‘He was loathed in the office – it was all so mean’: BBC insider tells DOLLY BUSBY of disturbing new allegations about Chris Moyles’ treatment of junior colleagues… yet friends are STILL defending his behaviour

Kchicken Chris Moyles announced he was leaving the breakfast show BBC There was a sentence he kept repeating in 2012.

‘We had the best time ever.’

So who did he mean when he said ‘we’? Hailing himself as the ‘Savior of Radio 1’, he no doubt imagined himself speaking on behalf of a wide team of producers, runners, researchers and executives at the station and the Beeb more broadly.

But it was a matter of opinion because in reality, I was told, the only people who still thought he was having a good time after eight years at the helm were Moyles himself and a small circle around him who worked overtime to keep his “silly” and “entitled” behavior in check.

‘It was as if he enjoyed making people uncomfortable,’ a former BBC employee told me last night.

While his critics are certainly not making the sort of allegations against his former colleague Scott Mills – which led to Mills being sacked from his job as a Radio 2 Breakfast presenter – questions are being raised as to why the BBC allowed Moyles to spend years behaving in a ‘childish’ and ‘disgusting’ way.

Some will remember his endless on-air attacks on Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts, for example. For six years he called her disgusting names like ‘horse chop’ and ‘sour-faced old cow’.

He repeatedly bullied Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts (pictured far right with her bandmates and Moyles) during the broadcast, which she said had a huge impact on her self-confidence.

Despite the once protective small circle around Moyles, Dolly Busby reveals the radio presenter, now 52, ​​was underestimated by many who worked under him

Nicola was only in her early twenties at the time and later revealed that Moyles’ public bullying had a significant impact on her self-confidence, saying she found it difficult to look in the mirror, adding: ‘For years I felt like the ugly person from Girls Aloud.’

But today I can reveal that behind the scenes Moyles, now 52, ​​is despised by many of those who worked under him.

A former BBC employee told me: ‘It constantly made people feel stupid or embarrassed. He was ruthless: He was hated in the office because everything was so cruel and unnecessary. It created a bad atmosphere. And no, this wasn’t the usual party line, “teenage prank.” We can all get this to a certain degree. He was difficult and wouldn’t have cooperated if it didn’t suit him.’

My source added: ‘But if Chris liked you, he could be attractive and those he liked were completely captivated by him. They didn’t hear a bad word, so a ‘loyalty circle’ normalized his behaviour.’

Former colleagues of Moyles are increasingly speaking out publicly.

Last month, Radio 1 star Greg James opened up about his treatment at the hands of Moyles when he joined the station in 2007 as an eager young presenter aged 21.

In his memoir Future Best, James, now 40, revealed his surprise at being called a ‘cool student’ by Moyles, who was supposed to be his mentor – apparently because of his love of cricket.

Moyles quickly stood up to James, who is now presenter of the Radio 1 Breakfast programme.

Hertfordshire-born James, whose parents are both teachers, said: ‘Imagine my surprise when I arrived at Radio 1 and got into the incredible daytime line-up to do the Early Breakfast program in front of Chris Moyles every day, only for him to start calling me the ‘cool student’.

‘I really didn’t expect this. I can’t help myself with the cricket thing, but being called that seems reductive to me.

‘Moyles didn’t know anything about me. He had no idea what my upbringing was like.

Former colleagues of Moyles are speaking out against his behaviour, including Radio 1 star Greg James

In his memoir Future Best, James revealed his shock at being called a ‘posh pupil’ by his mentor Moyles. ‘He had no idea what my upbringing was like,’ James said

In 2012, Moyles was sacked from the Radio 1 Breakfast show and was later replaced by the hugely popular Nick Grimshaw, 11 years his junior. (Image hosting Radio X in 2022)

‘He saw a nice, excited, slightly boring 21-year-old kid from the Home Counties who he thought was a bit boring, with fantastic wavy independent hair, and whom he was able to persuade a little bit because I was new and so happy to be there.’

Finally, in 2012, Moyles was summoned to a meeting by Radio 1’s new controller, Ben Cooper, who told him he had been sacked from the Breakfast show and replaced by Nick Grimshaw, 11 years his junior.

“I was a bit disturbed by the story that came out that I was too old and I got fired,” Moyles said on Ross Kemp’s podcast in 2020.

