Just days after admitting prescribed painkilling medication once caused him to hallucinate, Grant Denyer has friends worried once again.
The father of two was rushed to hospital last week with a torn disc after being injured while working on a DIY project at home.
Now there are fears that Grant’s behaviour before hospitalisation was concerning, with the television host increasingly exhausted by his heavy workload.
Last week, a Dancing with the Stars audience member told New Idea they noticed Grant was acting oddly in between takes, saying he appeared to have “weird facial twitches when he wasn’t on camera”.
Now a TV insider explains that there are rumours he’s been struggling for some time.
“Something was definitely not right,” explains the source. “Chat is he’s burning out and the shakes and ticks are signs of a possible breakdown.”
Grant explained to his 2Day FM radio co-hosts last Tuesday how he had injured his back while working on a fence at his Bathurst home.
“I was down the paddock … just slamming away on a star picket with a huge sledgehammer and twang – away it went,” Grant revealed.
He added that he would be temporarily absent from his Channel Ten show because he “can’t quite stand or sit for long enough”.
It’s a worrying development for Grant, who has struggled with back problems in the past. In 2008 he broke his vertebrae in eight places during a monster truck crash. Recovery took six months and at one point doctors were uncertain if he’d walk again. He recently admitted that the “hardcore” medication he was put on during his recovery caused him to have terrible nightmares, during which he woke up still hallucinating.
Grant has also said that he developed an addiction to prescription medication.
“You go to a hospital, they fix the injury but they don’t equip you with the skills to get through the next bit, the recovery,” he explained.
“With the recovery comes a lot of medication, they don’t tell you the effects that the medication can have on you because that is worse than the injury itself.”
He admitted he hit rock bottom and even considered taking his life. “It was a time where I didn’t really give a s–t whether I lived or died. I felt like I had nothing to live for,” he said.
“I reckon if I didn’t have my daughter at that particular point, I might not be here.”
In 2013, his doctor urged him to quit his then hosting job at Sunrise to focus on his health.
“I just pushed too hard, too long. I did that at the toll of myself and my family.
“It was a juggernaut that I couldn’t stop,” he said. “They’d stand me up on camera, they’d wake me up in between crosses and put me in front of the camera and count me in.”
A month prior to his resignation, the host passed out live on air during a plane ride with Red Bull.
“I didn’t see the warning signs. I thought I was invincible and I f–ked up,” he said.
Later he and his wife Chezzi entered rehab in Thailand for exhaustion, executive burnout, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Grant fully recovered and has enjoyed a career resurgence in the past few years. But friends are now concerned that this latest injury combined with the heavy workload of DWTS and hosting his daily radio show on 2Day FM and the upcoming Celebrity Name Game could put him at risk once again.
Grant’s recent outburst about his sex tapes and claims that The Voice audience were held captive at a recent taping have also prompted concern.
“Ten has said he may not be doing tonight’s show because of an injury. Something isn’t adding up,” says the source, adding, “There’s lots of smoke and mirrors on DWTS, they are trying to hide something.”
Meanwhile, Chezzi revealed last week on radio that her husband might not be returning to the show at all. “He’s in a lot of pain and it’s really difficult to watch,” she said. “He feels like he’s let the world down and wants to be at work.”
This month while speaking to 2Day FM’s Ed Kavalee and Ash London, Grant confessed that Chezzi almost left him at the height of his addiction issues.
“I’m lucky she’s still here because I put her through the wringer,” he admitted, adding, “I’ve said this before – I said a lot of horrible stuff that I feel bad about.”
If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 131114 or www.lifeline.org.au.
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