Former Channel 9 boss David Gyngell suffers heart attack in Byron Bay

Former Channel 9 CEO David Gyngell says he could have died after suffering a heart attack in Byron Bay.

David Gyngell and wife Leila McKinnon.

Former Channel 9 CEO David Gyngell is recovering after suffering a heart attack on a beach in Byron Bay where he was training with Australian tennis legend Pat Rafter.

Gyngell, the son of the late television legend Bruce Gyngell, said he experienced chest pain and shortness of breath while he was at the beach – but that did not stop him from having breakfast with “the boys.”

It was not until he returned home that his wife, Channel 9 presenter Leila McKinnon, suggested he see a doctor.

Gyngell was rushed into surgery at the John Flynn hospital on the Gold Coast where he had stents put into his heart after ECG tests revealed he had suffered a heart attack.

When The Australian spoke to a close friend of Gyngell it was confirmed the father of two was “happy and healthy”.

Gyngell said he would not have survived if exercising was not such a huge part of his life.

“I’m OK now but it could have been a lot worse,” the 54-year-old told The Daily Telegraph.

“I was training like I do most days. Then I felt tired and a bit weird.”

He was discharged from hospital on Saturday and plans to “take it easy” while he takes medication to manage his cholesterol. Gyngell has a family history of high cholesterol.

After he resigned as CEO of Nine Network in 2015, Hugh Mark took the reins. Gyngell is now semi-retired and lives on the far north coast of NSW, having sold his beer business in a $200 million deal with Carlton and United Breweries last year.

Former tennis world No. 1 Pat Rafter.

He and McKinnon married in 2004 and share two children together, aged five and six.

In 2014, Gyngell made headlines after he was involved in a public brawl with James Packer at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Gyngell took full responsibility for the punch-up with his long-time friend, saying “he didn’t come to my place to punch me, I went to his place to punch him.”

“I put him in more of a precarious position, which I shouldn’t have done, being the person he is and the responsibilities and governance issues he has; I was peeved at myself for doing that,” he said on 2GB radio in 2015.

The brawl is believed to have been over the breakdown of Packer’s seven-year marriage to Erica Baxter and his friendship with model Miranda Kerr.

The pair have been friends since they were both students at Bellevue Hill private school Cranbrook – Gyngell describing the relationship as a brotherhood.