“In all honesty, it truly nearly killed me,” wrote Hart, a former TV3 reporter who has built a strong social media following as the ‘One Handed Baker’.
“I really don’t say that lightly.”
She said she only found out about Breingan’s relationship with another woman, Darci Penn, after a Herald investigation into his new life in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Rachel Hart and Alex Breingan at the launch of Choice TV in 2012. Photo / Norrie Montgomery.
“He was my best friend for 25 years, my husband for 22 years, I supported him chasing his career goals (while forced to give up mine) – and he’s treated me like absolute dirt.”
The Serious Fraud Office has laid 33 charges against Breingan, relating to almost $15 million in public and private funding for 13 TV shows, produced under the banner of his Auckland-based Stripe Media (Stripe Studios) company and associated firms.
The SFO alleges he made false representations and used forged documents.
Breingan has denied the charges in a brief message to the Herald, but he has otherwise refused to be interviewed or answer other questions.
The SFO charges follow a two-year investigation by the agency and work by receivers BDO, which uncovered debts of more than $20m and “irregularities” in the accounts of the failed Stripe companies.
There are now questions over whether Breingan will return to New Zealand voluntarily to appear in court, or face extradition with help from Interpol.
The SFO confirmed yesterday that a date for a first court appearance had yet to be set.
Hart said her ex-husband now lived in a five-bedroom home in an upscale Los Angeles suburb.
“I’m trying to make sense (if that’s even possible) of what’s happened to my life.”
She accused her husband of “countless lies, gaslighting, dishonesty … the rewriting [of] our history, blaming me, focusing on negative memories and forgetting the good ones … suddenly seemingly viewing me as his enemy, his ability to leave his disabled wife … It goes on”.
She said: “I’ve been told by multiple people that I’m grieving – the loss of my life as it was, the future we’d planned, our family unit.”
But she said she was no longer grieving her ex-husband.
“I’d rather never see his face again, even in digital form. Everything he has done and the way he has treated me utterly disgusts me. I pity him.”
Efforts to contact Breingan have been unsuccessful, and messages have gone unanswered.
New Stuff legal threat in Sherman-Burr saga
The Maiki Sherman-Lloyd Burr saga has taken a new turn with media firm Stuff now sending two strongly worded legal threats to the political commentator who broke the story about the incident.
Stuff wrote to Ani O’Brien, unhappy about the way she framed the position of Burr, who works for Stuff, in the original article on her Substack page.
Sherman, TVNZ’s political editor, allegedly called Burr a “f***ot” during a pre-Budget social event in Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ office in May last year.
Willis confirmed to the Herald this week that she had ended the event after hearing “offensive language”.
In her article, O’Brien wrote that it “remains unresolved” what had led to Sherman making the alleged slur. She reported that Burr had denied making a certain type of slur to Sherman.
Political commentator Ani O’Brien.
Earlier this week, Burr also told Media Insider: “I can tell you right now that I have never used a … slur to Maiki or anyone.”
O’Brien has now published two pieces of legal correspondence she received from Stuff this week, following the publication of her article.
“The article contains the allegation that Stuff employee, Mr Burr, used a … slur,” Stuff chief legal officer Allison Whitney wrote.
“This allegation is false, categorically denied by Mr Burr, and highly defamatory. There is no credible evidence nor any genuine witnesses to support the claim. Including a denial by Mr Burr does not provide a defence.
“Further, you published these allegations without seeking a right of reply from Mr Burr or Stuff. In doing so, you have failed to meet the basic standards of responsible journalism and there is no legal defence available to you, including that of responsible communication on a matter of public interest.”
Stuff said it required the “immediate removal” of all references to the “defamatory allegation” and that both it and Burr reserved all rights.
Stuff then reiterated an earlier media statement that it distributed this week, saying it stood by and had “complete faith in Lloyd Burr’s account of the events and his conduct in Minister Willis’ office last May”.
Stuff’s legal letters come in the same week it was revealed that Sherman’s employer, TVNZ, also sent a legal letter last year to Newstalk ZB, which was investigating the incident.
ZB host Mike Hosking said: “TVNZ threatened to sue us.
