{"id":195233,"date":"2025-10-07T11:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T11:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195233\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T11:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T11:07:09","slug":"tv-star-podcaster-accused-of-unleashing-abuse-and-hatred-on-former-close-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195233\/","title":{"rendered":"TV star, podcaster accused of unleashing abuse and hatred on former close friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media personality and prominent Greens supporter Abbie Chatfield has been accused of unleashing abuse and hatred on a former close friend over views on Israel’s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Heath Kelley claims in a lawsuit he was defamed through an Instagram story published to Chatfield’s 550,000 followers on May 7, days after the federal election.<\/p>\n

The post contained private messages between the pair after Kelley sent her a video about then-Greens leader Adam Bandt, according to court documents released to AAP today.<\/p>\n

\"MediaMedia personality and prominent Greens supporter Abbie Chatfield has been accused of unleashing abuse and hatred on a former close friend over views on Israel’s war in Gaza. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Bandt lost his lower house seat of Melbourne in the federal election while Chatfield had fronted some Greens events and ads.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to sleep better at night knowing the Jewish population of Melbourne will feel safer with him gone,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

“As a supporter of gay and women’s rights, I am pro-Israel.”<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt lost his seat in the federal election. (Getty)<\/p>\n

In Chatfield’s posts, she accused her former friend of 10 years of being a “right wing troll” who supported Israel’s genocide and the “slaughter of children” in Gaza, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

“Any of my friends from high school watching this, just so (sic) Heath Kelley supports genocide if you want to reconsider your friendships,” she said.<\/p>\n

These comments allegedly defamed Kelley by claiming he supported the killing of children, gay men and women in Palestine.<\/p>\n

Kelley, for whom Chatfield professed her love in a post in 2019 of the pair dancing, said the pair were friends from high school until at least 2021, at times in Chatfield’s “closest friendship circle”.<\/p>\n

But the Instagram story triggered a legal concerns notice to the Bachelor Australia runner-up on May 20.<\/p>\n

In it, his lawyer highlighted concerns from Melbourne’s Jewish population about Bandt’s “politicisation of their community” and suggested LGBTQI people and women enjoyed stronger protections in Israel than in occupied Palestine.<\/p>\n

Kelley categorically denied the claims in the May 7 Instagram story.<\/p>\n

“Our client does not, and never has, supported genocide or the slaughter of children,” lawyer Paul Svilans wrote.<\/p>\n

“He finds the concepts abhorrent.”<\/p>\n

\"SueSue Chrysanthou SC is representing Heath Kelley in his case against Abbie Chatfield. (Kate Geraghty)<\/p>\n

The allegedly defamatory statements were “inherently serious” and came from private messages shared in a breach of confidence, the lawsuit in late September reads.<\/p>\n

“The harm caused or likely to be caused by the story is exacerbated by the fact that the current conflict in Gaza is a subject of intense political and social controversy in Australia,” Svilans wrote.<\/p>\n

After the story was published and Kelley tagged, he was exposed to hatred, ridicule and contempt, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

“You chose to publicly vilify our client in the most abusive and extreme manner to your hundreds of thousands of followers,” Svilans wrote.<\/p>\n

Branding Kelley a “troll” was hypocritical and would be relied on to seek aggravated damages, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

He has engaged high-profile defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC to represent him in court.<\/p>\n

As well as damages and compensation, the case seeks court orders barring the podcaster from repeating the allegedly defamatory statements.<\/p>\n

An offer that Chatfield apologise to her former friend and pay him $95,000 was not taken up before the lawsuit was filed, court documents reveal.<\/p>\n

In response to the May 20 concerns notice, the TV star accused Kelley of “extortion” and claimed he was trying to benefit financially from their former friendship, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Chatfield has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old rose to fame as runner-up on The Bachelor in 2019 before carving out a notable position as a commentator, particularly on issues affecting young women.<\/p>\n

An electoral commission investigation in April cleared her of breaching authorisation laws when interviewing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and hosting a gig with Bandt at a Melbourne nightclub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Media personality and prominent Greens supporter Abbie Chatfield has been accused of unleashing abuse and hatred on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-195233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}