Disgraced ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek is breaking his silence forward of his tell-all memoir that covers his upward thrust, fall, and meant scapegoating. We had formerly puzzled whether or not the e-book would in fact inform his facet of the ‘Fight of the Bobs’ saga or be most commonly fluff to steer clear of Iger’s wrath. Apparently Chapek’s selected the scorched earth manner, and with that, the Days of Our Disney Lives cleaning soap opera is renewed for every other season.
If you happen to’ve simply joined Bob vs. Bob already in development, you’re in for an actual deal with. We aren’t going to recap the whole lot that has transpired, however right here’s a snappy refresher. After being named CEO in early 2020, Disney Fired CEO Bob Chapek and Rehired Bob Iger as CEO again in November 2022. That article recapped this saga relationship again to 2020 and lined why we weren’t shocked by way of this construction.
There have been a large number of next trends within the Fight of the Bobs that trickled out over the process the final 4 years, however the Disney drama were coloured by way of Bob Iger bias. It used to be glaring that the Iger camp used to be offering background, whilst Chapek saved just about totally silent.
This is, till round this time in September 2023 when information “broke” that Bob Chapek Claimed Being Disney CEO Was once 3 Years of Hell, However He Puppy a Hippo. That used to be very obviously written in coordination with the Chapek camp, and admittedly, it nonetheless made him glance extremely incompetent.
Despite the fact that I will be able to say that Chapek’s enthusiasm for petting a hippo did give me a newfound admire for the person, and proved to me that in all probability he used to be human in any case. The large distinction used to be that article additionally made Bob Iger glance dangerous! Our assumption is that his e-book shall be extra of the similar, as Chapek seeks to end up past a shadow of a doubt that he actually does have low emotional intelligence, whilst taking down Iger together with him.
Bob Chapek’s memoir, titled At the back of the Citadel Partitions: My Thirty Years on the Happiest Position on Earth, shall be launched on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Forward of that, the New York Occasions received a replica of the e-book and shared a few of its key throughlines.
My trustworthy hope is that Chapek’s memoir is sort of a modern-day Moby Dick, with the dramatic narrative fueled by way of his manic want for revenge towards the white sperm whale CEO that bit off his leg bruised his ego, and the e-book fleshed out with a host of haphazard hippopotamus info.
Clearly, the e-book is biased and it’s laborious to mention Chapek will also be depended on as a competent narrator. It’s nonetheless slightly the deal with to listen to the tale immediately from the pony’s mouth. He is aware of the place one of the vital our bodies are buried, and reputedly has not anything left to lose (as evidenced by way of this e-book’s life) as he tries to re-establish himself as a pacesetter.
Listed here are one of the vital maximum fascinating takeaways in keeping with the NYT, and our ‘evaluation’ of every declare that Chapek makes…
It Wasn’t Chapek’s Fault
What wasn’t Chapek’s fault? Any and it all! If one thing dangerous took place throughout the Chapek technology, it used to be both your fault as a fan for no longer working out his big-brained technique, or the ones the ones meddling children executives who tousled his grasp plan. Chapek rejects any private accountability for his downfall. He puts all blame on a “relentless” sabotage marketing campaign by way of Bob Iger.
“My abrupt dismissal harm my popularity, leaving the ones with reference to me, outsiders and a few throughout the kingdom attempting to determine what I did mistaken,” Chapek writes. “The solution, once more, is not anything.” He proudly embraces the mantle of “disrupter,” a moniker he invokes time and again all through, whilst acknowledging that his “legacy wasn’t memorialized in a favorable means.”
I’m no longer in the least shocked by way of this. In opposition to the tip of his tenure, it turned into increasingly more transparent that Chapek had misplaced the plot. He turned into increasingly more defensive, brazenly faulting lovers for no longer comprehending his manner. I used to be by no means partial to Chapek, however I’ve formerly pointed to this October 2022 WSJ convention as being the purpose the place he totally and irrevocably misplaced me. The e-book appears like a continuation of that. It’s unlucky that, he hasn’t taken the time for self-reflection or introspection.