“We got the big broad-based fat letter from the lawyers – it was one of those very wide-ranging letters you get from corporate lawyers basically encompassing everything.
“It doesn’t matter what you say, when you say, why you say it, how you say it, they’re going to go you for something. It was one of those letters.”
Hosking raised the question of whether it was “wise of the state broadcaster to use lawyers to threaten other broadcasting entities that have what, as it turns out, a perfectly legitimate story”.
O’Brien, meanwhile, has not removed or amended her article.
In publishing the Stuff letters in a follow-up post on her Substack page yesterday, she throws a spotlight on media companies threatening legal action, and is critical of what she calls the “chilling effect… coming from inside the house.”
She described Stuff’s behaviour as “egregious hypocrisy” because it was also reporting on commentary about TVNZ’s legal action and the “appropriateness of taking ‘a legal approach toward another media organisation’ while they are attempting to use the same tactics on me”.
She also said Stuff was using her original report for its own journalism.
“Here am I in the bizarre situation of simultaneously receiving aggressive legal correspondence about my Substack article while the sender of that correspondence is quite literally relying on that same piece in order to write and publish its own reports on the matter,” she wrote.
“They explicitly reference, and consequently draw attention to, the very article that they are alleging is defamatory. Either the reporting is so unreliable that it warrants legal intervention, or it is sufficiently credible to form the basis of your own journalism.”
A Stuff spokeswoman told Media Insider in a statement that the original post “defamed a senior member of Stuff Group’s editorial team by reporting a claimed allegation he used a type of slur, when this was completely untrue and never happened”.
“We sought for only this particular defamatory statement to be removed from the article. We never sought removal of the entire article itself.
“Stuff does not resile from seeking to protect the reputation of a member of our team in this situation.”
For her part, O’Brien wrote that she considered Stuff’s approach “hostile”.
“I will not be intimidated and won’t allow a big corporation to strong-arm me into compliance.”
The Sherman-Burr saga explained – who’s threatening whom
TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman and (inset) Stuff political journalist Lloyd Burr. Photos / TVNZ, supplied
Are you keeping up with this ongoing drama, with all its twists and turns and political and legal sideshows?
Here’s a rundown of who’s who and who’s threatening whom.
TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman allegedly directed a homophobic slur at Stuff journalist Lloyd Burr during a function in Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ office in May last year. Willis said she heard “offensive language” and shut the event down.
Newstalk ZB, through Mike Hosking’s producer Sam Carran, was working on a story about the incident in the latter half of 2025.
TVNZ sent Newstalk ZB a threatening legal letter and the story ultimately did not get across the line. It is understood that other media were also sniffing around the story at one stage.
Political commentator Ani O’Brien broke the story on her Substack page this week.
All of New Zealand’s major news firms are now covering the incident and fallout.
Stuff has sent legal correspondence to O’Brien, taking issue with the way she framed Burr’s alleged involvement in the incident. He has denied making any slur to Sherman.
In a separate incident, the National Party is angry with the way Sherman acted at Parliament on Tuesday night last week, as she tried to interview whip Stuart Smith in a corridor.
Yesterday, Speaker Gerry Brownlee announced a five-day suspension for Sherman following National’s complaint. She cannot cover Parliament from today until next Wednesday.
From runaway to drinking mate
It seems some politicians and journalists can still enjoy each other’s company.
Spotted having a drink at the Parliament bar this week was one Stuart Smith, the National Party whip at the centre of the late-night corridor incident involving Maiki Sherman – and the man who was chasing down the PM a few weeks ago, unsuccessfully, to talk about caucus unrest in his leadership.
After a week of avoiding the media, he was looking perfectly comfortable enjoying that drink with two media rivals – NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan and The Post’s deputy political editor Henry Cooke.
PR ‘conflict’ claim: Herald journalist in spotlight
A senior NZ Herald journalist is in the spotlight after The Spinoff website reported he allegedly acted in a public relations capacity for a publicly funded trust headed by his sister.
An article about the Pacific Business Trust and its chief executive, Mary Los’e, was published in the Kahu section of the Herald’s website in February 2024.
Journalist Joseph Los’e is the kaupapa Māori editor of the Herald and regularly writes for the Kahu section. He is Mary Los’e’s brother.
