Daryl Somers sues former business manager Alex Mathey for defamation

Hey Hey It’s Saturday star Daryl Somers has sued for defamation after his former business manager publicly criticised him.

Alex Mathey claimed the three-time Gold Logie winner, 69, treated him ‘appallingly’ and ‘cruelly’ throughout their working relationship, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Somers has since filed a lawsuit claiming damages over the ‘defamatory matter’. 

In addition to the defamation lawsuit, Somers is seeking a permanent injunction against Mathey preventing him from ‘further publishing or republishing’ material in relation to their former partnership.

The case has now reached the doors of the Supreme Court as Mathey went public with his claims regarding his alleged treatment by Somers. 

It comes almost a year after The Herald Sun first reported a conflict had emerged between Somers and Mathey, who was ‘chief executive and group legal counsel’ for the entertainer and his wife, Julie da Costa, as well as their production company, Somers Group Australia.

In June last year, court files revealed the extent of the bitterness between Mathey and Somers, describing how the relationship devolved into a ‘rather nasty dispute’. 

Mathey claimed Somers’ behaviour was ‘in contravention of particular laws as well as in violation of generally accepted standards and norms of acceptable and appropriate behaviour and conduct’.

‘Despite my best efforts and intentions, the Somers [Daryl and his wife] have been unwilling and unable to even listen to and acknowledge my concerns,’ he alleged. 

At the time, Somers denied all claims of poor treatment, saying they were ‘false and without foundation’.

He also said he and da Costa would be claiming damages.

Somers is best known for hosting the comedy variety show Hey Hey it’s Saturday from 1971 to 1999. He recently fronted Seven’s revival of Dancing with the Stars.