Swimming legend Susie O’Neill is the latest woman to accuse Don Burke of sexual harassment after dozens of women made shocking allegations.
The eight-time Olympic gold medalist claimed Burke compared her vagina to a prized painting of a flower by her husband, which was hanging on her wall.
‘Is your c**t as big as that?’ the former Burke’s Backyard host allegedly asked her as she stood in front of the painting in her Brisbane home.
Swimming legend Susie O’Neill is the latest woman to accuse Don Burke of sexual harassment after dozens of women made shocking allegations
She claims Burke (pictured on Burke’s Backyard) asked ‘is your c**t as big as that’ in comparison to painting of a flower hanging in her Brisbane home
‘It was crude and it was belittling,’ O’Neill told the Sydney Morning Herald as she joined former colleagues and aspiring actresses in calling out the TV icon.
The alleged incident happened when the 44-year-old let Burke and two male crew members inside to film her ahead of the 2000 Olympics.
Former crew member of the program, which ran for 17 years until it was axed in 2004, confirmed O’Neill’s version of events to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The swimming star’s then-manager Nick Cummins said she was ‘intimidated by the crude sexual innuendo’.
Mr Cummins, now head of Cricket Tasmania, said Burke was ‘convincing’ in his denials when he called him straight after.
Another new allegation came from Amanda Pepe, who met Burke in the late 1980s when she was a 20-year-old reporter in Broken Hill, in western New South Wales.
O’Neill won eight Olympic gold medals swimming for Australia joins former Burke colleagues and aspiring actresses in calling out the TV icon
The alleged incident happened when the 44-year-old let Burke and two male crew members inside to film her ahead of the 2000 Olympics
Ms Pepe claims Burke promised to line her up with a great job at Channel 9 in Sydney and make her a star.
But when Burke picked her up from the airport with a rose lying on the front seat, she claims she realised there was no job, just ‘a desperate attempt to get me to sleep with him’.
‘I was an idiot, I believed him,’ she recalled, and used all her savings to fly to Sydney to take up the job.
She claims Burke took her to a ‘sad’ hotel room where she allegedly had to physically push him off her, before she claims he angrily left saying she could stay there overnight but then she was ‘on her own’.
‘I have been weeping today for what was taken from me as a young woman and for the shame of not speaking out and perhaps preventing this dreadful experience for other young women,’ she said.
Burke earlier appeared on A Current Affair to deny the numerous accusations against him
Burke strenuously denied all the allegations and described his accusers as ‘malcontents’ who ‘bear grudges against me’
The latest allegations are among many made by dozens of women accusing Burke of sexual harassment, indecent assault and making lewd comments.
The claims include grabbing women’s breasts and poking one woman’s bottom, and telling an aspiring actress she could audition if she showed up topless.
He also allegedly tried to take off her bra and top on bus and made her watch a video of a woman having sex with a donkey.
A former crew member also claimed Burke bragged about touching a teenage girl’s nipple three times while showing her how to hold a puppy.
Burke strenuously denied all the allegations and described his accusers as ‘malcontents’ who ‘bear grudges against me’.