the former private chef of Drury became the third woman to allege he made unwanted advances<\/a>, claiming he repeatedly kissed her on the lips while she worked for him.<\/p>\n![\"Megan]()
Megan Ruddle worked for Sir Rod Drury for more than two years and alleges he repeatedly kissed her on the lips during that time. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n
Megan Ruddle signed a non-disclosure agreement after reaching a confidential settlement over an employment dispute after working for Drury on his luxury boat and then at his Queenstown property, Stuff reported.<\/p>\n
Drury has confirmed her employment was terminated and a settlement was reached. <\/p>\n
Drury has denied the allegations, saying Ruddle\u2019s claims \u201care not supported by the facts\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no time was there any form of intimate or physical relationship, nor did I ever try to initiate one,\u201d he told the Herald.<\/p>\n
Her confidential settlement followed a personal grievance complaint Ruddle made against Drury and his company Oto60 in 2025, Stuff reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never wanted to settle and sign an agreement in the first place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s in the best interests of people knowing what actually happened. I don\u2019t think that [this] should be able to legally be covered up by an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this agreement, Drury and his company do not make any admission of liability, Stuff reported.<\/p>\n
Last month, Ruddle also made a police complaint and has been interviewed.<\/p>\n
In the latest allegations, Drury\u2019s chef claimed he kissed her on the lips in a meeting shortly after she was hired as a chef on his yacht.<\/p>\n
After this, Ruddle alleged Drury kissed her on the lips every time he greeted her.<\/p>\n
She worked for him from 2023 until late 2025, moving from his boat to become a residence director and chef at his Queenstown retreat.<\/p>\n
Ruddle told Stuff it was \u201cso obvious that I didn\u2019t want\u201d to be kissed on the lips by Drury and \u201cI would try to avoid it… I would never kiss back. I would be tense and rigid\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said that because she worked for him, on and off, for more than two years, Drury would have kissed her on the lips \u201ceasily over 50 times\u201d. Stuff reported that former colleagues also claimed they witnessed Drury kissing Ruddle on the lips multiple times.<\/p>\n
Drury told the Herald that Ruddle\u2019s allegations are not correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no time was there any form of intimate or physical relationship, nor did I ever try to initiate one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Xero founder said he has contacted police in relation to the new claims as multiple people \u201cwith first-hand knowledge of the events have come forward with accounts that materially contradict Megan\u2019s allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also received information that, in the presence of multiple people, Megan spoke about her motivations for pursuing a claim. These individuals are willing to co-operate with any police investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Xero last week said \u201cthe current board and leadership are committed to fully understanding and evaluating the events and Xero\u2019s response with expert assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n
When asked if Dew\u2019s inquiry would address the second allegations from Amy, the spokesperson said \u201cadditional matters\u201d could be considered if they were \u201crelevant\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe review will consider Xero\u2019s handling of the 2017 complaint, and the related decision-making processes,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reviewer has the ability to interview any parties she considers relevant, and to consider any additional matters that arise during the course of the review.\u201d<\/p>\n
Xero said it would not be appropriate to comment further as the review is ongoing.<\/p>\n
Anyone with relevant information can confidentially get in contact through the email review@xero.com.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe New Zealander of the Year Awards exist to celebrate those whose contributions strengthen Aotearoa New Zealand and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[82959,74,26676,1863,138,114704,4484,9787,2740,71,29888,1362,117,111,139,69,1118,6443,89970,1963,8485,1361,223,2846,2563,1865,21419,138922,379,35111],"class_list":["post-417464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-advances","tag-after","tag-allegations","tag-back","tag-business","tag-drury","tag-employees","tag-female","tag-former","tag-from","tag-handed","tag-made","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-returns","tag-rod","tag-series","tag-sir","tag-that","tag-the","tag-them","tag-title","tag-today","tag-towards","tag-unwanted","tag-year","tag-zealander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}