Hook back from hell...
SIOBHAN O’CONNOR ON SUNDAY ...THE BIG INTERVIEW
GEORGE Hook has revealed a crazed stalker is sending him used condoms in the post as his hate mail drama escalates.
The veteran broadcaster and former radio star at Newstalk also opened up on his bout of depression, turning to alcohol for comfort and how his family saved him from self-destruction.
Two years on after his shock axing from the station, George has finally found the true meaning of life and is living for the now.
In 2017, he got into hot water over his controversial comments on rape, was slammed by women’s rights groups and eventually lost his radio career.
Speaking on his radio show Lunchtime Live two years ago, George said: “But when you then look deeper into the story you have to ask certain questions.
“Why does a girl who just meets a fella in a bar go back to a hotel room?
“She’s only just barely met him. She has no idea of his health conditions, she has no idea who he is, no idea what dangers he might pose.
“But is there no blame now to the person who puts themselves in danger?
“You then of course read she passed out on the toilet and when she woke up the guy was trying to rape her. There is personal responsibility because it’s your daughter and my daughter.”
Ever since those comments the 78-year-old has been plagued by hate mail and his stalker has hit a new low.
George told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I still get hate mail, I think it’s from one person, I presume it’s a he.
“He sends me letters with used condoms in them and I mean used.
“He sends my wife Ingrid postcards, she never opens anything even if it’s addressed to her because she assumes it might be ‘your man’.
“He says things like, ‘You make sure that so-and-so husband of yours does not go back on the radio.
“We don’t worry about it but I’m only concerned about my family.
“I don’t give a s**t about anything else, I’m big enough and ugly enough not to care.”
The Cork native was on the radio one minute and gone the next which was a shock to the system, with no time to come to terms with it.
He said: “All the experts talk about preparing for retirement, but I didn’t have any preparation, I was working one day and I wasn’t the next.
“It was traumatic. The second thing is don’t retire in December.
“December is black and cold and wet and you’ll probably have the flu, Christmas is coming up and it’s the most depressing time of year. “I retired on December 1, therefore I was in a bad place. “I was raging against the world in a way, I was saying I’m going to show everyone, I’m going to do this, podcasts and internet stuff and I’m going to write. I was going to show everybody Hook was still around and then I was very depressed.”
At his lowest ebb, George began drinking heavily.
He added: “I don’t drink much, a glass of wine with my dinner would be the maximum. I couldn’t tell you when I was last in a pub.
“But I was so depressed I started pouring myself gin at 1pm and drinking it for the afternoon and watching cowboy movies until 7pm when Ingrid would call me in for my dinner.
“That went on in December and January and I’m very close to my children, my two girls are my rocks, Michelle the eldest is in Dublin and Alison the youngest in London.
“I had lunch with them separately in London and in Dublin and they said, ‘Dad cop yourself on. If you start going back on this all the crap from before will start coming up again, people will start going on Twitter.
“They said, ‘Just be happy, you’ve a family and grandchildren so why don’t you just do that?’
“I went away and I said, ‘They’re right’ and from that point in midfebruary, I suddenly said I’m happy
I still get hate mail, I think it’s from one person, I presume it’s a he
GEORGE HOOK ON RECEIVING THREATENING LETTERS
about who I am and I don’t want to prove anything to anybody.
“I don’t want to give out to the people who did me wrong and I’m very happy.”
However, the former broadcaster was upset about the false stories which were published after the furore.
George said: “Everything that was written about me when I was kicked off the radio was untrue, not a single item was true, the only thing that was true was that I was kicked off the radio, journalists wrote things about me without checking it.
“Nobody says anything any more. Joe Brolly is gone from RTE because they didn’t want him to say anything.
“I was the first one, it happened to Kevin Myers too, anything who says anything is gone.
“One journalist wrote that staff at Newstalk had written a letter wanting me off the radio, there was no letter signed by the staff.
“It was only afterwards I discovered there was no letter but if you’re on the board and you’re reading all this stuff every day – you think, ‘Christ what have we got here?’
“They paid me through all the s**t and then they said, ‘Look we’re not going to continue with your Lunchtime Live Show, we’ll give you a Saturday show once a week and we’ll pay you X amount’ and I worked for another year on Saturdays for Newstalk.
“But I have no quarrel with Newstalk, the only problem I have is did the punishment fit the crime?”
Two years later George is at peace and enjoying his retirement. He said: “Now if you ask me I don’t actually care, I don’t mean that in any glib kind of way, but I’m 78. I get free membership for my golf club when I hit 80, I probably would have retired anyway on my own terms.
“I’ve given a whole new meaning to the phrase doing nothing and I’m very happy doing nothing, it took me a long time to get to that point of happiness.
“I went through a difficult time, doing nothing is great.”
I have no quarrels with Newstalk but did the punishment fit the crime?
GEORGE HOOK ON HIS SUDDEN DEPARTURE