Selling watches

In the past few weeks Packer sold 20 watches, mostly Rolexes, for $200,000 to a Sydney dealer, according to a person who saw a letter confirming the sale. The dealer, who asked not to be named, wouldn't confirm the sale but said: "James is a very cool guy. He is a super cool guy. If you mention me, I will sue you."

Packer's Crown Resorts stake is worth about $4.5 billion.

Even among people who know Packer and resent him, there is and has been genuine concern for his emotional wellbeing. They describe a sensitive, paranoid man unable to find happiness in his wealth, struggling with romantic relationships because of a suspicion that women were mainly interested in his money.

"He was a nice, sensitive young man who could have been a gentle soul," says a former colleague.

"James was very gentle and courteous as a young man," says another.

Packer can be charming and warm when he doesn't feel threatened. When something goes wrong he gets agitated and raises his voice, sources say. He sometimes stands over the unfortunate other person while they are sitting down, his bulk adding to the intimidation delivered by his unbridled anger, says one former Packer executive.


Pressure cooker

He was rich enough to be a king, but Packer was in an enormously stressful position. Not only did the family fortune rest on his shoulders, thousands of shareholders held him responsible for the fate of Crown Resorts, one of the few Australian companies that had tried to take its domestic success global. (He owns about 47 per cent of the company.)

Packer grew up with an abusive father who reputedly took delight in his failures because they justified his harsh opinion. There was also the unrelenting media coverage over his personal life, which he hated and felt was unfair, although his behaviour fostered it, including becoming engaged to one of the world's most famous singers.

James Packer has stepped down from the Crown Resorts board because of mental illness. Van Tine Dennis

Business failures piled on the pressure too. There was the arrest of Crown staff in China, which triggered the end of his entire international strategy, the bankruptcy of the Ten TV network, a failed Hollywood investment, and several missed investment opportunities that cost billions.

Parties and models

Packer's first big blow was the collapse of the One.Tel phone company in 2000. Afterwards James, who was 33, fell into a deep depression and fled to London, according to people who knew him at the time. Some had concerns about his personal safety. (His official biographer reported Friday he suffered a nervous breakdown, the first of two.)

His life later continued to be full of parties, models and confident, showy men. He sought out the approval of successful business leaders such as Rupert Murdoch, and fell out with lovers, business partners and best friends.


Undermining Packer's happiness was a contradiction. He suffered from the curse of the mogul: he craved genuine friendship but struggled to trust the motives of those who gravitated to his wealthy orbit.

James Packer's latest problem was a public rift with his top investment banker, Matthew Grounds from UBS. JULIAN SMITH

"James wants to be liked because he feels his dad didn't like him," says one former media executive.

When he turned 50 last September, instead of having a party to celebrate his life, Packer hung out with a few friends at his polo ranch near Buenos Aires, a place that became his home-in-exile from Sydney.

When one writer observed that he lived a "weird life", Packer was so pissed off he got his spokesman to send the writer an angry text from Argentina. Back in Australia later he refused to shake the writer's hand and gave him the "time out" hand signal as he walked away. "We're over," he said.

Urged to open up

Late last year, while researching an unauthorised biography of Packer for Black Inc books, I was urged by a former consultant to the family to try to convince Packer to open up about the condition of his mental health.

Packer hated coverage of his personal life, which was fuelled by a relationship with Mariah Carey. Bloomberg


The person felt it would be a relief for Packer to acknowledge his burden publicly and a constructive step for helping educate broader society about the problem.

In my encounters with Packer it had became clear the billionaire was a tough critic of himself. Before he decided to end cooperation, he suggested the book be titled Crown of Thorns. It was a great title, and one that illustrated that Packer was well aware of the mental burden placed upon him from controlling a $9 billion company.

When I wrote to Packer last November telling him that friends were concerned about his mental health, he threatened to sue me if I went ahead with the book. He accused me of acting with malice, a legal designation that leaves journalists and their publishers open to aggravated damages in defamation lawsuits.

"If you want my genuine reaction – if your concern is indeed genuine, don't write your book," he said. "I won't read it anyway, Aaron, so I will be OK (thanks for caring the way you obviously do) but that's the answer to your question.

"And since the people you are talking to seem to know me so well and are so concerned, it shouldn't be a problem for you to get them on the record."

Witness to scandal

Bizarrely, Packer became a witness in a corruption scandal involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Leaks in the Israeli media, apparently from the police investigation, continued as recently as last week and contained assertions that upset Packer when some were republished in Australia.


There was also a public fight with one of his formerly close business friends, UBS chief executive Matthew Grounds, that erupted in this paper's Rear Window column and spread to other papers.

James Packer in 2004 with the managers of Challenger, a fund manager he invested in. Paul Jones

As recently as last Thursday Packer was preparing to take legal action over the coverage.

Then something happened.

Five months after joining the board of the company he controls, Packer took what must be an enormously painful step and admitted he has a problem in an email sent to a few select journalists.

The official statement vaguely referred to "personal reasons".

His health is now in his own hands.

People seeking help for mental illness can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.