Iger Set Him As much as Fail
Clearly, it wouldn’t be Disney’s Fight of the Bobs with out an underlying feud, and Chapek lovers the flames on that. He claims that Iger performed “an intentional and preconceived position in hastily finishing my experience as Disney C.E.O.” Chapek asserts that Iger disparaged him in personal conversations with Hollywood elite and loyalists inside Disney, sharing that Chapek had iced Iger out of the method.
Chapek portrays Iger as manipulative and egotistic, maneuvering in a calculated method to maintain his personal authority after stepping down, ahead of in the end seizing again the CEO seat. “I didn’t get an opportunity to complete what I began,” Mr. Chapek writes. “If truth be told, it pisses me off.”
Simply according to the voluminous protection of the Fight of the Bobs so far, all of this moves me as kind of true. Even the leaks that obviously got here out of the Iger camp instructed that he used to be sour about being excluded by way of Chapek and aired his grievances all throughout Hollywood and inside Disney. The one query I’ve here’s what precisely is Chapek annoyed about no longer completing? Burning all of it down at the back of him?!
Chapek Unapologetic in Quest to Damage Parks
Chapek confronted complaint that he had taken his pressure for upper income too some distance, each throughout his tenure as Parks Chair and due to this fact as CEO. Underneath Chapek, Disney sharply raised costs on admission and monetized previously-free perks, all whilst ruthlessly chopping prices.
Within the e-book, he’s unapologetic about this manner. Fairly, Chapek proudly recounts bringing airline-style dynamic pricing to Disney’s parks and argues that upper costs helped cut back crowding and building up visitor pleasure. “We’d been, at a minimal, leaving income alternatives at the desk to steer clear of stirring the hornet’s nest,” Chapek writes, pointing to the numerous benefit expansion throughout his tenure as parks chairman.
None of that is remotely sudden, and comports with Chapek’s contemporaneous feedback all through his tenure as CEO. (Glance again at that October 2022 WSJ convention in the event you don’t recall.) It used to be additionally supported by way of Bob Iger making it transparent that he were “alarmed” by way of worth will increase at Walt Disney Global and Disneyland, and used to be involved that Chapek used to be “killing the soul” of Disney.
Slightly over a month after Iger’s go back, Walt Disney Global made 3 huge adjustments to revive price and beef up flexibility, together with the go back of unfastened in a single day parking on the lodges. Mere months after that, the corporate introduced 5 primary enhancements to make your seek advice from more straightforward. Then there used to be the transfer from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Move together with different queueing adjustments aimed toward higher balancing the pursuits of all visitors.
Clearly, costs have no longer diminished since Chapek left. Fanatics shall be fast to indicate that out. On the other hand, the speed of will increase decelerated dramatically; Walt Disney Global tickets, as an example, didn’t building up between overdue 2022 and 2024, after going up two times in keeping with 12 months (and by way of beautiful huge jumps) throughout the Chapek technology.
Regardless of worsening inflation since, Disney worth will increase have cooled, reductions have transform extra considerable, and the worth proposition has typically stepped forward. It’s nonetheless not anything like 2019, however few issues are any place, and the majority of the wear and tear used to be undeniably performed underneath Chapek. I will be able to best believe how a lot worse off we’d be had been Chapek allowed to “end what he began.”
Iger Left Because of COVID
Chapek questions the purported causes for Iger stepping down hastily as CEO in February 2020 and advance a extra conspiratorial rationalization. “I’ve been instructed by way of a number of high-ranking folks each in executive and personal industry that of their reviews, the actual explanation why he left the corporate so hastily used to be his anticipation of the arriving of Covid,” Mr. Chapek writes. He additionally means that Iger believed he may reclaim the CEO position each time he sought after.
We’ve puzzled the transition timeline from the start, since actually the very day the announcement used to be made again in early 2020! Disney has disputed it since, and attempted to color an image of a tidier succession procedure than in fact existed. That’s obviously revisionist historical past, and Disney’s legitimate tale has extra plot holes than middling Superstar Wars fanfic.
