Xander de Buisonjé was ultimately grateful that Guido den Aantrekker put his cheating on Wendy van Dijk on the cover of Story. “I was so unhappy in that relationship.”
It was a huge riot more than twenty years ago: the marriage between Wendy van Dijk and Xander de Buisonjé was called off at the last minute because he cheated hard. The first medium to write about this was the Story, the magazine of editor-in-chief Guido den Aantrekker.
Toughest story
Guido remembers it well, he says in the podcast MICHA. “What is the most intense story I have ever published – and it just so happens that I now also deal with her a lot at SBS – is about Wendy van Dijk. He had a relationship with Xander de Buisonjé. They were also going to get married and he cheated.”
How did Guido know that? “We were told that whole story by two girls he had had sex with after a concert in Hoorn. Well, we investigated that in itself then and that story was also correct. And in cases like this you always have to hear both sides.”
“Sue je the t*ring!”
After hearing both sides, Guido was sure. “If something is not true, then as a manager you say: ‘It is not true and if it is written down, sue I totally t*ring you.’ But if a manager says: ‘Oh dear, don’t take everything so seriously. We can go on and on with all those groupies claiming they did such and such and such’…”
That is not a convincing response at all, according to the Story boss. “There was a lot of banter about it, but those girls were really able to convince us that it was true.”
Breakup
Guido did cause a relationship break. “We brought that story very hard and Wendy later also said that her relationship has really gone to hell because of that story. Only, in the end, I think, she sent a private detective after him who could also really establish that he cheated more often.”
He continues: “We received at Story, in response to that story, I think thirty e-mails from women who had been seduced by him. And that’s a story that we’ve brought so hard, of, ‘Wendy, this man is lying next to you and you’re going to be at the altar with that.’”
‘so unhappy’
Guido has met Xander once. “I ran into him again in the supermarket. He had once announced in an interview that he would hit me in the head with a piece of wreckage because of that story, so I was somewhat prepared.”
How did it go? “I ran into him in a supermarket and he came up to me and he said, ‘Actually I should be slapping you, but really I just want to thank you.’ I said, “Why?” He says: ‘I was so unhappy in that relationship and I wouldn’t say that I really liked what happened in the end, but I did get out of that relationship because of it.’”
Relieved
Xander was a relieved man, says Guido. “I’ll translate it very briefly now, because that is of course not possible at the cash register in a minute such a conversation, but I did have the idea that they were kind of relieved.”
Would he still cancel an engagement now? “I don’t think I would do that now. But it’s more the way and the fact that you just yeah… Maybe that’s getting a little older, a little softer, I don’t know.”
Wendy with both Xander and Erland: