SHANE’S GRANDAD DIED OF A HEART ATTACK IN HIS 50s
Star knew of hereditary illness
SHANE Warne’s death mirrored that of his beloved grandad Joey – also killed by a heart attack in his 50s.
The cricket legend had told of his shock at learning cardiac problems ran in his family.
Aussie star Warne, who died nine days ago on a lads’ holiday to the Thai isle of Koh Samui, revealed Joey’s death at 57 in his autobiography No Spin.
Warne, 52, wrote: “He was a tough little character, like a tank. We knew he was a good farmer, because he was on the front of one of the country magazines for ploughing an unploughable field.
“It was like a moonscape and he ploughed it like he was on a mission. It was dangerous work… Joey got the best out of his crops: that’s what he knew. Then, out of nowhere, in the early 1980s, a massive heart attack killed him.
“He just caved in, and about three years later my grandmother passed, both of them in their mid-to-late 50s. Nan worked as hard as Joey, if not harder – she was the silent type who got on with it. It was terrible when she got cancer.”
Warne said he was racked with sadness that both sets of his grandparents had died by the time he was in his teens.
He believed the trauma of growing up as a Polish refugee in the Second World War contributed to Joey’s early death.
He and wife Lotte worked in Germany before getting a ship from Italy to Australia – after originally hoping to go the US.
Dad-of-three Warne – once engaged to Brit actress Liz Hurley, 56 – added: “None of us are complaining – Australia has been a wonderful place for our family and I’d have been a pretty ordinary baseballer.”
AUTOPSY
Warne’s body was flown home to Australia on Thursday, ahead of a state funeral at Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 30.
He was found dead in his room at luxury Samujana Villas resort – hours after tweeting “goodnight”. An autopsy pointed to a suspected heart attack.
His manager James Erskine said the star had recently come off a “ridiculous” fluid-only diet.
And his former doctor Peter Brukner suggested Warne’s death was hastened by drink, his love of food and smoking.
He said: “If Warnie had heart disease, which sounds like he did, that didn’t happen overnight. It’s a very gradual process.”