James Packer has revealed he is taking Ozempic, his self-proclaimed miracle weight-loss drug, but is still gaining weight due to an ongoing secret addiction.
This comes as the former Crown Resorts tycoon opened up to Channel Seven journalist Liam Bartlett about the real reasons for his string of failed relationships and why he believes his ex-wives deserved better.
In a candid interview aboard the billionaire’s $300 million superyacht off Tahiti for Seven Spotlight, the 57-year-old revealed he had been battling serious mental health issues for more than three decades.
He said he suffered his first crisis at age 33 after his start-up telecoms company One.Tel collapsed in May 2001.
The failed venture had been his first attempt to step out of the shadow of his famous father, Kerry, but he ended up drowning in $327 million in debt.
The former Channel Nine heir said the affair also ended up costing him his brief marriage to his former first wife, model Jodhi Meares.
“I had a crisis after One.Tel went bankrupt,” she told Bartlett. “I felt terrible.”
“It’s not just the money: my marriage broke up…”It was on the front page of the newspapers every day… it seemed like the biggest story.”
James Packer opens up in a candid interview on Channel Seven’s Spotlight programme
Packer says he suffered his first nervous breakdown after trying to step out of the shadow of his father Kerry
The billionaire blames the One.Tel disaster for contributing to the breakdown of his marriage to his former first wife, model Jodhi Meares (pictured together in 2001).
When his father died a few years later, in December 2005, the new owner of the Nine Network decided to exit the media business and instead invest heavily in Crown.
The bet – and the debt that came with it – had an inextricable effect on Packer’s mental health, as well as his marriage to his second wife, Erica Baxter, also a former model.
Packer said he became “self-destructive” and turned to “substance abuse” to deal with his manic depression, before they split in 2013.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail. I mean, I drank too much and did things I shouldn’t have done,” he told Bartlett.
“I can only advise people not to do it. I’m sure it played a role in some of my mental health issues, no doubt.
‘I felt very guilty because my marriage with Erica didn’t work out.
‘She deserved better than what I gave her and I became self-destructive.
‘Looking back, I definitely went into mania in 2013.
Packer says his second wife, Erica Baxter (right), deserved better than he could offer her
‘When you’re in mania, or at least that’s my truth, when I’ve been in mania, I’m at my best and I’m probably at my most irrational.
“And when I look back, that probably cost me my marriage to Erica.”
Despite the hardships of those dark days, the former couple – who share three children, Jackson, Indigo and Emmanuelle Sheelah – remain together.
The same cannot be said of Packer’s other famous ex-lovers: American pop star and ex-fiancée Mariah Carey.
The couple, who are ultimately not the same, began dating in 2015 and announced their engagement to the world in January 2016, before splitting amid much public animosity in October of that same year.
Mariah Carey’s whirlwind romance with Packer ended almost as quickly as it began
“I was engaged to Mariah Carey for a while. And that same week it came out that Mariah and I had broken up. She thought I had published a story about it in a magazine, which I hadn’t, and that made her look bad,” Packer said.
“And then she threatened to say things about me, and it was a disaster.”
It was after his ugly confrontation with Carey that Packer decided to seek professional help in late 2016 and then, in 2017, quit alcohol for good.
Then, when he suffered a disturbing ‘hallucination’ the following year, he decided it was time to give up something other than the bottle.
“I had a hallucination and I was sober,” he told Bartlett.
“I thought the world was against me. I thought people were… I’m embarrassed to even say what it was.”
“But when I had this hallucination, I resigned from all management positions in my company.
‘I called my mother and said, “Mom, you have to come help me.”
Billionaire businessman says he resigned from all his management positions after a ‘sober hallucination’
Packer spent the next fortnight at McLean Hospital, one of the world’s leading psychiatric care facilities at Harvard University, where… I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“The medications I was prescribed, frankly, were perhaps even worse than what I was suffering from,” he said.
‘The last psychiatrist I saw told me I had bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. So he told me I had all three at the same time.
“But when I was told I was bipolar, my truth was that my doctors would do anything to make sure I didn’t have mania, and as long as I didn’t have mania, they were happy.”
He said the initial focus on avoiding manic episodes led to a debilitating experience with medication.
“I was put on lithium in 2022,” she said. “And within two weeks I became a zombie. A total zombie.”
Packer has remained close to his ex-wife Erica, with whom he shares three children.
Packer said he’s “in a better place” now and on different medication; but don’t ask him what it is.
“I’m on something and I’m very embarrassed to say it, but I have a nurse traveling with me,” she told Bartlett.
‘I couldn’t tell you what I’m taking because I’m taking so many things and someone else is doing it for me.’
The only thing he knows for sure is that he’s taking Ozempic. The only problem is that it’s not working.
“I’m taking it and I’m gaining weight,” he said.
And although he insisted he still didn’t drink, he feared he had traded one addiction for another.
“I’m eating a lot of sugar. I’m consuming a lot of sugar,” Packer confessed.
‘It’s just trucks loaded with sugar, trucks loaded with sugar, cookies, everything, all that.’
Packer opened up during a candid interview with Liam Bartlett aboard his $300 million yacht
Today the tycoon weighs approximately 130 kilos.
But he said it was a good deal given his improved mental state and that he was determined to work on his weight once his mental well-being was under control.
“It’s going slowly. I think I’m mentally much better than I was six months ago,” he told Bartlett.
‘I went into manic state in 2022 and then from 2022 to mid-2023 I was on lithium.
‘So I lost weight, but mentally I wasn’t doing very well.
‘And since then I have gained weight, but mentally I am better.
“For me it’s a journey. You’re not interviewing someone who says, ‘I’ve got it all figured out and I’ve got all the answers.'”
“I’m here saying, ‘I’m not that person, (but) I’m doing the best I can.’”
For free mental health support, call Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14
For help with anxiety and depression call Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36
