A thought popped into footy great Sam Newman’s head that his wife might be dead.
It was Saturday afternoon and he was enjoying a feed with mates at his favourite fish and chip shop.
On the outside, it must have sounded like a joke.
But by then, Newman was already worried that something was seriously wrong.
Sam Newman had a feeling something was not right when his wife Amanda Brown didn’t return his text messages (pictured leaving his Melbourne home for the first time since her death)
Sam Newman and Amanda Brown had been together for 20 years before they were married last year (pictured, the couple enjoying a camel ride together on sunny holiday)
Taking to his popular podcast You Cannot Be Serious on Wednesday, Newman detailed the tragic final moments of his wife Amanda Brown’s life.
He had found the 50-year old unresponsive on the floor of their inner city apartment just hours after his premonition.
‘We get down to where we were going, Kippers in Werribee, and I tried to ring her,’ Newman said.
‘I’d rang her six times.
‘We got down there and we were sitting around eating the fish and chips and I said “I wonder where Amanda is?”
Sam Newman’s wife Amanda Brown (pictured on their wedding day on November 27) was found dead in their Docklands apartment aged 50
A gutted Sam Newman gets about town on Tuesday. He would pour his heart out a day later on his podcast
‘We were joking about she might be out at a venue, or at the pub or out with the girls, or doing something and I said, “She is probably lying dead up in the flat.”
‘Just as you know, as an aside. They said, “oh she could have been in an accident”.’
‘So I get home and I walk in the door and the television is on in the bedroom and so I look down there and she is lying there on the tiles outside the laundry.
‘As soon as I saw her I knew she was dead.’
Newman called triple-0.
On Tuesday, Newman stepped out in public for the first time since the tragedy.
He was spotted carrying a bunch of flowers after leaving his home in Melbourne.
Sam Newman’s wife Amanda Brown (left) was found dead in their Docklands apartment aged 50. She had enjoyed a wonderful day out on Port Phillip Bay with Newman in 2019 (pictured)
Newman has received an outpouring of support since news his wife had died on Saturday broke (pictured in Melbourne on Tuesday)
Sam Newman (right) with good mate Don Scott (left) and Mike Sheahan (centre)- who are supporting him after Ms Brown’s sudden death
On Wednesday, Newman spoke at length about his heartache at losing his partner of almost 20 years.
‘I get home and I walk in the door and the television’s on in the bedroom. So I look down there and lying in her underwear — she’d obviously been in bed or she got out of bed to get something to eat,’ Newman said.
‘She’s lying there on the tiles outside the laundry and as soon as I saw her I knew she was dead, I just knew it.
‘I rang 000 and the very helpful person said you better try and give CPR and she talked me through that.
‘I’ve got the phone on speaker and I’m pumping this poor woman who’s lying there looking so peaceful, obviously dead, but the operator said keep doing it in case there’s a spark of life in her, I think she said.
‘So for 20 minutes I’m giving CPR to what I knew was a corpse.’
Sam Newman gets about Port Melbourne, just out of the CBD, on Tuesday – the first time he was seen since her death
Amanda Brown (centre) with mates in happier times on Sam Newman’s boat
Detailing the heartbreaking days since his beloved wife died, Newman explained how he unexpectedly crawled into her side of the bed in an effort to be close to her.
‘When I got home after the coroner and the police had been and the ambulance, I got into bed,’ he said.
‘Now here’s the interesting thing … I sleep on the left-hand side of the bed and my partner Amanda sleeps on the right-hand side.
‘And when I got in after the ambulance had been and the police and the coroner, I didn’t think about this, I just instinctively got into her side of the bed. I was lying there for about half an hour and I thought, “What am I doing on this side of the bed?”
‘I tried to go to sleep. The coroner left at about one in the morning and at about half-past two I thought I’d have a crack at going to sleep, and of course I couldn’t.’
An emotional Newman said he wanted to speak about losing his wife, whom he married last November after a 20-year relationship, but was unsure if they would ever actually air the podcast.
‘I want to do this,’ he said.
Newman (pictured on Tuesday) has received an outpouring of love and support from the footy community
‘I’ve had a pretty tough week so before I start, I don’t want anyone listening to this to feel sorry for me.’
A humble Newman said there were plenty of other people within the community who had suffered greater adversity than him.
‘I’m not singling myself out for sympathy or anything like that,’ he said.
Speaking to great mate and former AFL legend Don Scott, Newman said he had been overwhelmed by the support he had received over the past few days.
‘I’ve had people reach out to me, you wouldn’t believe the people who’ve reached out to me who’ve suffered similar episodes in their life,’ he said.
‘There’ll be a significant amount of people that don’t have sympathy for me and that’s fine too.
‘They’ll say I got what I deserved and good luck and good riddance and all that, and I understand that and I don’t mind if you have that opinion of me and what happened to me. That’s fine because I’m a polarising influence I suppose.’
Melissa Huynh and friend Amanda Brown spent good times together (pictured)