AFL icon Rex Hunt opens up on mental health battle

AFL icon Rex Hunt has opened up on his ongoing mental health battle after a late-night health scare earlier this year.

Rex Hunt as ring announcer at Melbourne Pavilion. Pic: Michelle Winters

AFL icon Rex Hunt has broken his silence after a late-night health scare earlier this year, revealing he suffers from bipolar depression.

In January, 74-year-old Hunt was driving along the Princes Highway to Geelong around 2am when he pulled to the side of the road near Avalon Airport and called police for assistance.

Speaking on Sam Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious podcast, Hunt said the incident saw him placed in mental health care for seven weeks.

“Life will never ever be the same,” Hunt said.

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“Mental illness is a nasty word for some, but until it happens to you, I had no idea the ups and downs your mind goes through when you are suffering what I am suffering (from),”

Hunt said his mental health started to decline seven years ago after he became hooked on pain killing opioids following surgery for a debilitating neck injury.

“I overdosed on opioids and went downhill very, very quickly,” he said.

“I am completely off opioids (now). I am certainly on a couple of medications from my psychiatrist to try and level out my brain, but it is a big thing. It is a big thing in your life and it is a big thing to talk about.

Rex Hunt has opened up on his mental health diagnosis. Pic: Michelle Winters

“If I can help somebody to understand that you can be what is normal, or quite normal in your particular mind, and the next moment you are in a straight jacket down in a facility.

“It is a chemical imbalance in the brain and I have been diagnosed with bipolar depression, high highs and low lows.”

Hunt won two VFL premierships as a player for Richmond before carving out a long career as a commentator, where he became fan favourite for his unique turn of phrase.

He is also an accomplished fisherman.

Hunt said he was diagnosed with bipolar depression six years ago after a “meltdown” that saw him admitted to a mental health clinic in country Victoria for six weeks.

He explained: “One night after Footy Nightline (on 3AW) I just had a meltdown and drove down to Phillip Island and started to ring everybody including Eddie (McGuire) and you, (Sam Newman), and was feeling sorry for myself and that is when I found myself for six weeks in the facility in Traralgon.”

Hunt said his family had grown apart in recent times and he wasn’t close to his adult children at the moment.

“I hold myself totally responsible for what has happened, but it is a very private thing between Lynne (his wife) and I, but we are working on it,” he told the podcast.

“My children certainly aren’t (close). The whole family has busted up, simple as that, it is very, very sad, but things happen,” he said.

Rex Hunt is an AFL icon. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“I am in a very difficult place at the moment because it is difficult to try and get everyone together when you are trying to get yourself together.”

Fans held grave fears for Hunt after he called police in the early hours of January 17 after pulling over on the Princes Freeway near Little River.

Fans feared for Hunt after he called the police in the early hours of January 17 in a frantic state, asking for help and claiming he had been attacked by thugs and threatened with a knife and a gun.

“The police came down and they made a recommendation that I be actually locked up because it was a figment of my imagination,” said Hunt, who maintains he did not make anything up.

“I was taken to Geelong psychiatric hospital.

“I may not ever get over my mental illness, but the thing about it is I am trying to control it.

“I spent the next seven weeks in the Victoria Clinic in Prahran in my own room on some special medication and then I was discharged a few weeks ago.”

Hunt said he was grateful for the support of his friends during his health struggles and said he was taking life “one day at a time”.

Hunt is a AFL commentary cult hero.

“For this to be, is up to me,” he told Newman.

“I just have to work it through and take every day as it comes.

“My mind is OK, I am thinking pretty good, I am looking forward to going fishing if I can get my shoulder fixed.”

Hunt has continued to make headlines in recent years following his retirement.

He became embroiled in a high-profile public slanging match after making a Facebook rant calling for Wayne Carey to replace AFLW champion Daisy Pearce on Channel 7’s live football coverage.

Most recently he was also caught on camera appearing to wield a garden fork in a disturbing road rage incident in Victoria in July.

Hunt in December, 2021, also reportedly confronted and thwarted a would-be thief when a reporter’s laptop bag was snatched during an exhibition boxing match in Melbourne.

Originally published as AFL icon Rex Hunt opens up on mental health battle