When Bob Chapek assumed the helm of the Disney empire in February 2020 as Bob Iger’s personally picked successor, it felt like the well-earned pinnacle of decades of hard work at the Magic Kingdom. But in less than three years, Chapek’s dream was destroyed: He was abruptly dismissed in November 2022, and Iger returned as CEO. In Chapek’s memoir “Behind the Castle Walls,” set to be released Sept. 29, he points to Iger as the “real reason” he was canned.
Chapek claims Iger, who is mentioned 121 times in the 272-page book, simply couldn’t cede the crown. Iger “seemed to initiate a relentless three-year campaign to push me out,” he writes. A repeated theme in your book is that you think Bob Iger’s unwillingness to give up the CEO role is what led to your ouster, and you write that you did “nothing” wrong.
Do you think you really made no mistakes? I don’t know if I can say that I made no mistakes during the time, but nothing that would warrant the action that the board took. In other words, no one is infallible.
No one’s going to go through almost a three-year tenure as CEO and not make a mistake, but I don’t think that was causal in any way to the act [of Chapek’s termination]. Your book recounts some painful episodes from your time as CEO. Why did you decide to write it?
You know, I was approached right after I was dismissed from Disney, and I pondered it and thought that “Nah, I don’t really think I want to get involved in it.” But I figured I’d let some time go, because I think with distance and time comes a little bit of clarity, and I would lose whatever emotion I had over the situation and be able to, at the right time, respond appropriately with facts as opposed to emotions. And I did that, and as it turns out, I saw so many examples of sort of the rhetoric that had been planted after I left the company that I thought was honestly not based in fact, not based in the truth, and it was a diversion, and I just couldn’t have the record forever point to what I thought was you know fiction. Did you consider taking legal action against Disney?
When’s the last time you had any communication with Bob Iger? Since I’ve been gone, nothing. But since the time he left the company, I ran into him once at Sun Valley [the business-titan conference in Idaho, in July 2022].
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