Tycoon ‘saved’ Packer from Carey
Close friends of James Packer, the Australian casino billionaire, have revealed how they grounded his private plane to prevent him marrying the pop singer Mariah Carey.
Associates of Packer, led by the media tycoon Kerry Stokes, were accused by Carey and her agent of kidnapping him before the lavish wedding that the couple had planned on Bora Bora, French Polynesia, two years ago.
‘‘They were threatening to go to the police for me kidnapping James – there were some strong words,’’ Stokes, 78, is quoted as saying in The Price of Fortune ,a biography of Packer which was published yesterday.
Packer, 51, the son of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer, was under intense pressure in 2016 after being handed a A$362 million (NZ$390m) bill from the Australian tax office in relation to his Crown Resorts casino business.
A few weeks before the wedding, Stokes persuaded him to seek refuge in Israel. Packer, a close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, owns a house next door to the Israeli prime minister’s residence overlooking the Mediterranean.
After Packer, who co-operated with the book, arrived in Israel, Stokes organised for Packer’s pilots to ground his plane for maintenance, a move that angered Carey and her manager, Stella Bulochnikov.
By then Stokes had taken charge of Packer’s personal affairs and stopped attempts by Carey and her entourage to see him. ‘‘They wanted to charter a plane from Las Vegas to Israel and I wouldn’t approve it. I was accused of separating the lovebirds,’’ Stokes revealed to the book’s author, Damon Kitney.
‘‘I did postpone his wedding. We did have issues at the time because Mariah’s agent was most insistent they would not be separated and the wedding take place. James was upset at not seeing [Mariah]. But he wasn’t sure. He was obviously emotionally involved.’’
Packer’s memory of the fraught period is hazy but he told the book’s author: ‘‘Mariah was very upset when I was in Israel because I had just disappeared.’’ Stokes emphasises that he had nothing against Carey, 48, and in fact liked her and enjoyed her company. When Packer eventually travelled to the US in March 2016 to be reunited with his fiancee, Stokes says the moment for their wedding had passed. ‘‘James was still reasonably intent on marrying her. But circumstances had changed ... all fell apart. In retrospect that was good for James,’’ Stokes said.
Last year Packer declined to say whether Carey kept the engagement ring, thought to be worth US$10 million. A New York
report in May said that she sold it to a jeweller for US$2.1 million.
Packer told his biographer that when he met Carey in 2015 he was billions of dollars in debt after borrowing a huge sum to provide his sister, Gretel, with some of the money owed to her from their father’s estate. He was also losing money on his Hollywood film ventures. ‘‘I was at a low point in my personal life,’’ Packer said. ‘‘Mariah is a woman of substance. She is very bright. But it was a mistake for her and a mistake for me.’’
In March Packer was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He resigned many of his business posts but retained his gambling empire. He has since returned to his Los Angeles home.