Less than three months after leaving a lucrative TV gig on The Project, journalist and radio host Carrie Bickmore has announced she is separating from her partner of 11 years.
Gold Logie winner Bickmore, 42, and television producer Chris Walker, share two daughters, Evie, 7, Adelaide, 4, and 15-year-old son, Oliver, whose father was her late husband, Greg Lange.
The shock news comes nine months after Walker was embroiled in a reported “nude” Zoom conference scandal with ABC colleagues while the family was on an extended European working holiday.
In joint statements on Tuesday, the couple confirmed the split on their Instagram stories.
“Hi there. It’s with immense sadness that Chris and I have decided to separate,” Bickmore wrote.
“While this is a tough time, our focus is to concentrate on parenting, loving and supporting our three amazing children, Ollie, Evie and Addie with everything we’ve got.
“They are doing great.
“We won’t be making any further comment at this stage.”
Bickmore and Walker met on the set of The Project in 2012, and he was there with the three children in the audience for her last show on November 30 last year.
Bickmore and Walker fell in love, and he became a stepdad to Oliver, before the births of Evie in 2015 and Adelaide in 2018.
“She was no doubt, and always will be, the captain of that show. But, she is also the captain of our little family and she lights up our lives even more than she lights up a studio,” Walker wrote on Instagram when Bickmore first announced she was leaving the show.
“What an unbelievable ride it’s been for you babe. We all love you and can’t wait for what’s next.”
In 2015, Bickmore OAM won a Gold Logie which she dedicated to her late husband Mr Lange, who passed away following a 10-year battle with brain cancer aged 35.
Founder of Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer and wearing a beanie during her tribute speech, she said, “Everyone thinks it is this rare form of cancer. It is not. It kills more people under 40, and it is a lot of you in this room, more people under 40 than any other cancer.
“It kills more kids than any other disease. In 2010, my husband, Greg, was one of the unlucky ones.
“He was an incredibly brave man. He was a great dad. He was a great husband. He was a great brother and he was a great friend,” she said.
Trouble in paradise
In May last year, Walker, the creator and executive producer of The Weekly with Charlie Pickering (he also lists Hard Quiz and Tomorrow Tonight on LinkedIn), avoided disciplinary action from the ABC after allegedly accidentally revealing himself to co-workers on May 17.
He reportedly failed to quit a Skype call and close his laptop after a rehearsal meeting for The Weekly, leaving the screen live, before taking his clothes off to have a shower.
Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported on May 31 the incident was witnessed by up to nine people, lasting between 40 seconds and two minutes.
An ABC spokesperson said in a statement to the newspaper it was “aware of an unintentional incident” which occurred involving the production team for The Weekly, but denied other claims of lewd acts.
“The ABC is in regular communication with the relevant team members and are in the process of developing strategies to ensure an incident of this nature does not occur again,” it said in a statement.
“The ABC has a counselling service available to all ABC employees which has been offered in this instance.”
In November, Bickmore recounted another incident on her daily Carrie and Tommy radio show with Tommy Little.
She says he accidentally walked nude into the background of a late-night Zoom call “with his bits out”.
She said they laughed their heads off after he was unintentionally nude in the background of an interview with 35 journalists from all around the world.
