A Sydney court heard details of how Channel Seven’s Andrew O’Keefe, 49, slapped, kicked and spat on his girlfriend of Dr Orly Lavee on Friday – as he walked free on mental health grounds
Former Channel Seven game show host Andrew O’Keefe slapped, kicked and spat on his doctor girlfriend in a row over an ice pipe she claimed he was carrying at a party.
The ex-Deal or No Deal host, 49, appeared before Sydney’s Waverley Local Court on Friday, charged with three counts of assaulting his ex-lover of two years, Dr Orly Lavee.
Two of the charges, which occurred at their home in Randwick on January 30, were dismissed on mental health grounds, with the court hearing extensive evidence of O’Keefe’s bipolar and substance abuse disorders.
Prosecutors withdrew a third charge, relating to an alleged assault at Kangaroo Valley that same month.
The court heard extensive detail of how O’Keefe had admitted assaulted Dr Lavee at their home after the couple attended a birthday party in Surry Hills.
Dr Lavee, a respected hospital haemotologist, placed her hand in O’Keefe’s pocket and accused him of carrying an ice pipe, which he denied.
She didn’t believe him, sparking a row which only escalated further when they arrived home.
The court heard that during an argument on January 30, Dr Orly Lavee told O’Keefe ‘the relationship meant nothing to me’. He replied ‘that’s a real spit in the face’, before spitting in her face. The former Deal or No Deal host is pictured above with a lawyer at court on Friday
O’Keefe suggested he leave the house for the night and Dr Lavee replied ‘he should go and never come back’, the court heard.
O’Keefe then asked Dr Lavee to get him an Uber as he didn’t have enough money. She said he could walk home.
The TV personality replied: ‘You are cruel and heartless.’
Dr Lavee yelled back: ‘Get out, I hate you.’
O’Keefe then threw a small pillow at Dr Lavee and a scuffle began, with their heads clashing. O’Keefe held his lover by the shoulders.
‘I think it’s over,’ he said.
She replied: ‘The relationship meant nothing to me’.
‘That’s a real spit in the face,’ he said, before spitting in her face.
Dr Lavee pushed him in the face and ripped the buttons off his shirt, the court heard. O’Keefe then left the house to have a cigarette.
Meanwhile, the court heard Dr Lavee went through his phone, searching for evidence of extramarital affairs and drug abuse.
He later returned and the scuffle re-commenced – with O’Keefe pushing her into a bookcase and grabbing her by the breast, the court heard.
She warned him she would tell the media about his extramarital affairs and drug use, the court heard.
O’Keefe called her a ‘lying c*** and a stupid cow’.
He kicked her in the buttocks at one point and pushed her against the carpet floor, before finding she had hidden his phone in a cupboard.
O’Keefe then left the house for good.
O’Keefe admitted to slapping, kicking and spitting on Dr Lavee in a later interview with police and was involuntarily committed to hospital as a psychiatric patient.
She suffered a cut to her lip and an abrasion to her back.
Magistrate Ross Hudson found O’Keefe had been in a ‘hyper-manic’ bipolar state at the time of the offending.
He has had dozens of psychological and psychiatric appointments and weeks-long stays receiving mental health treatment.
The court heard O’Keefe’s family had an extensive history of mood disorders – with his rockstar uncle Johnny O’Keefe spending two months of almost every year at the Ryde Psychiatric hospital.
A further assault charge, related to an alleged incident in Kangaroo Valley, was dropped, and an apprehended violence order between the pair continued.
When Daily Mail Australia asked O’Keefe outside court if his television career was over, he said: ‘I’m not sure if I’m over or if TV’s over.’