EXCLUSIVE
Within moments of Andrew O’Keefe sliding onto the presenters’ couch for Weekend Sunrise’s biggest broadcast of the year, the show’s producers knew they had a problem.
There was something not quite right about the long-standing host.
At first, they were concerned about the odd way he was slouching and how he appeared somewhat dazed and confused.
Then he began to speak.
His words were slurred, his comments erratic and off-kilter – and then there were the strange outbursts of unprompted laughter.
It was Saturday, May 28, 2017 and the nation’s long-standing number one news breakfast program was covering the most highly anticipated event of the year.
Almost 12 years to the day since she was convicted of attempting to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into Bali, Schapelle Corby was returning to Australia.
Within moments of Andrew O’Keefe sliding onto presenters couch alongside ‘confused’ co-host Angela Cox, the show’s producers knew they had a problem
The nation’s No1 breakfast news program had spent months planning every second of its wall-to-wall coverage as convicted Bali drug smuggler Schapelle Corby returned to Australia
The program’s hard-working producers and crew had been plotting every moment of the network’s wall-to-wall coverage for months.
Now it looked like their efforts were about to be overshadowed by the strange behaviour of the show’s star presenter.
At one point during the broadcast, O’Keefe’s co-host Angela Cox admitted his random babbling was ‘confusing’ even her.
Later, he was caught blatantly checking his mobile phone during a live segment with a Weekend Sunrise reporter.
It wasn’t long before the Seven switchboard started lighting up with calls from concerned viewers: ‘Is AOK okay?’ ‘Is he having a stroke?’ ‘He looks “tired and emotional”‘ ‘Is he drunk on-air?’
Daily Mail Australia was the first outlet to notice the strange sideshow playing out from Seven’s landmark Martin Place studios in Sydney.
But within minutes of publishing a story about the star’s unusual antics a little after 8am, Seven’s army of spinners had swung into gear.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with O’Keefe, they insisted.
He was simply overwhelmed by Corby’s dramatic homecoming.
Behind the scenes, they knew better.
The high-profile star’s life was in free fall as he ‘self-medicated’ with drugs and alcohol.
Asked about O’Keefe’s troubling 2017 appearance this week, Seven insiders struggled to pinpoint the occasion.
Not because it was so trivial but because it had become so disturbingly common that year.
‘Slurring his words on-air in 2017? Which time?!’ one senior source replied when queried by Daily Mail Australia.
Concerned viewers were worried about O’Keefe’s unusual antics during the live broadcast
Seven’s army of spin doctors maintained O’Keefe was simply overwhelmed by Corby’s dramatic homecoming and hosed down suggestions he was ‘tired and emotional’ on air
While the network strived to save face publicly – and to protect O’Keefe from suggestions he was unravelling amid lurid industry-wide gossip about his wild partying – tensions were escalating on set.
Colleagues were increasingly concerned about his welfare and questionable life choices. Seven’s news bosses wanted him out.
By that December, O’Keefe announced the inevitable.
After clocking up a record-breaking 12-year run as Weekend Sunrise presenter, he was stepping down to spend more time with his ‘real family’ – social worker wife Eleanor Campbell and their three children, Barnaby, Rory and Olivia.
What he didn’t reveal was that the erratic behaviour that stymied his Sunrise career had also already destroyed his relationship with his now ex-wife.
By that stage, she had already left him, along with their children.
Although O’Keefe would stay on with Seven as the host of its hit weeknight game show The Chase Australia for three more years, his breakfast news days were over – and the countdown had begun on his time at the network.
As he spiralled wildly out of control, and lurched from scandal to scandal, it seemed nothing could now halt the terminal decline of one of the country’s most talented stars.
This week, he remains behind bars after almost dying in his humble eastern Sydney flat from a heroin overdose.
O’Keefe arrives at Rose Bay police station on Monday where he was charged with drug possession following a shocking heroin overdose at his eastern suburb flat at the weekend
Paramedics managed to revive the 52-year-old before rushing him to St Vincent’s Hospital in nearby Darlinghurst in the early hours of Saturday morning.
After being released, he was arrested and charged with drug possession and breach of bail.
The troubled entertainer was not present in court when his matter was heard on Tuesday and his lawyer did not apply for bail, meaning O’Keefe would be remanded in custody.
Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge’s message was blunt: ‘He’s lucky to be alive…if he wants to stay alive (staying in jail) is the best thing to do.
‘God help him, and it’s a shame he doesn’t have an epiphany.’
O’Keefe has plenty of time to consider his tragic trajectory over the next three weeks before returning to court once more on October 10.
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