James Packer’s former fiancee Tziporah Malkah discusses billionaire’s shock resignation

JAMES Packer’s ex-fiancee Tziporah Malkah, formerly known as Kate Fischer, has opened up about the billionaire’s shock resignation.

FORMER model and actress Tziporah Malkah has discussed her ex-fiance James Packer’s decision to resign as a director of Crown Resorts due to “personal reasons”.

“Mr Packer is suffering from mental health issues,” a spokesman for his private investment company Consolidated Press Holdings announced on Wednesday. “At this time he intends to step back from all commitments.”

Malkah, 43, formerly known as Kate Fischer, was in her early 20s when she dated the billionaire Crown Resorts boss for five years until 1998.

James Packer with Kate Fischer in the 90s.

She praised Packer’s decision to resign on Sunrise this morning, telling hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch that her ex had battled mental health issues for many years.

“There were times that he would come home from work and be very withdrawn and very uncommunicative,” Malkah said.

“I was only 23, being so young and not understanding the business world ... particularly such a big business that the Packers run ... but he would really go into his shell and not be communicative, sometimes for days at a time.

#EXCLUSIVE: "It's a good thing he's given the reason he's stepping back because of the stigma around mental health issues"

Tziporah Malkah on James Packer's shock resignation. pic.twitter.com/dh7XTsilpR

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) March 21, 2018

“When I heard the news I was so shocked for James to step away from his business ... the man I knew then, his business was the love of his life and he was never going to give up the business. I thought for a man who is so passionate he must be really really suffering.

“I thought back to the times where we were in our 20s. We were fabulous and glamorous and living the life and back then in the 90s people didn’t really talk much about mental illness not like we do today.”

James Packer pictured in October 2017. Picture: Mal Fairclough/AFP

She applauded Packer for choosing to go public about an issue that still holds a lot of stigma.

“I think it’s very important that we keep the discussion about mental health open and I just wanted to come out to be able to say it could happen to anybody. I also have my own mental health issues,” she said.

“It can happen to anybody. You can treat mental illness in the same way [as physical illness] and you can recovery from it or at least get it to a manageable position so that it doesn’t affect your life as badly if you’re not treated for it. Admitting it or coming to terms with it is one of the important things.”

Tziporah Malkah pictured outside a South Australian court in February 2018. Picture: Dylan Coker

This isn’t the first time Malkah has opened up about her famous ex.

Malkah has previously shared details of her relationship with Packer, explaining how the stress of his job was the reason they split.

“It was just talking about the time that we needed to spend together and he just said, ‘My job’s too stressful and if I need to go off and do whatever I want I need to be able to do that,’ and I said, ‘That’s not the sort of marriage that I want.’ It was sort of mutual in a way,” she told KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O in 2016 of their split.

James Packer with Kate Fischer at a party in March 1997.

She said the best part of their relationship was when she got to spend time with a relaxed Packer, but added, “he’d very rarely relax because he has a highly stressful job.”

After they broke up, Malkah claims she took $500,000 of jewellery she had been given by Packer over the years and threw it into the ocean.

“I thought, ‘they come from the earth and back to the earth shall they go,’ so I chucked them all in the ocean. It was a powerful moment but now I’m like, oh crap.”

One of her fondest memories from their time together was when they went on a romantic holiday in Bali, but it came at a cost.

“The best time we ever spent was when I put my foot down,” she said.

“It was Easter time and all the mates were expecting the first class trip to Bali. And I just said, ‘No, no one’s coming, it’s just going to be the two of us.’ Of course they all hated me after that.”

James Packer with fiancee Kate Fischer at the 1998 Australian Grand Prix.

Malkah went on to blame Packer’s posse for ruining their relationship.

“I think he got under a lot of pressure from his mates,” she said.

“You think they didn’t like you?” Jackie O asked.

“Well no, because I was the one that was cutting off their good times,” Malkah replied.

Malkah also revealed the mind games she would play with Packer to patch things up after they’d had disagreements.

“Sometimes we’d fight on the telephone and he’d hang up, that is his pattern very much,” she said.

“He’d usually call back within a day but for about three days he didn’t call me and I started getting a bit worried. So I called him and I said, ‘Thanks for the flowers.’ And he said, ‘What flowers?’ And I said, ‘Oh you mean they weren’t from you.’ And he went, ‘haha very funny.’ And everything was normal but I had to kind of trick him and let him pretend that someone else was after me even though there were no flowers.”

More recently, Malkah was a contestant on last year’s season of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

Last December she was fined $1500 and banned from driving for 27 months after pleading guilty to refusing a breath test and crashing her car in Melbourne’s Toorak.

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