Grant Denyer reveals live TV near-death experience

Grant Denyer has revealed he feared for his life during a live cross from Bondi Beach while bungee jumping on Sunrise.

Grant Denyer has recalled the moment he almost died on-air when filming a live segment on breakfast television back in 2005.

The TV personality relived the near-death experience during an appearance on the Will & Woody show on the KIIS Network on Thursday afternoon.

Back when Denyer was the weather presenter on Seven’s Sunrise, he was asked to do colourful stories during his cross – and one of them was attempting to break a world record for highest tandem bungee jump while jumping out of a helicopter 300m above Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Grant Denyer said he almost died when doing a live cross from Sydney’s Bondi Beach with AJ Hackett, the man who invented bungee jumping. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

It was no walk in the park for Denyer, even if he was doing it in tandem with AJ Hackett – the New Zealand-born daredevil who invented bungee jumping.

And while the duo successfully doubled the 150-metre Guinness World Record for highest tandem bungee jump, it wasn’t without any drama.

“I had to get on the helicopter in between weather crosses and there was a rush to get on the helicopter. So, they pushed us all on really quick,” Denyer recalled of the live cross to David ‘Kochie’ Koch and Melissa Doyle, Sunrise’s hosts at the time.

“There are people there, there’s ropes and the thing just takes off. We’re standing on the skids on the outside of the helicopter, flying over to Bondi Beach. We’re over the CBD and we nearly fall off the side of the helicopter because the helicopter is going too fast.”

The duo were required to bungee jump out of a helicopter at Bondi Beach back in 2005 for a Sunrise segment. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

“We’re hanging onto 300m of bungee cord, we’re standing on the skids of the outside of the helicopter,” he added. “Mate, if we’d have fallen out over the CBD, we would’ve banged on every high-rise building. We would’ve been smashed to smithereens against high-rise glass.”

Denyer said he threw an object at the pilot, who was wearing noise-cancelling headphones at the time, to get his attention and gesture for him to slow down.

“We’re safe, we’re fine, he slows down. We get over Bondi, I do a live cross, we’ve got another camera and another chopper, cameras on the ground. I’m on the mic chatting to Kochie saying, ‘Righto Kochie, you’re about to do this,’” Denyer recalled.

“I turned around, [Hackett] can no longer hold onto the bungee cord. His arms are bloodshot, he’s all red, throws the rope and just goes, ‘Three, two..’ and he jumped. And I’m like, “Am I tied on?”’

Hackett and Denyer are lowered to the sand after bungee jumping 300 metres out of a helicopter. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

At that moment, Denyer said he panicked as he did not recall “anyone tying me to him or the rope” and there wasn’t a safety officer who had given them the green light to jump. So he just went with it and held on for dear life.
“I’m like, ‘This is live television, he’s gone. I might as well just go with him,’” he said. “So, I just jumped out of the helicopter, and I did to save my own, I grabbed him in as tight as I could with all my strength.”

“Because when the rope pulls tight, I’ll just slip through his arms and from that height I’ll hit the water and just be killed instantly. So, we’re falling. It’s the longest 15 seconds of my life. I think this is the last thing I’m ever going to do in the face of this planet. I’m about to die live on television nationally.”

Denyer is no stranger to stunts while a weather presenter on Sunrise.

The star was Sunrise’s weather guy for six years until 2013.

After plunging to an impressive 300 metres, Denyer and Hackett to this day hold the Guinness World Record for highest tandem bungee jump ever.

In the radio interview, Denyer also recalled the CEO of the Seven Network at the time calling him on the phone to warn him about the dangers of jumping.

“He goes, ‘Mate, you’re going bungee jumping tomorrow?’ and I said yes. He goes, ‘My legal team says I have to legally tell you that you don’t have to do it.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I think it’d be pretty fun, it’ll make good telly.’”

“He goes, ‘Well, last week you put your hand up a horse’s arse and none of us appreciated that, but if you think it would be great, you’re a mad bastard’ and he hung up. And that was it.

“There was a genuine concern that I was going to die on live television, and I tell you what, I nearly did.”

Denyer also almost died while filming the Amazing Race last year.

This wasn’t the first time Denyer almost died on TV.

Last year, when filming the Celebrity Edition of Amazing Race, the seasoned host appeared dehydrated and disorientated after competing in a challenge with his wife, Chezzi.

In the TV footage, the Denyer could be seen looking unwell while lying on the ground.

Speaking to news.com.au later of the incident, he admitted the situation was worse than what viewers had seen as he was “convulsing on the floor”.

“In television land, we’re often guilty of dialling a lot of moments up in drama,” he explained. “In this one, I think we actually dialled it down a little bit, because it was pretty confronting.”

Originally published as Grant Denyer reveals live TV near-death experience