James Packer steps down from casino empire citing mental health issues
JAMES PACKER, billionaire tycoon and one of Australia’s richest people, has abruptly quit as director of his casino empire, citing mental health issues.
No further details were given yesterday, although Mr Packer, the scion of a media dynasty, has previously spoken about his battles with depression.
With a £2billion fortune, Mr Packer has long sat at the head of a media and gaming empire built up by his family over three generations. He enjoyed a playboy lifestyle, hobnobbing with Hollywood royalty including Robert de Niro and Brad Pitt. In a 2013 interview, he said Tom Cruise, the actor, helped him through a period when he was “depressed and emotionally exhausted” over the collapse of his first marriage to Jodhi Meares, a glamour model.
His high-profile engagement and subsequent split from Mariah Carey, the American singer, in 2016 kept him in the public eye, a place he admitted he had always found uncomfortable.
“James Packer today resigned from the board of Crown Resorts Ltd for personal reasons,” said a spokesman for his private investment vehicle, Consolidated Press Holdings, which is Crown’s largest shareholder.
“Mr Packer is suffering from mental health issues. At this time he intends to step back from all commitments.”
The son of Kerry Packer, the media baron who died in 2005, James Packer has never been far from the news. In 2015 he made headlines after an ugly fight in public with David Gyngell, his former best man and head of Australia’s Nine Network. Reports at the time said they fell out following Packer’s split with Erica Baxter, his second wife.
He was also dragged into a corruption inquiry involving Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, over suspected receipt of luxury gifts from wealthy people, but Mr Packer was not accused of criminal conduct.