Sam Newman shares heartache over Shane Warne death and wife’s anniversary

Sam Newman has revealed how his wife’s death and the passing of his mate Shane Warne knocked him around, saying the tragic events have “changed him markedly”.

Sam Newman has spoken of how the tragic deaths of his wife Amanda and close friend Shane Warne have changed him.

As the anniversary of his wife’s passing approaches on May 1, Newman says he’s become a more emotional person.

“It changed me markedly,’’ Newman said in a chat with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.

“I became more circumspect and a lot more emotional about people I know and tragedies that beset them or befall them.

“It affected me those two deaths that I experienced. And dear Amanda, it’s coming up Sunday the anniversary of her death and that really knocked me around.”

Newman found his wife collapsed on the floor inside the couple’s Docklands apartment and she couldn’t be saved.

Sam Newman found his wife, Amanda Brown, collapsed on the floor of their apartment, she could not be saved.

They had married in November 2020 and had been together for nearly two decades before she suddenly passed.

Cricket legend Warne died suddenly from a heart attack on March 4.

“It’s really affected me and it’s taken me quite a while to be able to speak about it,’’ he said of Amanda.

“It did affect my outlook on life and my attitude to people who are doing it tough. I’m not that emotional a person but this made me far more emotional.

“Shane’s death and Amanda’s death made me readdress or reassess how I do things.

“I think about both those people actually almost on a daily basis for a whole lot of different reasons.”

Sam Newman and Shane Warne attend Twilight Beach Polo in St Kilda weeks before Warne’s death. Picture: Sam Tabone

Newman, 76, says he gets great joy from his four granddaughters who call him “Pops”.

“That’s another good thing, that’s the great joy I have,’’ he said.

“Little granddaughters and my second eldest son is having another daughter and it’s another girl. So I’ll have five granddaughters and they are beautiful little girls.

“I think I could safely say they love me because you get the feeling they do and they’re beautiful girls and that’s given me a whole new perspective in life.

“I’ve had three sons myself so I haven’t had much to do with having females in my family expect my sisters of course, so that has been a great joy to me.

“They call me Pops. It gives me great joy and I have a smile on my face when you have two year-old girls say ‘Pops come here, please’. It gives me great pleasure.”