James Packer reflects on one of the darkest times of his life: ‘Trainwreck’

James Packer has revealed his ‘train wreck’ split from singer Mariah Carey was one of the darkest periods of his life.

The Sydney-born billionaire will tell all in a candid statement discussion about his mental health with his good friend, Robbie Williams, in an upcoming episode of 7NEWS in the spotlight.

Packer, 56, and Carey, 55, started dating in 2015 and got engaged nine months later.

But in October 2016, the relationship came to a dramatic end.

“Mariah and I had broken up and she thought I had put a story in a magazine, which I hadn’t, and it made her look bad,” Packer said. 7NEWS Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett.

‘She threatened to say things about me and so it was, uh… it was a disaster. It was a disaster.

“When I was at my worst, I had a lot on my mind.”

Carey made no reference to Packer in her 2020 autobiography, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, claiming the book only featured “relationships that mattered.”

“If it was a relationship that mattered, it’s in the book. If it wasn’t, it didn’t happen,” the American hitmaker told The Guardian in 2020.

When asked about her engagement to Packer, Carey said, “We didn’t have a physical relationship, to be honest.”

In an earlier preview of the 7NEWS Spotlight episode, which airs on Sunday at 7pm, Packer confessed that ‘money is no guarantee of happiness’.

“I’m not here to play the victim… it’s a journey,” Packer tells Bartlett in the footage.

“You don’t interview someone who says to you, ‘I’ve solved it and I have all the answers,’” he continued.

“I’m not that person. I’m here saying I’m doing my best.”

Williams will also speak candidly about his own journey, saying in the preview that he can identify with Packer’s struggles.

‘[It’s] the same kind of disease that we share. It’s a disease of isolation,” Williams says.

Packer says he’s been “happier” than ever in recent years, after losing 50 pounds in 75 days and going off the seven mood-altering medications he took to improve his mental health.

“I’m about 130kg now and I want to be back to 100kg by the end of 2022. I want to swim with my kids in Bondi when we’re all in Sydney next year and we’ll be 100kg then,” he told The Weekend Australian at the time from his home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

The businessman said he stopped taking the antidepressants and antipsychotics he had been prescribed in March and is now trying to “rehabilitate” his reputation in Australia.

In the biography The Price of Fortune: The Untold Story of Being James Packer, the casino magnate discusses his mental health issues.

The book also describes some of the darkest moments in his life and how he went from inheriting a fortune to battling anxiety and depression, having returned from nervous breakdowns three times.

There were several factors that contributed to his downward spiral.

Scandals marred his jet-set lifestyle, from a deal that left him under fire for his political ties in Israel to a legal quagmire in China when officials from Crown Resorts, where he was a director, were arrested on illegal gambling charges.

Even his Tinseltown dreams were tarnished by the collapse of his $100 million production company RatPac with Hollywood producer Brett Ratner.

In the midst of his despair, Packer reveals that he turned to his old friend Warren Beatty and lived in the Hollywood star’s guest house for years, eventually calling him ‘Dad’. He is keen to stress, however, that this is no disrespect to his future father, Kerry, who built so much of the family business.

Packer counts a host of famous names among his friends – from Robert De Niro to Leonardo DiCaprio – and has been firmly entrenched in celebrity circles since his youth. He even flirted with Scientology for a while before distancing himself from the church.

The book details Packer’s personal torment, drinking and mental health problems, which the billionaire describes as “very scary.”

He said he came to realise his problems were only “getting worse”, which left him “extremely worried”, according to the excerpt in The Australian.

Beatty is known for shying away from media interviews, but for the book he decided to talk to him about Packer, a sign of how much he cares about him and appreciates him.

The actor was the one who helped Packer finally seek help. He referred him to a prominent psychiatrist, who immediately asked him, “Are you trying to commit suicide?”

“I don’t know if I started crying, but I thought to myself, ‘I don’t want to be $1.4 billion in debt anymore. Why am I doing this?'” Packer said at the time.

The father of three says he is now excited to embark on his ‘third act’ and plans to slowly re-enter public life in Australia.

Packer has three children – Indigo, Emmannuelle and Jackson – with his ex-wife Erica.

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