James Packer has revealed he is on self-proclaimed weight-loss wonder drug Ozempic – but is still gaining weight due to an ongoing secret addiction.
It comes as the former Crown Resorts magnate opened up to Channel Seven reporter Liam Bartlett about the real reasons for his string of failed relationships – and why he believes his ex-wives deserved better.
In a candid interview onboard the billionaire’s $300million superyacht off Tahiti for Seven Spotlight, the 57-year-old revealed he had been battling severe mental health issues for over three decades.
He said he suffered his first breakdown at the age of 33 after his upstart telco One.Tel collapsed in May 2001.
The failed enterprise had been his first attempt to step out of the shadow of his famous father, Kerry, but wound up drowning in $327million worth of debt.
The one-time Channel Nine heir said the venture also ended up costing him his short-lived marriage to former model first wife Jodhi Meares.
‘I had a breakdown in after One.Tel went broke,’ he told Bartlett. ‘I felt terrible.
‘It’s not only the money: my marriage broke down…it was on the front page of the papers every day…it felt like the biggest story.’
James Packer opens up in a candid interview on Channel Seven’s Spotlight program
Packer says he suffered his first breakdown after trying to step out of father Kerry’s shadow
The billionaire blames the One.Tel disaster for contributing to the breakdown of his marriage to former model first wife Jodhi Meares (pictured together in 2001)
When his father died a few years later in December 2005, the Nine Network’s new owner decided to get out of the media game and instead invest heavily in Crown.
The gamble – and debt that came with it – took an inextricable toll on Packer’s mental health as well as his marriage to second wife Erica Baxter, also a former model.
Packer said he became ‘self-destructive’, and was resorting to ‘substance abuse’ to help deal with his manic depression, before they split up in 2013.
‘I don’t want to go too much into that; I mean, I drank too much and did things I shouldn’t have done,’ he told Bartlett.
‘I can only advise people not to do that. I’m sure that played a role in some of my mental health challenges – no doubt.
‘I felt very guilty for my marriage to Erica not working.
‘She deserved better than I gave, and I became self-destructive.
‘Looking back, I definitely went into mania in 2013.
Packer says second wife Erica Baxter (right) deserved better than what he was able to offer her
‘When you’re in mania or, this is my truth anyway, when I’ve been in mania, I feel at my best and I’m probably at my most unreasonable.
‘And as I look back, that probably cost me my marriage with Erica.’
Despite the difficulties of those dark days, the former couple – who share three children, Jackson, Indigo and Emmanuelle Sheelah – remain close.
The same cannot be said for another of Packer’s famous former lovers – American pop star and one-time fiancée Mariah Carey.
The ultimately mismatched couple started dating in 2015, and announced their engagement to the world in January 2016, before breaking up amid much public animus that October.
Mariah Carey’s whirlwind romance with Packer ended almost as fast as it began
‘I was engaged to Mariah Carey for a while. And that same week it came out that Mariah and I had broken up, she thought I’d planted a story in a magazine about it, which I hadn’t, that made her look bad,’ Packer said.
‘And so she was threatening to say things about me, and so it was a train wreck.’
It was following his ugly bust-up with Carey that Packer decided to seek professional help in late 2016 and then, in 2017, gave up alcohol for good.
Then, when he suffered a disturbing ‘hallucination’ the following year, he decided it was time to quit more than just the bottle.
‘I had a hallucination and I was sober,’ he told Bartlett.
‘I thought the world was against me. I thought people were…I’m too embarrassed to even say what it was.
‘But when I had this hallucination, I resigned off all of my company boards.
‘I called my mother and said, “Mum, you’ve got to come and help me.”‘
The billionaire businessman says he quit all his board positions after a ‘sober hallucination’
Packer spent the next fortnight in McLean Hospital – one of the world’s leading psychiatric care facilities at Harvard University – where he was diagnosed as bipolar.
‘The drugs that they prescribed me, frankly, were maybe even worse than whatever I was suffering,’ he said.
‘The latest psychiatrist I’m with (has since) told me I was bipolar, told me I was OCD and told me I was PTSD. So told me I was all three.
‘But when I was just being told I was bipolar, my truth was that my doctors would do anything to make sure I wasn’t in mania – and as long as I wasn’t in mania, they were happy.’
He said that early focus on avoiding manic episodes led to a debilitating experience with medication.
‘I was put on lithium in 2022,’ he said. ‘And within two weeks I was a zombie. I was a complete zombie.’
Packer has remained close to ex-wife Erica, with whom he shares three children
Packer said he was in ‘a better place’ these days and on different medication – just don’t ask him what it is.
‘I’m on something and I’m really embarrassed (to say but) I have a nurse that travels with me,’ he told Bartlett.
‘I couldn’t tell you what I’m on because I’m on a bunch of things and someone does it for me.’
The one thing he knows for certain is that he is on Ozempic – the only problem is: it isn’t working.
‘I’m on it and I’m putting on weight,’ he said.
And while he insisted he was still off the booze, he feared he may have simply traded one addiction for another.
‘I’m eating a lot of sugar. I’m consuming a lot of sugar,’ Packer confessed.
‘It’s just truckloads of sugar, truckloads of sugar – biscuits, everything, all of that.’
Packer opened up during a candid interview with Liam Bartlett onboard his $300million yacht
Today the mogul tips the scales at about 130kg.
But he said it was a happy trade-off given his improved mental state – and that he was determined to work on his weight once his mental wellbeing was well in hand.
‘It’s one thing at a time. I think I’m mentally a lot better than I was six months ago,’ he told Bartlett.
‘I went into mania in 2022 and then, from 2022 until mid-23, I was on lithium.
‘So I lost the weight. But mentally I wasn’t great.
‘And since then, I’ve put the weight on, but I’ve been mentally better.
‘For me it’s a journey. You’re not interviewing someone who’s saying to you, “I’ve got it worked out and I’ve got all the answers.”
‘I’m here saying, “I’m not that person (but) I’m doing my best.”‘
For free mental health support call Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14
For support with anxiety and depression call Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36
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