The Spinoff reported that Joseph Los’e had tried to pitch a story about the trust and his sister to other media outlets in November 2023, before it appeared in the Herald.
The Spinoff reported Los’e had suggested to a journalist from another outlet “some angles for potential coverage, as well as offering a pre-written feature about his sister … and her path from acting on Shortland Street to the upper echelons of business”.
The Spinoff reported Los’e had said the piece would be produced by a freelancer and supplied free of charge. “He had a headline in mind: ‘From green room to boardroom’.”
This was the headline that was used on the eventual Herald website piece.
The piece about Pacific Business Trust chief executive Mary Los’e ran on the Herald’s website in February 2024.
“Los’e’s email raises a number of questions about the Herald’s editorial processes,” wrote The Spinoff’s Hayden Donnell.
“Kahu’s feature on Mary Los’e isn’t flagged as having been provided or commissioned by an outside organisation. Though it acknowledges that the subject’s brother works as an editor at the Herald, it doesn’t mention he had pitched the story to other media while doing PR for the trust.”
NZ Herald journalist Joseph Los’e’s author page on nzherald.co.nz.
Los’e did not wish to comment when approached yesterday, referring Media Insider to NZME editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness.
Media Insider sent a list of questions to NZME. An NZME spokeswoman said: “We don’t comment on employment matters.”
Massey University associate professor of journalism James Hollings ran through possible scenarios.
“I am not so concerned that he was promoting his sister’s organisation, and being paid for it, while an editor at the Herald. He is free to moonlight, if the Herald was okay with that,” Hollings said in an email to Media Insider.
“As long as he declared that outside interest to the Herald, it would be up to them to manage that conflict, for example, by getting him to stand down from any editorial decisions that involved that organisation or stories about it.
“But, that aside, I think many journalists would consider it morally questionable to be doing PR while also working as a journalist.”
However, if he did not declare that interest, “and used his position to place the feature in the Herald, that appears to be a clear conflict of interest”.
“It effectively deceives the readers of the Herald, by not disclosing that interest. If the Herald knew about his conflict, and agreed to publish the article without disclosure, that is poor judgment, and in my view, they should withdraw it and apologise to their readers for that lapse.
“If the Herald did not know about the conflict of interest, in my view that would be a serious breach of trust by an employee, and the Herald should take remedial action.
“In any case, the Herald should explain what it knew and when, if they wish the public to continue to have faith in their editorial content.”
Warehouse account to Together
One of the country’s biggest advertising accounts is heading to an independent agency.
The Warehouse Group has today announced the appointment of Kiwi-owned Together as its partner for media planning, buying, social and content.
The partnership covers The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery and Noel Leeming.
The Warehouse advertising account has moved to Together, as of today.
Together would be tasked with driving growth through marketing and “leveraging data-led planning and the agency’s own New Zealand-built media tools to deepen the group’s connection with consumers”.
The Warehouse Group chief marketing officer Frankie Coulter said the agency’s New Zealand ownership and strategic approach were key factors in the decision.
“Together has a unique ability to blend strategic media planning with technology, creativity and content capabilities, in a fully independent model.
“We are excited to work with them …”
Omnicom’s OMD has held the Warehouse account for the past eight years. TBWA remains the company’s creative advertising firm.
The Warehouse Group chief marketing officer Frankie Coulter.
The move to Together is a further sign of the growing influence of independent media agencies in New Zealand, especially following the turmoil and job losses caused by mergers and cutbacks unfolding within major global advertising companies.
Together said it would lead the account from its Auckland office, deploying “a multi-disciplinary team” across media planning, buying, analytics, content, customer and technology.
Together managing director media Pen Brown said the agency was proud to partner “with such an integral part of New Zealand’s retail landscape”.
“The Warehouse Group brands are icons in this country, and the opportunity to work across such a broad and influential portfolio with such an ambitious and creative marketing team is incredibly exciting.
“Our focus will be on delivering a seamless, data-driven approach that connects media, social and content to deliver real commercial impact. We can’t wait to get started and help these brands navigate the next chapter of their growth.”
The appointment is effective from today for The Warehouse and Warehouse Stationery, and from August 1 for Noel Leeming.
