Derryn Hinch back on booze: Senator admits he’s drinking again
LATEST: DERRYN Hinch has engaged in a bitter spat with his ex-lover after revelations the confessed “professional alcoholic” is drinking again.
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DERRYN Hinch has engaged in a bitter spat with his ex-lover after revelations the confessed “professional alcoholic” is drinking again.
While the family of the liver donor who saved the shock jock-turned-politician’s life stood by the controversial figure today, his admission that he is again regularly consuming “watered-down” wine and light beer was slammed by transplant recipients and organ donor advocates.
Senator Hinch lashed out at his ex-partner, Natasha Chadwick, for spilling the beans about his habits on social media, saying he had received “bunny boiler treatment”.
“I was told: ‘I’ll get you’, and my ex-partner has got me. She got what she wanted to,” Senator Hinch said yesterday.
“I have had a drink; I drink watered-down wine. Last Christmas, I drank a glass of Grange, which I watered down, which will upset all the connoisseurs.”
Senator Hinch originally admitted to drinking diluted wine on only “special occasions” before conceding it was, in fact, a “couple of times a week”. “If I was back being a pisspot and drinking every day, that would be a disgrace,” Senator Hinch said.
“I cleared it with my surgeon, Bob Jones, and he said you can.”
But Ms Chadwick hit back at Senator Hinch’s behaviour, accusing him of underplaying his level of drinking.
“Let me say, he’s watering down his drinking more in the media than in his glass,” Ms Chadwick, who split from Senator Hinch earlier this week, told the Herald Sun.
Senator Hinch swore off the booze for life in 2011, after his six-bottle-a-day habit destroyed his liver. He received a transplant after 27-year-old Heath Gardner died.
Heath’s sister, Kimberley, said alcoholism was a “tough addiction to kick”.
The family had no regrets about Senator Hinch’s receiving Heath’s liver, she said.
But Allan Turner, chief of Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation, which promotes awareness of organ and tissue donation, said Senator Hinch’s behaviour would make some question who would receive their organ.
“He’s let a lot of people — including himself — down and done the whole sector a disservice,” Mr Turner said.
Monique Bibby, whose daughter, 2, received a new liver this year, said it was disrespectful to donor families and those waiting for an organ: “You’ve got a gift of life. You just don’t jeopardise that.”
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