Sonia Kruger in crisis as sponsors look to dump her
Sonia Kruger looks set to pay dearly for her controversial statements on Muslim immigration, with her lucrative sponsorship deals now reportedly under threat.
The Channel Nine personality, who earlier this week endorsed a newspaper column by Andrew Bolt which called for a suspension of Muslim immigration in the wake of terror attacks, has said she is frightened about the ongoing wave of violence around the world. She has since been deluged with both harsh criticism and open support. Now the drama looks set to hit her hard in the hip pocket, with companies she has business relationships with - like Porsche - reportedly considering disassociating themselves from her.
'The unfortunate comments Sonia made are not in line with Porsche's values in Australia, or our values globally,' company spokesperson Paul Ellis told News.com.au. 'We will take the situation into consideration and assess our relationship with Sonia, and what we may do about it.'
Advertising executive Dee Madigan told the news outlet: 'She's absolutely a liability for [advertisers], in the short term at least.'
The report follows claims that some of Sonia's high profile TV friends have been instructed not to publicly defend her. But the Project co-host Waleed Aly has been a voice of conciliation, saying that Sonia is not 'evil' - just frightened and misinformed.
Sonia herself has made no further statement on the controversy, apparently sticking by her initial statement that she had 'a lot of very good friends' who were peace-loving Muslims, 'but there are fanatics.'