Inside the private pain haunting Packer
Despite what the cynics might say, James Packer was not seeking sympathy in dropping yesterday’s bombshell.
It seems entirely fitting that James Packer chose to make the gutsiest call of his life at one of the places in the world where he feels safest, his polo ranch in Argentina.
Ellerstina, with its lonely tree-lined lanes, locked gates and armed security guards an hour’s drive from Buenos Aires, was the place he chose last October to let the world see for the first time something of the private pain he has battled for decades. When I visited him there for an article for The Weekend Australian Magazine, I was struck by how remarkably open and frank he was about what he termed the terrors of the previous two years.
The break-up with pop star Mariah Carey, the bitter division of his father’s estate with his sister, being drawn into a political corruption investigation by the Israeli authorities and the shock arrest of his casino company’s staff in China, which led to the abandonment of its global dreams, had combined to send him into a spiral of depression and anxiety.
Peering through the constant puffs of cigarette smoke, I could see the pain in his eyes.
There was anger, sorrow and regret. But also thanks that he was still alive, had a mother who loved him, that he remained best friends with his two ex-wives Erica and Jodhi and most importantly, was a father to three children.
It was telling how his demeanour changed as our discussions were interrupted several times by their FaceTime calls to their father from their home in Los Angeles. Suddenly he was a dad. For precious moments, the burden of being a billionaire and son of one of the toughest fathers of them all was lifted.
The great weight of expectation was gone. And unlike the hundreds of hangers-on over the decades that had asked for and been given plenty but delivered little in return, his children gave and continued to give him something money could not buy: unconditional love.
Despite what the cynics might say, Packer was not seeking sympathy in dropping yesterday’s bombshell. Nor offering justification for his mistakes. To him, coming clean about his battle with mental health issues was about telling a truth; giving a context to his life that has been missing for decades.
It was a truth so many close to him had so often wondered about but of which they dared not speak. A truth that was there for the world to see in the nervous breakdowns he suffered following the collapse in 2001 of telecommunications company One.Tel. And following the global financial crisis when he lost more than $1 billion on bad casino bets in the US.
But the world was different then. To have talked publicly about his private demons would have looked like a cop-out — an excuse for bad behaviour. Or, as his father once called One.Tel: “f..k-ups”.
Yesterday’s news might still be viewed as such by the cynics. Enemies might now have a licence to tell their war stories, of the time Packer threatened or bullied them or appeared outrageously unreasonable.
But today mental health issues are viewed by society through a different prism: one of compassion and respect. Friends hope yesterday’s revelation will put Packer back on the path to happiness. And the honesty of someone of the billionaire’s stature now might inspire many others to follow his lead and be upfront about their challenges.
Damon Kitney is writing a biography of James Packer with Harper Collins.
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