Ousted ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek sidelined the company’s long time chief financial officer during his last stand as head of House of Mouse, excluding her from high-level meetings and alleging that she had lost focus due to her husband’s health.

That’s according to a bombshell new feature from the Wall Street Journal which, citing unnamed executives at Disney, said that it was CFO Christine McCarthy, who eventually convinced former CEO Bob Iger to return to the role. 

At the time, Iger was yachting around the Fijian islands, complaining to friends that he was ‘frustrated with the idleness’ of his life post-Disney. His wife, Willow Bay, was too busy with her job as a dean at the University of Southern California to join him island hopping. 

He stepped down as CEO in 2019 with Chapek replacing him. 

Iger separated completely with Disney near the end of 2021 after remaining onboard for two years as executive chairman, helping to guide Chapek and to guarantee a smooth transition. 

However during that period, Iger would allegedly hold meetings with executives without Chapek, 63, and often complain about his successor’s leadership and refusal to lean on him, saying that his replacement was doing a ‘terrible job.’ 

According to WSJ, McCarthy referred to Chapek’s leadership as ‘devastating’ to the company. She finally made the call to Iger on November 16, to see if he was interested in coming back…