The stark medical caution came after Singleton’s heart rate was monitored at an alarming 220 beats per minute — more than double a healthy rate for his age — forcing him to undergo a cardiac ablation procedure.
His son Jack yesterday said surgeons told his father if he continued to booze excessively he faced an early grave.
“His doctors told him ‘Your days of having 20-schooner sessions are over. If you do that, you will die’,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Jack said he discovered his father’s high heart-rate after putting a monitor on him while they were out walking.
“I said ‘Stop right now’. If I had a heart rate of 220 I’d be saying, ‘Dad, call me an ambulance’,” he said, adding his father had dramatically curbed his drinking in the wake of the health scare.
“We’ve all been very impressed with his restraint to not get on the booze.”
Mr Singleton, 73, said he now took daily heart and blood-pressure medication, along with the sleeping pill Stilnox “on rare occasions” when he had trouble falling asleep or flew overseas.
“If I have to take an international flight or if I have to sleep I take it (but) I haven’t walked around the Crown Casino in the nude,” the millionaire former owner of radio station 2GB said.
Mr Singleton’s remark was in reference to Australian Olympic swimming champion Grant Hackett, who was last year photographed walking around the Melbourne casino’s foyer wearing nothing but a singlet around his waist.
At the time, the 35-year-old was battling an addiction to Stilnox, which has been known to cause bizarre behaviour in some users.
There is no suggestion Mr Singleton is suffering an addiction to the controversial sleeping tablet.
Despite a highly publicised long lunch in Woolloomooloo last month — during which he was pictured holding a broken wine glass up at his billionaire mate Jack Cowin — Mr Singleton said he did not have any trouble with Stilnox and “rarely” drank at all these days.
Instead Mr Singleton, who this week returned from a trip to the US where he visited his daughter Jessie at her home in San Francisco, said he had been focused on living a healthier lifestyle.
Ms Singleton denied the visit was a chance for her father to escape the spotlight after the controversial outing to Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse on Finger Wharf.
“We had a very nice father-daughter time over here,” Ms Singleton said.
She said her father’s family did not have any concerns for his health or his level of drinking.
Jack, who was present at the now-infamous lunch, said his father had been hamming it up for his friends that day and his behaviour was not a result of over-imbibing on alcohol or mixing it with sleeping pills.
“I have seen my old man behave atrociously … that day it was an act. He’s guilty of saying stupid stuff,” he said.
“I’d bet my sons’ lives he wasn’t taking Stilnox when we were having schooners
MILLIONAIRE media magnate John Singleton says he was less than impressed when radio presenter mate Ray Hadley advised him to “stay off the drink” over the airwaves.
Mr Hadley made the comment during his top-rating 2GB morning radio show following Mr Singleton’s fracas with billionaire Jack Cowin at Kingsley’s Steak and Crabhouse on Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf last month.
He added that both Mr Singleton and Mr Cowin were left embarrassed by the public lunchtime bust-up.
But Mr Singleton, who is still a major shareholder in 2GB, yesterday said he had also been embarrassed by Mr Hadley’s equally public feedback.
“Ray’s comments were absolutely inappropriate,” Mr Singleton said. “Hadley had no right to do that. I think Ray Hadley is in a very poor position to give anyone personal advice.”
He said he sent Mr Hadley a text message conveying his thoughts — and that they had since resolved the issue and remained strong friends.
“Ray and I have a very strange and quirky friendship,” Mr Singleton said. Mr Hadley did not return calls.
Police last night confirmed that they had slapped Kingsleys with an RSA warning along with a compliance notice over the incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment