Burden of responsibilityĭepending on who you talk to, the approach from Las Vegas gaming giant Wynn – revealed in The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column – gives Packer an opportunity to retreat from corporate and public life to focus on his health.
Those who have worked with him describe him as a volatile but brilliant dealmaker whose corporate successes well outshone his father's. At 51, he has been married or engaged four times, had three nervous breakdowns, dabbled in Scientology, and made headlines around the world for his association with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an ugly breakup with singer Mariah Carey and partying with Hollywood A-listers.Īt the same time, Packer made (and occasionally lost) billions in a string of gaming and technology-related deals. Packer has been on a rollercoaster ride for most of his adult life. I don’t want to do it any more," Packer says in T he Price of Fortune: The Untold Story of Being James Packer an authorised biography by journalist Damon Kitney published last year.įor many, this was a public sign that Packer was ready to sell up. "I am tired of being on this rollercoaster. James Packer and his former wife Erica Baxter remain on good terms. He is said to be on good terms with his ex-wife Erica and their three children. Packer's inner circle is confined to a handful of close friends and his girlfriend Kylie Lim as he seeks to avoid the cameras that wait for him whenever he walks outside the front door. His mood has been philosophical, or resigned, about the fact that he will have to remain on medication that dulls his senses for the rest of his life.Īs well as Aspen, he spends time at his other homes in Los Angeles and the Ellerstina polo ranch in Argentina. The drugs also mean Packer has lost the manic energy, which drove him in business but undermined his personal life. Packer, who went public last year with his battle with mental illness, is on a cocktail of medications which slows down his metabolism and makes it difficult for him to manage his weight. Packer, the fourth-generation of deal-makers who reshaped the country's corporate landscape, has shown his hand as a willing seller of the company he created after seeing the writing on the wall for his father's media assets more than a decade ago.īut the images of Packer in the US resort town of Aspen, where he is currently living, this week depict a detached and broken man. Many see it as the end of an era for one of the most powerful and scrutinised of Australia's business family dynasties. While Wynn has pulled out of the talks, the group or another bidder are expected to resurface. The $10 billion takeover offer for Packer's Crown Resorts from Las Vegas giant Wynn Resorts, revealed this week, signals a turning point in the Packer family story. He was, and remains, driven by a determination to escape the shadow of his father and prove he can create a fortune in his own right. Following the media mogul's death, Packer forged his own path and built a global gaming empire.
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Prime Minister John Howard, movie stars Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe, Packer's close friend Lachlan Murdoch and cricket legends Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting were among those paying respects that day.īut Packer's words disguised a more complex relationship with his larger-than-life billionaire father, one which continues to haunt him more than a decade later. "Whatever James does he is going to have a huge amount of money and he is going to have a huge responsibility managing it," says Peter Yates, the former chief executive of the Packer family's PBL media empire. "My dad was my mentor and my teacher but above all he was my father – and that is my greatest fortune," Packer said in an emotional tribute to Kerry Packer who died, aged 68, on Boxing Day. Shanghai | James Packer's voice was shaking as he addressed the celebrities and sporting heroes gathered at the Sydney Opera House to pay tribute to his late father in February 2006.
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