Annette Sharp: Andrew O’Keefe supporters shocked over fresh DV allegations
New domestic assault allegations against TV star Andrew O’Keefe have shocked his supporters, who were confident he had been making inroads in his recovery, writes Annette Sharp.
Police & Courts
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New domestic assault allegations against embattled television star Andrew O’Keefe have shocked supporters of the former game show host who were confident O’Keefe had been making inroads in his recovery after spending much of the year in rehab.
While calls about O’Keefe’s wellbeing and whereabouts have gone unanswered by his longtime agent since the TV host was sensationally dropped from Channel 7’s roster in February, family and friends of the star have remained hopeful the enforced pandemic lockdown might aid his recovery.
Close sources last week spoke to this column of the family’s relief that the pandemic had deprived O’Keefe of the scene and company he might historically gravitate to during what has been described as one of O’Keefe’s “hypomanic” episodes.
Medical experts told a court in June that O’Keefe was prone to these episodes.
O’Keefe has previously said a type of mania ran through the men in his family, including his famous uncle, singer Johnny O’Keefe.
The court also heard O’Keefe has a substance abuse disorder, although the TV host denied having an ice pipe in his possession in January when the accusation was levelled at him by his former partner, Dr Orly Lavee.
While lockdown may have limited O’Keefe’s freedom to party and helped keep him focused on rehab, as friends insist, the events of last week would suggest it has done little to quell the hypomania that plagues the star.
For the second time this year O’Keefe faced a Sydney court following an alleged assault on a woman. The new allegations come eights months after the former White Ribbon ambassador was arrested on January 31 on domestic assault charges against his partner of two years, mother-of-two Dr Lavee.
The court dismissed two charges of assault against the star in relation to Dr Lavee, and a third was thrown out on mental health grounds.
Prior to his dishevelled appearance outside Surry Hills Police Station last Saturday, O’Keefe — a longtime favourite of the paparazzi — hadn’t been sighted in Sydney for months.
A month-long stint in Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital in February preceded months of outpatient treatment at Bronte’s renowned Sydney Clinic.
By March this writer was hearing O’Keefe — perhaps as a result of legal fees — had a cash flow problem, a fact which may have contributed to him offloading his humble two-bedroom Paddington flat for $731,000 in May.
Whether it also motivated the sale of his former North Bondi matrimonial home, occupied by ex-wife Eleanor and O’Keefe’s three children following the breakdown of the couple’s marriage years earlier, remains unclear.
The house sold in July for around $6 million.
Hopefully now unencumbered by debts and liquid, O’Keefe has in recent months been calling a rented apartment in Kent Street in Sydney’s CBD home.
Insiders say the location may have been dictated by the fact O’Keefe doesn’t drive or own a car.
Certainly it keeps him within a handy walk of the courtrooms and law firms that have become fixtures in the life of the prominent lawyer-turned-entertainer-turned-serial-offender.
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