7News Spotlight turns its attention the mental health this Sunday night with interviews with James Packer, Robbie Williams and former NSW Liberal leader and now President of Lifeline International, John Brogden.
James Packer is best known as the billionaire businessman.
What many don’t know is the private mental health battle he’s faced since his late 20s, a fight so crippling, he has been suicidal.
It’s fair to say anyone with Packer’s fortune expects little in the way of sympathy. But that’s the point about mental illness: it doesn’t discriminate.
In this candid, warts-and-all exclusive interview with Liam Bartlett to air on 7NEWS Spotlight this Sunday at 8.30pm on Channel 7 and 7plus, Packer opens up about his deeply personal and decades-long struggle.
Packer is raw and honest as he sits down for his first in-depth television interview in over a decade to reveal some of the darkest times in his life, the merry-go-round of medication and doctors who have tried to help, and the daily addiction he can’t shake.
“Money is not a guarantee of happiness,” Packer tells 7NEWS Spotlight. “I’m not here to play the victim… it’s a journey. You’re not interviewing someone who’s saying to you, ‘I’ve got it worked out and I’ve got all the answers’. I’m not that person. I’m here saying… I’m doing my best.”
Alongside him for the powerful interview is global pop star Robbie Williams, a close mate of Packer who has also been on his own, well-documented mental health journey.
“[It’s] the same sort of illness that we share,” Robbie reflects. “It’s a disease of isolation.”
Packer’s conversation is one of several featured by 7NEWS Spotlight as part of a broader, hour-long special on mental health ahead of the release of a powerful book, Profiles in Hope, by John Brogden, the former NSW Liberal leader and now President of Lifeline International.
7NEWS Spotlight’s Liam Bartlett said: “James is quite a complex man who has gone out of his way to deliver a simple message for the purpose of helping others and for that reason alone, he should be applauded.”
8:30pm Sunday on Seven.
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