know about and that’s not possible and we won’t do that.’ You were caught between two fires every time and now he’s basically throwing you under the bus.”
Hélène: “You could call it that.”
Johan Derksen: “The only person he couldn’t blame was Hélène. She always stuck her neck out to keep him there.”
Head makers
Jack is now hiding behind headline makers who would have made too strong a headline. Hélène: “You’re right about that. At the same time, I think: he has worked in the media for a long time, I like him very much, but he knew this. You know there will be a headline like that. But yes, it happened, there are more important problems, so ehh…”
Johan: “But it’s a shame in that sense: he did have an important role in the program and when he sat at the table, a discussion would spontaneously arise. Everyone was aware of his presence, but he actually messed it up a bit himself.”
Hélène: “And that’s a shame.”
Thomas: “Well, not everyone was happy with his presence.”
No coffee
For the time being, Hélène is not open to coffee with Jack. “He called me a few times and I didn’t answer today, Jack. He called and texted me a few times and he would like to have lunch and coffee sometime and that will probably happen, but not this week.”
Thomas: “Not for a while?”
Hélène: “No.”
By the way, Hélène doesn’t want to say too much about it to other media. So she says Show news: “I’m just walking straight again, because I just took that dagger out of my back. I don’t want to say much else about it.”
