Annette Sharp: Fresh out of hospital, John Singleton living with new girlfriend

Larrikin businessman John Singleton has dismissed reports he is at death’s door, despite heading to hospital after flying home from Hawaii, where he was holed up with “a couple” of girlfriends.

Larrikin businessman John Singleton has scotched reports he is at death’s door following a cardiac episode that saw him hospitalised this month.

Released from St Vincent’s Hospital on Thursday — two weeks after flying home from Hawaii where he’s been holed up for three months with “a couple” of girlfriends — a frail-sounding Singleton confirmed that despite his health issues, he has begun a new relationship with a woman almost half his age.

John Singleton with longtime on/off girlfriend Venessa Merrin, in 2016. Picture: Tim Marsden

“As far as I know I’m not dead,” Singleton said on Saturday from his Mt White property.

The advertising legend flew home from Oahu, Hawaii — the location of his newly refurbed beachside retreat — the day before his 80th birthday, on November 8.

Within a week he was in hospital.

Singleton confirmed this, saying he has a “50-year problem” with his heart: “That’s been my problem. I’ve had it for years. I just need a bit of maintenance from time to time.”

He wouldn’t be drawn on a report published here in August about bunkering down in Hawaii with two — sources this week contradicted that figure, suggesting it may have been three — lady friends.

The six-times married and divorced “Singo” was accompanied on the trip to Hawaii with his favourite and apparently indispensable decorator – former model Michelle Leslie, the ex-partner of Daniel Johns and former Balinese party girl for whom he insists the beach house “Shells” has not been named.

Decorator and former model Michelle Leslie.

Former 2GB sales rep Kim Dennis.

Also believed to have visited was his longtime on/off girlfriend Venessa Merrin, who it now emerges may have touched down only fleetingly after discovering, perhaps belatedly, that Singleton had yet another hen in the henhouse.

That woman, it emerged last week, is former 2GB radio sales rep Kim Dennis, the woman caught up in the breakdown of radio star Steve Price’s marriage to Wendy Black, former press secretary of Joe Hockey, two years ago.

Price could note reached on Saturday to confirm when his relationship with Dennis — a mother of two sons, Led and James — broke down.

This writer understands Dennis, who Singleton is calling his “carer”, and the former media boss have been keeping company for about 12 months.

Singleton said he had known 43-year-old Dennis for years and had at one time — likely in the 1970s or ’80s — encountered her father, a bull rider whose Christian name he couldn’t recall, at Australian rodeos.

In a former life, Singleton sponsored World Rodeo Championships in this country, and once owned a circus with radio star John Laws — one of both men’s least successful get-rich ventures.

“Kim was at 2GB for years, but they let her go last year with the redundancies,” Singleton said of the one-time 2UE and DMG Radio account manager who left Nine Radio in December. Since August she has been on the books at American skincare company Liberty Belle Rx.

Singleton declined to pass the phone to Dennis, who has been living with him at Mt White, so this column was unable to probe her regarding rumours she’s in a hurry to marry rich-lister Singleton, whose net worth is put at $711 million.

Meanwhile, buoyed by his horse Too Much Lippy’s win at Wyong on Thursday, Singleton told The Sunday Telegraph he was glad to be home.

“I had to do a minimum of three months in Hawaii — that’s how the visas work — and my retreat there is beautiful but I was ready to come home.”

Got a news or entertainment tip? Email [e-mail]