‘Do you know how hard this is for us?’: The people standing by fallen TV host Andrew O’Keefe

As the former television star struggles with chronic addiction, a devoted core of six people in his life are behind a plan to pull him from the depths of despair.

Who are the people supporting Andrew O’Keefe? Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

EXCLUSIVE

Andrew O’Keefe is a celebrity at rock bottom and although he is desperately lonely, he is not alone.

Days after another arrest and a harrowing near death overdose, a core contingency of family and friends have rallied to his aid pledging to “not give up” on a mission to bring back the fallen game show host from the depths of despair.

As the former television star struggles with chronic addiction, with a judge last week exclaiming “God help him… it’s shame he doesn’t have an epiphany” when he appeared in court - two days after he was revived from a drugs overdose - there is a strong and constant support from a devoted six in his life: his ailing and devoted mother Janet, who calls him most days, his loyal sisters Vanessa and Sophie, brothers Philip and Roger and devout Pastor Ross Pene.

Fallen TV presenter Andrew O’Keefe suffered a near death drugs overdose last Saturday propelling his family and devout pastor friend to rally to his support. Picture: Tim Hunter

“Every time his mother hears he is in trouble, she gets deeply upset, she is his biggest champion, she won’t give up on him – we are all there for him as much as he’ll let us,” a relative said.

“Janja (Janet) calls him regularly. She believes he can still pull himself out of this,” she added.

O’Keefe, 52, has become a man intent on his own destruction since the collapse of his marriage to wife Eleanor Campbell in 2014, slipping deep into a downward spiral of ice and heroin addiction and court cases hearing accounts of violent bouts of domestic violence.

Former Channel Seven TV personality Andrew O'Keefe , pictured with his sister Vanessa (left) after failing a drug test in July. Picture: Richard Dobson

His life almost ended in a drug overdose when he was with a female friend at a unit in Vaucluse in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs during the early hours of last Saturday.

Paramedics alerted by a neighbour who had logged a ‘concern for welfare’ report revived the father-of-three at the scene.

“He was actually dead and had to be revived,” a police source said.

His sister Vanessa, who has accompanied O’Keefe to many of his court cases and is among a tight circle of six family members and friends who have vowed to stand by the former star, is beside herself with worry.

“Do you know how hard it is for us having to go through this?” she said from her home in Bondi.

“It is so hard for us to have to watch this.”

Andrew O'Keefe has slipped down a spiral of drugs and alcohol abuse that became evident three days after his father judge Barry O’Keefe died in 2014. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Vanessa, her mother, who is in her 80s, her sister Sophie, brothers Philip and Roger and Pastor Ross Pene, - who guided O’Keefe for six months at his rehab camp Connect Global in Port Stephens in the Hunter Region two years ago, - are too familiar with the demons of the extroverted funnyman.

The first public sign of O’Keefe’s inner turmoil emerged three days after his father Barry O’Keefe, a knight and judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, died, aged 80, on April 25, 2014. O’Keefe, a former lawyer himself, had embarked on a drug-infested pub crawl around Melbourne after the TV Week Logie Awards at Crown casino.

That year his marriage to the mother of his three children was disintegrating.

He was at the helm of his career earning more than $800,000 a year for his double roles fronting Seven’s The Chase Australia and the Weekend Sunrise breakfast news program “but just couldn’t hold it together,” a source close to the family said.

O’Keefe himself alluded to his drug use in an interview on Sunrise five years ago when he referenced “things that aren’t so great for us”.

“Sometimes people turn to work and they work their way through their pain, or turn to drugs, or turn to alcohol or drugs, or eating or whatever,” he said with winning self-deprecation that was the defining character of the Seven game show presenter.

O’Keefe has struggled to take back control of his life and raised eyebrows while fronting Sunrise in 2017 - the year his divorce was finalised – when he reported in slurred speech Bali drug smuggler Schapelle Corby’s return to Australia.

Shortly after he announced he was stepping away from Weekend Sunrise after 12 years to spend time with his family. Quietly they had already divorced. The same year he was anointed a Member of the Order of Australia.

Images of O’Keefe caught in intimate clinches with young women were subsequently leaked to Woman’s Day magazine while he was reported to have been partying for 48 hours.

That same year March 2019, he pleaded guilty to driving his ex-wife’s unregistered convertible around Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The emotional toll of partying in the wake of his marriage break-up appeared to take a firm grip of the presenter and in April 2019 the Chase Australia funded a two month hiatus at a mental health facility.

O’Keefe, who suffers from bipolar and substance abuse disorders, later told Sunrise: “Everyone hits a part of their life where they really question what it’s all about and who they really are, whether what they have done for the last four or five years means anything.”

“And I think, when I split up from my wife, that was my time. And the thing I always believed in most of all in this life was the power of love and combining with someone to make something special, and when I lost that, I thought well, it was all meaningless,” he said.

In January 2021, O’Keefe’s life hit the skids when The Chase Australia sacked him amid allegations he had slapped, kicked and spat on his then girlfriend doctor in a physical argument over an alleged ice pipe he was carrying at a party.

Two of the charges were dropped on the grounds of mental health. A third assault allegation, relating to an incident at Kangaroo Valley, was withdrawn by prosecutors.

Since then, O’Keefe has made frequent appearances in court docks, and spent months at a time in rehab centres.

“Addiction seems to be the winner, which is just so sad,” a former colleague at Seven said.

“People were (supporting him), even his ex, but the ice has won out. He was never violent or disrespectful to women ever at work in mv experience of him - it seems to be an ice thing.”

Sydney psychologist Dianna Kenny said big personalities like O’Keefe often adopt the opposite persona of who they really are.

“If they’re a depressive they tell jokes to hide their vulnerably and the pressure to play the clown builds when they’re in the limelight as they believe it’s the only way they’ll be accepted,” she said.

“When that pressure becomes overwhelming when they can’t keep up the act, they can turn to drugs and alcohol and become a joke to themselves playing a role to maintain the facade.”

Last Saturday O’Keefe, who lives in a unit in Vaucluse, overdosed on heroin at an eastern Sydney apartment on Old South Head Road.

After being released from St Vincent’s Hospital, he was arrested and charged with drug possession and breach of bail and is expected back in court on October 10.

Pastor Pene, who created and manages rehab facility Connect Global where O’Keefe spent six months getting a handle on his demons after his fight with his ex girlfriend keeps in contact with the presenter.

“Andrew can nail this, he just needs a bit more support,” he said.

“I haven’t given up on him, his mother, sisters and brothers haven’t either – we’re part of that inner circle.

“His mother came every Sunday for lunch when Andrew was here, she’s his biggest ally.

“He loved nature and spent time in the paddock feeding horses when he was here.”

In a direct message to O’Keefe, he added: “We’re here for you with open arms. The people you can trust – your family, and me, we won’t walk away from you.”