The entire collection of occasions defied Disney’s typically meticulous and methodical manner underneath Iger, and used to be whole at-odds along with his repeated extensions. For the reason that there used to be no turmoil in his private existence, it used to be obviously about COVID. Iger noticed the writing at the wall according to what had took place with the parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong, together with different industry pursuits in China.
My wonder right here, as ahead of, is that Chapek didn’t notice all of this on the time! Chapek used to be obviously selected as an issue of expediency. He used to be picked to be the hatchet guy who made unpopular and hard choices to get the Walt Disney Corporate thru a tricky time, probably ahead of the corporate hit refresh with a blank slate (or the triumphant go back of Iger). Up to now, whether or not Chapek used to be arrange as a fall man or a witting and keen player within the procedure used to be extra of an open query. I suppose now now we have our solution.
Chapek Takes Credit score for D’Amaro
In line with Chapek’s telling, new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro used to be his protégé and “the top of my spear” in all of his disrupting. “I persistently instructed the speculation of marketing him,” Chapek writes. “He were a relative unknown within the company hierarchy ahead of I singled him out.”
This can be a daring declare, and in all probability probably the most fascinating of all within the teaser as it’s the one who wasn’t already well-established. Now we have lengthy questioned about D’Amaro’s position within the Chapek regime, the level to which he supported or actively advocated for doubtful choices, and which of them he fought.
With sure insurance policies, it’s glaring. Park reservations, as an example, had been D’Amaro’s child and one thing he’d introduced at Disneyland pre-COVID. That is one reason the parks have stubbornly clung to them well beyond their sell-by date. On the other hand, we additionally know that D’Amaro used to be no longer on board with Chapek’s plans for extra competitive layoffs, which Iger “overruled.”
With no need any inside of data right here, I’m disinclined to imagine any of Chapek’s claims right here. Once more, he’s an unreliable narrator. Latching onto D’Amaro’s good fortune to take partial credit score would make Chapek glance extra competent by way of proxy, so he has a vested hobby in inflating his involvement with D’Amaro’s ascension.
It’s a near-certainty that D’Amaro used to be no longer a Chapek loyalist or protégé, which we will say optimistically even from the outdoor. Iger purged just about everybody who had allegiances to Chapek, beginning with Kareem Daniel and proceeding with lower-level leaders.
In the meantime, Iger actively sought out D’Amaro to paintings on ‘solving’ what Chapek had damaged at the parks facet (the direct results of which have been the ones flurry of guest-friendly adjustments in 2023), after which labored carefully with him to develop that industry unit. On most sensible of that, there have been experiences again in 2022 that Disney’s board used to be frightened that D’Amaro and Alan Bergman had been at the precipice of quitting over Chapekian choices.
If that’s no longer sufficient, Iger used to be too calculated and easy of an operator to align with a Chapek loyalist like this, and the Studies department had a deep bench even again in 2022-2023. Iger do not have tapped D’Amaro as architect of the $60 billion funding in Parks & Accommodations if he felt D’Amaro used to be every other Chapek.
Perhaps Chapek did assist D’Amaro advance up the ranks (or a minimum of no longer obstruct him), however D’Amaro used to be a park VP even whilst Chapek used to be nonetheless at Shopper Merchandise. D’Amaro due to this fact turned into President of Disneyland after which Walt Disney Global whilst Iger used to be nonetheless in price.
It’s very laborious to believe Mr. Low E.Q. having a lot of a hand in that, and being a most sensible tier evaluator of ability. Particularly when D’Amaro used to be located as Parks Chair-in-waiting even whilst Iger used to be nonetheless CEO.
All in all, some titillating palace intrigue thus far, and the type that used to be obviously written from throughout the fantasyland of Bob Chapek’s personal thoughts. Perhaps he’s a “Parks Man” in any case! You’ll learn the complete preview of his upcoming memoir within the New York Occasions. Or, you’ll be able to preorder Bob’s e-book itself:
Bob Chapek Memoir Teaser
Right here’s the overall description from the writer of At the back of the Citadel Partitions: My Thirty Years on the Happiest Position on Earth:
For the primary time ever, Bob Chapek breaks his silence on his tenure because the Walt Disney Corporate’s CEO, providing a behind-the-scenes account of the demanding situations he confronted—from getting the task simply weeks ahead of a global pandemic, to the transferring political panorama, to his ousting given Bob Iger’s obvious want to go back.
