Gardening guru Don Burke, who has been accused of indecently assaulting and sexually harassing a number of women, has told Channel Nine's A Current Affair program that Australians can make up their own minds about whether he is "the most evil person".
Burke admitted he had made mistakes in his life, saying he cheated on his wife numerous times, but denied the latest allegations.
Journalist Tracey Grimshaw quizzed him about whether the allegations stemmed from his affairs and he said his colleagues may have had the view he "wasn't a nice person".
"I'm not that man at all," he said.
"I've got a lot of feelings, things that I would never say.
"A number of the claims were … some of these things are despicable."
A joint ABC/Fairfax investigation has uncovered claims from a number of women who worked with Burke in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Two former TV researchers claim Burke groped their breasts, while a young actress claims he told her she would have to do an audition topless for his G-rated show, Burke's Backyard.
One of the researchers said Burke also once attempted to remove her clothing and put his hand down her top while the two were travelling for work in central Australia.
Louise Langdon, who moved to the United States nine years ago and is now a psychologist, worked as a researcher on Burke's radio and TV programs in the 1980s.
"Dealing with Don Burke was an endurance test in terms of his persistence in commentary about anything sexual," she told the ABC.
"It started very early on when I worked with him at the radio station 2UE, and the comment was, 'Did you get your rocks off last night?' Meaning, did you have sex last night? That was his way of greeting me in the morning."
She also claimed Burke tried to remove her top.
Burke told A Current Affair: "I certainly wouldn't have done it seriously."
When asked why these women would make these claims up, Burke replied:
"It's a witch hunt. I might have terrified a few people, or whatever, and I shouldn't have done that, but these sort of things bear no relation to me and what I am about.
"There are plenty of people who were there at the time and are furious, because these things didn't happen."
'Don has a ribald sense of humour'
Michael Freedman, the managing director of Burke's production company CTC Productions between 1991 and 1998, told ABC's 7.30 program the allegations did not "represent the Don Burke that I know".
"Don has a ribald sense of humour. We've seen some of that. But that sense of humour was never directed, in my observation, in a malicious, or even directed particularly at a person. It was a general ribaldness in the way he talked," he said.
But Mr Freedom can understand how that could make people in a work context uncomfortable.
"I think that we've all learnt a great deal of lessons in the last 20 years," he said.
"I think it's important to remember that that is 20 years ago.
"I think everyone of us has learnt that that kind of joke is not a joke and is not acceptable in the workplace.
"I think that Don would be the first one to acknowledge that occasionally he could, in his ribald humour, overstep the mark. I've noticed that over the years.
"At times I have said to Don, 'That's not funny', and he recognises that.
"Don's wife Maria has also over the years said to Don, on a number of occasions that I'm aware of, that he should be careful about his brand of humour because it can be misconstrued and it can be taken the wrong way, particularly by women."
The ABC has received multiple phone calls and emails from former Burke's Backyard employees who have also spoken about his history of vulgar language and inappropriate behaviour.
Journalist Tracey Spicer said she had a list of other high-profile names in the media and entertainment industry who were likely to face similar accusations.
Spicer has been a vocal #metoo campaigner, urging people to share their stories of workplace sexual harassment across the Australian entertainment industry, following the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
"I expected I'd get a handful or a couple of dozen of women responding. To this day 470 people have come forward, 95 per cent of them women," she said.
"It's been overwhelming. I describe it as a tsunami of injustice."
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