‘I thought they handled it really poorly. Then when [Grimshaw’s] The show failed and the audience dropped, so I thought, “It’s not that easy, right, guys?”‘

At the time of the sacking, Cooper promised the ‘angry’ presenter a new role, but instead Moyles left the BBC and took a three-year break from radio.

In 2015, he started working as a Breakfast show host on Radio X, recruiting former Radio 1 producer Pippa Taylor and newsreader Dominic Byrne. Moyles continues to present on Radio X, although questions continue to mount about his behavior on Radio 1.

I recently wrote about a resurfaced clip from 2002 in which Moyles, then 27, offers to take the virginity of then-underage star Charlotte Church when she turns 16. I received a phone call that stunned me.

It was one of Moyles’ PR people who defended the historic clip and admitted that his comments, although inappropriate, were merely a symptom of 1980s ‘lad culture’.

I don’t agree with this; It seems Church himself agrees. Five years after Moyles creepily asked to take her virginity, the Welsh star brought her onto Channel 4 show The Charlotte Church Show and asked her to “explain her behaviour”.

Moyles was invited to appear on the Charlotte Church Show in 2006 to explain rude comments he had made a few years earlier about wanting to take her virginity.

‘You were under 16, yes, 15. But you were going to be 16 and I offered to take your virginity,’ he said. Instead of backing down, Moyles calls his disgusting sentence a ‘sweet’ offer

Moyles said: ‘Yes, you were under 16, yes, 15. But you would have been 16 and I offered to take your virginity.’

The crowd started laughing and Charlotte asked: ‘What exactly did you say?’

Moyles said he ‘wants to lead’ [the singer] Now that she had reached 16, she was going through the jungle of sexuality; He defended this disgusting line as a ‘sweet’ offer.

When I told my BBC source about the strange phone call the PR had made in defense of his behaviour, they said: ‘It doesn’t surprise me. It was always referred to as “lad culture”, “lad banter”, but that wasn’t the point. He was an asshole who had every right to make such inappropriate comments.’

In fact, his 2006 memoir The Bible According to Chris Moyles is full of evidence that he was difficult to work with.

“A lot of people think I’m a bastard to deal with, but I’m not,” Moyles insisted. ‘I’m the bad guy on the air. Moyles is a bully. Moyles is ego. I am a nice person. I’m a bit of a newbie in radio. ‘This is what I’m doing.’

He made the following appeal to those who worked with him elsewhere: ‘Manage me, do not be afraid of me.’

Elsewhere, she repeatedly makes crude references to women, including her own manager, Vivienne Clore, who wrote of her: ‘She’s got big breasts and she’s actually quite cute.’

In his 2006 memoirs, Moyles wrote: ‘A lot of people think I’m a bastard to deal with, I’m not… I’m a good person. I’m a bit of a newbie in radio. ‘This is what I do’

Tina Daheley, a sports reader on the breakfast show who is of Indian origin, said Moyles chose her because of her looks

Dolly writes: “Moyles’s earlier misdeeds, however historic, are likely not to remain the ‘problem of their time’ but will very much become part of the present.”

But some of his comments, although disguised as jokes, caused upset among the presenters.

Tina Daheley, who was a sports reader on the Breakfast show from 2010 to 2012, spoke about working with the DJ in 2018.

On air, the presenter, who is of Indian descent, was admired for her appearance and the butt of jokes as a potential date for visiting pop stars.

He said: ‘There was an assumption based on the music I liked, so Chris would try to get me Tinie Tempah or another black guest.

‘Let’s put it this way, when we make our final [Moyles Breakfast show] and if I could invite my friends and family, I wouldn’t dream of inviting my six-foot-tall hijab-wearing father there.’

The 45-year-old woman said it was Prince William who made her realize the mistreatment she was subjected to.

Daheley said: ‘The first thing he said to me was that he was a big fan and had been listening to me for years. The second was: “I’m really glad some servers don’t treat you as badly as other servers anymore.”‘

Perhaps most tellingly, he praised Grimshaw, who replaced Moyles as frontman – for ‘normalising’ Radio 1, dismantling hierarchy and eliminating ‘a culture where the star was untouchable’ – not ‘producers, editors or managers’.

Moyles’ earlier misdeeds, however historic, appear unlikely to remain “a problem of their time” and will very much become part of his present.