Broadcaster Ray Hadley has told a Sydney court he used a homophobic slur and derogatory names when talking about his colleague Alan Jones, after 2GB withdrew a secret offer of a $4m contract to take over Jones’s coveted breakfast slot.
In one text message read out in court, Hadley said he won’t rest until he buries Jones, “figuratively and literally” and he will “tear his supporters apart”.
In another text, on the eve of the Sydney Morning Herald publishing an investigation into allegations against Jones in late 2023, Hadley wrote: “That cunt will be in the foetal position when he reads the story in the morning. It’s been 50 years in the making.”
Hadley agreed during cross-examination by defence barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC that he had a “tumultuous relationship” with Jones.
Jones is on trial over 20 charges of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching involving six men. The 85-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
On his second day giving evidence at Downing Centre local court, Hadley testified that a colleague had told him Jones had “marshalled the troops and said ‘Dig up some dirt on Hadley’”.
Hadley in 2019 had walked into Jones’s office after being accused of an unrelated assault against a colleague, and called the breakfast host “a cunt and a dog”, according to a police statement from the time that was raised in court.
The assault allegation against Hadley was dropped when 2GB CCTV showed nothing had happened, Hadley told Jones’s trial.
Hadley agreed that he had “an animosity towards [Jones] at that time”. He said he often called him a “grub”, and that in a text exchange shown to him by Bashir he had called Jones “a faggot”.
Bashir, when defending Jones in court, has said the allegations against her client were “trial by media” fuelled by hatred and jealousy. Hadley “wanted to destroy” Jones and to “tear him apart”, the barrister has said previously.
Bashir put to Hadley on Wednesday that he was having a difficult time after his secret contract to replace Jones was torn up and Jones was re-signed in May 2019 for two more years.
“Not at all, I maintained the same job I’d done for the previous 17 years and inadvertently Mr Jones had doubled my salary,” Hadley replied.
Hadley disagreed that the pinnacle of his career was attaining the breakfast radio slot, insisting that “going from $2m to $4m” while remaining on the Ray Hadley Morning Show was the pinnacle.
Hadley told the court he was approached by management in late 2018 and they said they’d had enough of Jones and his then-defamation cases and offered him the job.
“I didn’t want to get out of bed at 1.30am, but the money made me do it,” Hadley said.
Bashir suggested to Hadley that a later text to Jones – who was suffering from ill health – was “rubbish” because Hadley said “I love you”.
Hadley explained that when he said “I love you” he added “above ground” because Jones had said if he hadn’t got the flu shot the illness may have killed him and he “would be in Rookwood [cemetery]”.
Late in the afternoon Hadley admitted he had winked at someone in the public gallery, because he mistakenly believed she was the Herald reporter who had written that he looked “scruffy” on Tuesday.
The Herald actually referred to Hadley as speaking “gruffly”.
Judge Glenn Walsh ordered the sheriff to investigate whether an unidentified journalist had contacted Hadley while he was giving his evidence as it would constitute a direct violation of his directions not to speak to anyone about his evidence.
The trial continues with Hadley in the witness box on Thursday.
