Nine boss David Gyngell breaks silence on James Packer punch-up

NINE CEO David Gyngell has spoken for the first time about his public punch-up with best mate James Packer, revealing he felt “ashamed” for triggering the blue.

NINE CEO David Gyngell has spoken for the first time about his public punch-up with best mate James Packer, revealing how his wife Leila called him “an idiot”.

In a candid interview with 2GB host Ray Hadley, Gyngell said he felt “ashamed” and “peeved” at himself for triggering the blue, although joked the pair’s families were less forgiving about how the media moguls had looked.

He also revealed how Packer sent him a note before Christmas, asking if he should be worried about being “attacked by a homeless bloke” when he flew home to Bondi.

“Coming home to my wife, she said: ‘What happened? You’ve done what?’ And then she said: ‘You idiot,” he said.

RE-LIVE PACKER AND GYNGELL’S VICIOUS STREET BRAWL

Gyngell’s says wife Leila McKinnon called him an “idiot” after hearing about the brawl.

“And then she sees the photos and was more upset of how badly dressed I was and how I hadn’t had a shave.

“I hadn’t shaved because I’d been away and (James) had just had flown in from a trip so he was in his tracky-dacks.”

The dust-up, which is believed to have occurred over Packer’s friendship with model Miranda Kerr soon after his split from wife Eric Baxter, captured global attention with each being fined $500.

David Gyngell breaks his silence on his punch-up with James Packer.

Gyngell said he accepted full responsibility for the fight, which occurred outside Packer’s Campbell Parade Bondi pad early last year.

While it was not the first fight he had had with his childhood friend of 40-years, it was the “biggest”, he said.

However, the pair made up almost immediately afterwards, he said.

“Oh yeah, we restored it pretty well straight away,” he said of their friendship.

“When someone’s more like your brother than a friend, these things happen. After 40 years, you’re pretty good at knowing how to push each other’s buttons. On that day, my buttons were pushed and I made the mistake and I have taken responsibility for it.

“We’ve had blues in the past — not as good as that one — at tennis camp, at pony club camp, and those sorts of things when we were 7 and 8, 9, 12, and 13. I don’t look at him the same way other people look at him. When it comes to friendship, being like a brother, I’m a little bit older than him and maybe I get on my high-horse sometimes when I shouldn’t.”

He said the pair still made light of the situation.

Just before Christmas, Gyngell said he received a note from the Crown Casino boss, warning him of his homecoming.

“He sent me a note saying: ‘I’m on my way home for Christmas — a homeless bloke is not going to attack me out the front of my house’.”

“We’re bad fighters. I put him in more of a precarious situation, which I shouldn’t have done being the person he is and the responsibilities and the governance issues he has.

“I was peeved at myself for doing that. I went down to hit him. He didn’t come down to my place to punch me, I went down to his place so it’s very difficult to say we were equally to blame, because actually there have been times when we have been equally to blame but on that one it was me.”