'Like I didn't exist': Former Disney CEO explains why he doesn't visit the theme parks anymore
'Like I didn't exist': Former Disney CEO explains why he doesn't visit the theme parks anymore
Michael B. KelleySat, October 3, 2026 at 4:55 PM UTC
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Former Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Chapek said he hasn't been back to Disney since he was ousted in November 2022.
"I just don't know that I'm at least psychologically in a position where I can go," Chapek told Bloomberg's Businessweek Daily on Monday, adding that "it would be very difficult for me to go" and "attach that to what I've seen."
Chapek, who's on a tour for his memoir, "Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth," also sat down with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi on Power Players for an extended interview.
"It's like I didn't exist," said Chapek, who started at Disney in 1993, detailing how he felt about the way the company removed him. "The situation itself was not warranted. But even if it was done, there's a way you do it with class and grace and respect after 30 years. I did not receive that."
In this handout photo provided by Disney Resorts, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Bob Chapek attends the grand opening of Guardians of The Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT! attraction on May 25, 2017, at Disney's California Adventure in Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. (Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images)
Chapek ran Disney's parks business before succeeding Bob Iger as CEO in February 2020. The board removed him on Nov. 20, 2022, and brought Iger back.
Read more: Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek on talking to Bob Iger: 'I wouldn't forecast that'
Here is what Chapek said Disney did, at his firing and after it, that led him to believe he was being scrubbed:
Took down "the sign" at Castaway Cay, the Disney Cruise Line's private island. "Unheard of," he said.
Took his name off the company history. "If there was a straw that broke the camel's back, it was being removed from the company history," he said. "It's not enough that they demolished me. They're still at it."
Left him off the guest list for Disney's 100th anniversary. "I planned the damn event. Didn't even get invited to it."
Left him off the guest list for the 10th anniversary of Shanghai Disney Resort, which he says "probably still wouldn't be open" had he not been asked to step in.
Ousted him right before a key company event.
Gave him no chance to write a goodbye note to the company's 200,000 employees. He put one at the end of the book instead.
Agreed to show him the press release announcing his exit before it went out, then put it out "half an hour later."
Why? "I think there's a great deal of ego," Chapek said.
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He traced the rift back to a moment about a month into his tenure, when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Disney's theme parks and other businesses. Iger gave an interview to the New York Times, announcing that he was reasserting himself as CEO, Chapek said. "Never talked to me about it."
Chapek told Iger the next day: "You signed my death warrant."
He said he has not spoken to Iger since he left.
"I wouldn't forecast that to happen, especially now, but it wasn't going to happen anyway, because, remember, I don't exist," he said.
Watch the full interview here.
Internal AI tools help analyze interview transcripts and draft. Editors reviewed, edited, and fact-checked this post before publication.
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