Media Insider will have more about this announcement on Friday.
Jason Oxenham – a tribute
The Herald newsroom – and the New Zealand journalism industry more generally – is mourning the loss of talented photographer Jason Oxenham.
Jason, a photographer for many years at the NZ Herald and previously Fairfax/Stuff, died earlier this week after a long battle with multiple myeloma.
Jason had many friends at the Herald and across the industry – a few short weeks ago, some of them gathered at an Auckland bar to be with Jason, celebrating a wonderful career and an outstanding human.
Photographer Jason Oxenham. Photo / Michael Craig
One of Jason’s closest mates was Herald investigative journalist Jared Savage, who has penned a tribute today:
I met Jason Oxenham at the Central Leader, a community newspaper in Auckland, back in 2004.
It was my first job as a reporter, and I was as green as grass. At first, I thought Jase was a bit gruff, but I soon figured out that he was a big softie.
He was quick to teach me the most important job of any reporter: how to hold the camera flash properly.
Jase was a brilliant photographer. He always made the most of any interview, no matter how big or small, and I was often amazed at the ingenuity of the images he created.
He had a real knack for helping the most nervous of interview subjects to relax in front of the camera. It’s a real skill, and a reminder that journalism is all about building trust with people from all walks of life.
Jase had a wicked sense of humour, dry and dark, but he was so kind-hearted.
He would often invite me over for a home-cooked meal to watch the rugby in the weekend (he was a true blue Auckland supporter) despite how busy his life must have been with a young family in tow. And he loved his wife Kristy and three girls, Holly, Jemma and Ruby, he was so proud of them.
Later, our friendship was put to the test when I asked an enormous favour – would he photograph the most important day of my life?
There was no one else that my wife-to-be and I wanted to shoot our wedding, but Jase was reluctant to agree at first. I think he was a little nervous that something would go wrong on the big day, and we’d be disappointed, but he needn’t have worried.
As always, Jase did an amazing job. He worked from dawn till dusk, and far beyond, on a scorching hot day to capture so many beautiful memories.
Not to mention the countless hours that he must have spent travelling out of town and processing the images.
To top it off, he refused to accept any payment. That’s just the sort of guy that Jase was, always so generous with his time and skills.
A few years later, we worked together again at the NZ Herald and I was so stoked that his talents could be appreciated by a wider audience.
Not that he ever cared about seeking the limelight, Jase just got on with the job without a fuss.
He was one of the genuine “good guys” in New Zealand journalism, loved and respected by all, and he will be sorely missed.
Jason Oxenham will be farewelled at a service at St Benedict’s Church, Eden Terrace, central Auckland at 2pm on Friday.
A new-look ZB campaign
It’s been terrific to watch and hear the renewed morning media battle unfold in recent weeks – Media Insider has written extensively about the new-look TVNZ Breakfast show, co-hosted by Tova O’Brien, the new-look Morning Report co-hosted by John Campbell, and NZME’s expanded Ryan Bridge TODAY show.
Mike Hosking, as featured in the new ZB marketing campaign.
Now the country’s biggest radio station, Newstalk ZB, is refreshing itself with a new brand and marketing campaign launching on Monday.
ZB hosts, including Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan, Bridge, Kerre Woodham, Jack Tame, Matt Heath, Tyler Adams, Marcus Lush and Francesca Rudkin all feature prominently in the video, TV, radio, print and billboard commercials.
Reagan Butler is behind the photography and direction.
Hosking said in a statement: “Newstalk ZB is coming up to 100 years of broadcasting to New Zealanders. A hundred years of loyal listeners, of earning trust, and of showing up every single day to ask the questions that matter.
“That’s not something you build overnight, and it’s not something you take for granted. This campaign is a celebration of that strength, of a station and a team that has always believed in being the best and never stopped working to prove it.”
NZME chief marketing officer – audio Katie Mills said ZB did not need a gimmick. “There is often a temptation in marketing to change things, but the talented broadcasters in this campaign are the reason our audience trusts Newstalk ZB. Our job was simply to put them in a frame that does them justice.”
Newstalk ZB head of talk Will Maisey said: “This campaign is about confidence – confidence in our people, our platform and our audience.”
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Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.