Australian billionaire James Packer has opened up about his mental health following his split from Mariah Carey in what he considers one of the darkest times in his life. The pair began dating in 2015 and were engaged nine months later in 2016. By October, it was over. In 2020, he revealed he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In his first face-to-face interview in more than a decade, Packer has reflected on his private decades-long struggle and the lowest points of his life, including his short-lived engagement to the pop star.
"Mariah and I had broken up and she thought I'd planted a story in a magazine, which I hadn't, and it made her look bad," the 56-year-old told 7News Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett. "She was threatening to say things about me and so it was a trainwreck. It was a trainwreck. The times that I've been at my worst, you know, I've had a lot on my mind."
In an earlier preview of the exclusive sitdown, Packer said he was "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'," he said. "I'm not that person. I'm here saying... I'm doing my best. Money is not a guarantee of happiness."
The businessman's close friend, global superstar Robbie Williams will also appear in the hour-long special that proves mental health does not discriminate. It's the same sort of illness that we share," Robbie said. "It's a disease of isolation."
Packer's rare interview is one of several to be featured in 7News Spotlight on Sunday ahead of the release of Profiles in Hope, a book by former NSW Liberal leader and now president of Lifeline International, John Brogden.
In 2023, Packer donated $7 million of his fortune to support mental health research at the University of NSW in Sydney and establish the James Packer Chair in Mood Disorders. "It is no secret that I have struggled with mental health problems in the past," he said at the time.
"I am a passionate advocate of finding ways to improve mental health outcomes and I am hopeful that my contribution towards this research will generate positive outcomes in this field and in so doing significantly improve the lives of people battling mental health issues both in Australia and around the world."
He has three children - Indigo, Emmannuelle and Jackson - with his ex-wife Erica Packer.
(7News)
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