Presenter Dan Walker is set to appear at an employment tribunal after his former co-anchor accused him of sexism, misogyny and bullying.
Walker, 49, will face Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije, 47, his former Channel 5 News co-anchor, at a hearing from April 20. The hearing, in London, is expected to last five weeks.
An ITN spokesperson said the claim is “denied in full” and “will be addressed through the tribunal process”.
ITN is the production company behind Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV.
The claim has been brought by Ms Vanderpuije against four parties, which include Mr Walker, station owner Paramount and Channel 5.
In a statement, Vanderpuije’s legal team said: “Claudia-Liza is constrained for legal reasons from saying anything further about her claims until the trial when they will be set out in full in the submissions made by her barrister.”
It is also understood that Ms Vanderpuije has been subject to “horrible” social media abuse since reports of the tribunal emerged.
A source told The Mail on Sunday that Walker “absolutely denies any sexism, misogyny, racism or bullying” and that the issue had been “hanging over” him for a number of years.
They continued: “He will be at London Central tribunal later this month. Nobody wants this but he will be there to tell the judge the truth
“There will be tons of witness statements which will talk to Dan’s character. He has been absolutely stunned with the amount of people willing to support him. He has been stunned and actually very upset to be accused of such things.”
The Mail reported Walker had over 50 character witness statements, including from BBC journalists, famous footballers, colleagues and Olympians.
Ms Vanderpuije left Channel 5 in 2024. Her final year was spent presenting next to Walker.
She is being represented by Jonathan Coad, the former lawyer to Philip Schofield.
Media reports have stated that Ms Vanderpuije’s legal team attempted to settle for £4 million, but that this was refused.
However, her legal team said: “All settlement discussions have been instigated by the Respondents who have made multiple offers of settlement, all of which Claudia-Liza has rejected.”
The Standard approached representatives of Walker and ITN for comment.
In 2024, Walker was exonerated after a workplace probe into “serious conduct allegations”.
It said there was “a lack of evidence to support allegations”.
A spokesman for ITN said then: “We take such claims incredibly seriously. To ensure fairness and impartiality, we appointed an independent external consultant and they have concluded their investigation. Given our ongoing duty of care, we won't be commenting further.”
In an interview with the Telegraph in 2024, Walker said: “I haven’t really talked about it, but that was fully investigated and everything was completely incorrect and I was entirely vindicated by an independent inquiry.
“So yeah, that’s not nice, but you hold on to what you know the truth is and ultimately the truth is the important thing.”
