Disney picked a fight with Ron DeSantis over Florida's parental rights law and lost its private kingdom.
Fired Disney boss Bob Chapek has written a book about who really started that fight.
He says the first shot came from inside the castle walls, and the silence afterward cost Disney dearly.
The Tweet Chapek Says Blew Up His Quiet Approach to Florida
The book is Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, co-written with Don Yaeger and set for release from Gallery Books on September 29, 2026.
It takes readers back to the spring of 2022, when Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act – the law the Left branded "Don't Say Gay" – set Hollywood on fire.
Chapek writes that he preferred working "behind the scenes" with DeSantis, believing Disney would be "more effective" that way, according to Variety.
Then Iger jumped on Twitter.
Iger, by then out of the CEO chair, publicly backed Joe Biden's attack on the bill and claimed it would "put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy."
Chapek writes that Iger "likely smelled blood in the water" and started reaching out to the creative community to express regret.
In Chapek's telling, that tweet torpedoed the quiet strategy he was working with Tallahassee.
DeSantis told his side of it in his 2023 book The Courage to Be Free.
He wrote that Chapek called him and said, "We get pressured all the time. But this time is different. I haven't seen anything like this before," Fox News reported.
DeSantis warned Chapek that if Disney stayed out of it, the outrage would blow over in 48 hours.
Chapek caved anyway.
In March 2022, he reversed course with a public statement acknowledging how "painful our silence was."
Florida stripped Disney of the special district that let it run the land around its parks, and the legal war dragged on until a settlement on March 27, 2024.
"No corporation should be its own government," DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said at the time, per Fox Business.
Chapek writes that Iger "remained publicly silent" through the entire court battle, which cost Disney "tens of millions in legal fees."
Chapek Says Iger Saw Himself As the Second Coming of Walt
The Florida chapter is only one round in a much longer grudge match.
Chapek writes that Iger considered himself "the modern reincarnation of Walt Disney."
He recalls their joint CNBC appearance on February 25, 2020, the day his promotion was announced, when Iger looked "uncomfortable, perhaps even miserable" with his arms crossed.
From there, Chapek says, Iger ran "a relentless three-year campaign to push me out."
Disney's board fired Chapek in November 2022, not long after handing him a contract extension, and brought Iger right back.
"My abrupt dismissal hurt my reputation, leaving those close to me, outsiders and some within the kingdom trying to figure out what I did wrong," Chapek writes. "The answer, again, is nothing."
Reps for Iger and Disney declined to comment.
Iger did sit down with Harvard Business Review as news of the book spread, saying, "I don't think people want fearless leaders, but they don't want fearful leaders," The A.V. Club reported.
Josh D'Amaro took over as CEO in March 2026, and both men claim credit for his rise – Chapek says he "consistently suggested the idea of promoting him."
Disney's Florida Disaster Began When Its Leaders Played to Hollywood Instead of Families
Disney's executive suite has been a knife fight before.
In 2004, Roy Disney and Stanley Gold led a shareholder revolt that saw 43% of shareholders withhold support from Michael Eisner at the annual meeting, Fox News reported.
The difference with the Chapek-Iger war is the collateral damage.
DeSantis handed Disney an easy way out.
Stay neutral, ride out 48 hours of angry headlines, and get back to selling Mickey ears.
Instead, the company's leadership listened to Twitter, Hollywood activists, and a former CEO who could not stay off his phone.
Chapek wants credit for trying the quiet route.
He still folded within days when the pressure came.
Iger wants credit for Disney's comeback.
By Chapek's account, Iger started the fire and then went quiet when the lawyers' bills came due.
Shareholders paid for all of it, and families who just wanted a vacation with their kids got dragged into a culture war they never asked for.
Two Bobs, one mess, and the only man in the story who read the situation correctly was the governor of Florida.
Sources:
- William Hughes, "Former Disney CEOs Bob Chapek and Bob Iger are going after each other again," The A.V. Club, September 24, 2026.
- Variety, "12 Takeaways From Ousted Disney CEO Bob Chapek's New Book," Variety, September 2026.
- Simon & Schuster, "Behind the Castle Walls," Simon & Schuster, 2026.
- Thomas Phippen, "Former Disney CEO privately complained to DeSantis about 'pressure' from woke left amid Florida fight: book," Fox News, February 27, 2023.
- Eric Revell, "Disney, Florida Gov. DeSantis-backed board reach settlement in lawsuit," Fox Business, March 27, 2024.
- Associated Press, "Anti-Eisner Votes Total 43 Percent of Disney Shareholders," Fox News, March 3, 2004.
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