Ousted Disney chief Bob Chapek accuses Bob Iger of sabotage in memoir

Bob Chapek says his old boss set him up to fail.

The ousted Disney chief executive accuses his predecessor Bob Iger of sabotaging his time in charge. The claim sits at the centre of his forthcoming memoir, Behind the Castle Walls, which publishes on Sept. 29, according to Variety.

Variety, which obtained an advance copy, reports that Iger is named 121 times in the book. Chapek writes that Iger stabbed him in the back over his dismissal. In separate passages picked up by the New York Post, he describes Iger as a “sniper” working against him from the sidelines.

Chapek took the top job in February 2020 as Iger’s hand-picked successor. He had previously run Disney’s theme parks division, the part of the organisation that looks after its resorts and cruise ships. Less than three years later, Disney’s board removed him in November 2022 and brought Iger back as chief executive.

That history explains why the book has landed loudly. Chapek had said almost nothing in public about his exit until now. The memoir breaks that silence and gives his version of the handover, the pandemic shutdowns that closed parks and cinemas, and the boardroom fight that ended his tenure.

The full title is Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth. It runs to 272 pages and is published by Gallery Books, with Don Yaeger credited as co-writer, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. Vanity Fair published an excerpt on Sept. 24.

For people who follow Disney, the timing adds another twist. Iger stepped down as chief executive in March and was replaced by Josh D’Amaro, another former parks head. So Chapek’s account of one succession arrives just as Disney starts a new one.

Neither Disney nor Iger has issued a detailed response to the passages reported so far. The book itself will be available from Sept. 29.