In 1993, Bob Chapek started his occupation on the Walt Disney Corporate as the selling director for house video. After twenty-seven years of laborious paintings, hiking the company ladder, and garnering admire throughout the wide range of companies that Disney has, he earned probably the most coveted (and scrutinized) place of all: In 2020, he used to be named CEO of the Walt Disney Corporate.
Born and raised in small-town Indiana by way of a Global Struggle II–veteran father, Chapek discovered early in existence that grit, resilience, and interest can take you some distance. Those values are what were given him to Disney.
On the other hand, inside weeks of beginning on the most sensible, the COVID-19 pandemic close down parks, inns, cruise ships, are living wearing occasions, and movie and tv manufacturing, forcing Chapek to influence the billion-dollar empire thru extraordinary instances. The stakes had been excessive, the choices unforgiving, and the backlash frequently inordinate, leaving him questioning whether or not he had transform the company scapegoat of all of it. In 2022, he were given his solution—Chapek used to be out, Iger used to be again in.
Was once he in reality given an excellent shot or used to be he set as much as fail? What drove his ousting and Bob Iger’s go back? What took place at the back of the scenes at Disney throughout COVID, and the way did the ones choices have an effect on what we see these days? 4 years later, after mirrored image and therapeutic, Chapek is able to inform his tale, sharing what he hopes shall be his true legacy.
Even now, after the whole lot, he’s nonetheless a lifelong fan, and desires the magic of Disney to bear for generations.
At the back of the Citadel Partitions is a revealing and exciting memoir of ambition, energy, and company intrigue within the happiest corporate on earth.
I completely can’t wait to learn At the back of the Citadel Partitions: My Thirty Years on the Happiest Position on Earth when it’s launched on September 29, 2026.
Chapek’s memoir is being revealed by way of Gallery Books, a big publishing imprint of Simon & Schuster. It’s co-written by way of Don Yaeger, a New York Occasions bestselling writer and longtime affiliate editor at Sports activities Illustrated.
In the long run, I’m taking a look ahead to studying At the back of the Citadel Partitions: My Thirty Years on the Happiest Position on Earth. I’m a sucker for the palace intrigue that opened up at the back of the scenes throughout this tumultuous time. It used to be tough to are living thru, and I nonetheless have an intense dislike for Bob Chapek, and his complete angle. It kind of feels that, 4 years later, he hasn’t modified a lot.
On the other hand, sufficient time has handed that it’ll be cathartic to listen to Chapek’s facet of the tale, and notice the level to which it reasons reevaluation of him. Most probably no longer a lot given his whole refusal to take any accountability for the various issues that went mistaken.
I’m additionally admittedly thinking about the e-book inevitably going off the rails, as Chapek breaks freed from his muzzle. It will have to be a train-wreck that’s extra pleasant to observe spread the second one time round, and it’ll be fascinating to peer whether or not he goals extra for symbol rehabilitation or taking others down with him!
Simply from this transient teaser, it’s very transparent the passage of time hasn’t healed his wounds, so we’re guessing it’s the latter. Finally, Chapek’s memoir will most definitely do a greater task of creating Bob Iger glance dangerous than making its writer glance just right. That a lot is already true from the teaser, too.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your ideas on Chapek in spite of everything breaking his silence? Will you be purchasing At the back of the Citadel Partitions: My Thirty Years on the Happiest Position on Earth? Do you are feeling extra sympathetic to Chapek now than you probably did in 2022? The rest so as to add about Disney’s Bob Switch™️, changing Chapek with Iger, or the Fight of the Bobs? What about anything lined right here? Agree or disagree with the firing of Chapek? Listening to your point of view–even whilst you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please percentage your ideas under within the feedback!
