Australian moguls in street brawl 'over Miranda Kerr'

Two of Australia’s top businessmen caught scrapping in the street over lingerie model

Gaming tycoon James Packer
(Image credit: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

JAMES PACKER, Australia’s richest man, and David Gyngell, the head of one of the country’s largest television networks, were seen in a street brawl near Bondi Beach that has “captivated the nation”.

Onlookers said that Gyngell waited 20 minutes by his SUV for Packer to arrive in a chauffer-driven car at his Bondi home. The pair then "went at it hammer and tongs" in a brawl in which one of the two men lost two teeth, the Daily Telegraph reports.

According to The Times, the fracas came about after Gyngell’s Channel Nine network parked a news van outside Packer’s house hoping to video Packer alongside the Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In recent weeks, rumours have circulated that Packer, the son of the late media mogul Kerry, has been seeing Kerr after separating from his second wife, Erica Baxter, six months ago. “Packer was furious because he believed a Channel Nine camera crew was lying in wait to try to catch him with his alleged girlfriend”, The Times says.

Packer had previously telephoned Gyngell, his former best friend and best man, to object to the presence of the van. After a heated argument, Gyngell drove to Packer’s house to confront him, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The casino magnate’s neighbour, Chris Walker, who witnessed the fight, said on his Facebook page that when Packer arrived home, Gyngell called him “every name under the sun”.

Walker wrote: “Packer puckered a punch but copped a couple of hits straight to the jaw. Then they all fell on the concrete fence and I think the other guy broke his face.”

Photographer Brendan Beirne who was also at the scene sold images of the brawl to Rupert Murdoch’s publishing house News Corp Australia for an estimated £118,000.

The pictures were splashed across the front page of Australia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. The publication’s website also published a short video of the two businessmen being wrestled apart by security guards.

Channel Nine issued a joint statement yesterday saying that in spite of the clash, the pair remained friends and during the course of their 35-year friendship had weathered their “fair share of ups and downs”.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us