CNBC’s Hadley Gamble also romantically linked to TPG’s David Bonderman: sources
The TV anchor who brought down NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell also had a romantic entanglement with a married Texas buyout tycoon who treated her to a luxurious, jet-setting lifestyle, The Post has learned.
Hadley Gamble — a CNBC correspondent who was revealed to be the woman who had an “inappropriate relationship” with Shell for more than a decade until 2019 — was also tied during the same period to David Bonderman, the billionaire chairman of private equity firm TPG, according to a whistleblower complaint reviewed by The Post.
Bonderman — the 80-year-old co-owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, with an estimated net worth of $6.6 billion, according to Forbes — has been renowned for his extravagant lifestyle, hiring bands like the Rolling Stones to play at his lavish parties.
According to an explosive whistleblower complaint filed by a former TPG executive in 2015, Bonderman counted Gamble among his “female companions” and treated her to frequent trips on the firm’s private jet.
“TPG’s founder, David Bonderman, is known within the company to have regular female companions on which he lavishes gifts or to whom he otherwise provides benefits,” former TPG executive Adam Levine alleged in his complaint filed with the SEC on March 2, 2015.
“Mr. Bonderman is rumored to pay most, if not all, of the living expenses for these women, and often brings them with him on business trips,” according to the complaint.
“Ms. Gamble, especially, is known to fly with him regularly on TPG’s planes.”
The allegations are a match for Gamble’s on-air persona, according to insiders — with some noting that Gamble made headlines worldwide two years ago after interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin while wearing a tight black dress at an economic conference in Moscow.
Putin was caught on camera making flirty faces with Gamble before they went onstage — where he then suggested she was “too beautiful” to understand some of his answers, The Hill reported.
“She’ll be interviewing someone with a Louboutin [high-heeled shoe] dangling from her toe,” a source told The Post.
Levine, TPG’s former managing director for global public affairs, accused the firm of securities law violations relating to billing investors for costs that should have been borne by TPG Capital, in the filing with the SEC.
Gamble, 41, was not the focus of the complaint, which TPG settled in 2017 without admitting guilt for $13 million, according to the SEC.
Everything you need to know about Jeff Shell's departure from NBC
What happened?
Jeff Shell, NBCUniversal’s now-former CEO who is also married, left his position on Sunday after admitting he had “an inappropriate relationship” with a co-worker.
It was revealed Shell had an affair, which reportedly lasted about a decade, with CNBC International anchor Hadley Gamble.
The anchor accused Shell, who has worked at NBCUniversal’s parent company Comcast, of “sexual harassment and sex discrimination,” according to her lawyer.
Comcast said Shell left his position after a company investigation “led by outside counsel into a complaint of inappropriate conduct.”
As of Monday, the media titan has yet to announce who Shell’s successor will be.
NBCUniversal, however, did announce that the organization’s senior managers will directly report to Comcast President Mike Cavanagh.
Who is Gamble?
Gamble is a veteran journalist who has worked with CNBC since 2010.
She worked as a CNBC anchor in Dubai and has interviewed the likes of Pope Francis, Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Before Shell’s bombshell departure, Gamble was best known as one of the last Western reporters to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin before the invasion of Ukraine last year.
The anchor was accused by Russian state media of acting “as a sex object” who was out to distract Putin while interviewing Putin at an energy conference in Moscow.
Gamble allegedly began a tryst with Shell “11 years ago and [it] continued sporadically up until a couple of years ago when it ended,” according to Deadline.
The firm manages $135 billion in assets and has owned companies ranging from J. Crew to Creative Artists Agency — the powerful Hollywood talent firm which had once represented Gamble.
TPG refused to comment.
Gamble’s lawyer, Suzanne McKie, played down her client’s purported ties to Bonderman when contacted by The Post.
McKie also pushed back on the suggestion that “who a woman may or may not have dated in the past is relevant to her claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.”
Russian state media accused Gamble of acting “as a sex object” during the October 2021 interview to distract Putin — suggesting the veteran journalist was part of a US “special operation.”
Gamble’s name resurfaced Sunday after NBCU’s parent company, Comcast, fired Shell following the anchor’s formal complaint against the longtime executive.
Shell admitted to an alleged affair that began 11 years ago and continued sporadically for years, according to an internal investigation by Comcast.
“Given these circumstances it is very disappointing that my client’s name has been released and her privacy violated,” McKie, a managing partner of the United Kingdom-based firm Farore Law, told the Wall Street Journal.
