Discover the real story, facts, and details of Kerry Packer. '""He was a monster and Kerry knew heâd been treated appallingly. "The monkey on Kerry's back was the fact that his father didn't value him as much as his brother Clyde," says publisher Richard Walsh, who worked for Packer for 20 years.By all accounts Sir Frank was a harsh, unloving father. "I didn't interrogate him about it but he told me he'd been involved in a fatal accident, that he'd been driving and that he'd been drinking. "He was determined to end his life richer than his father," Walsh says.Meares, who was married to Kerry and Ros' son James from 1999 to 2002, says the Packer lifestyle was far removed from the one she was used to.As the pair chatted, Packer complained about his health. "The worse he became the more tablets he had to take and they were equally debilitating. "They were complicated and I think he felt a responsibility to help them understand that as much as he could. "He needed constant reassurance, was unable to trust people and found it difficult to make friends. ""Jamie was the sweetest, softest, most shy little kid but then Kerry decided he had to toughen Jamie up and make him into James so he did a very Packer thing. "We've very much admired Mr Packer's achievements over the years.''The car, with an unknown passenger, passed through large black gates and into the property without stopping for the large media contingent outside.Mr Packer controlled an empire which ranged from magazines and television networks to petrochemicals, heavy engineering, ski resorts, rural properties, diamond exploration, coalmines, supermarket coupons and casinos."He was with his family, which was a lovely touch ... James came home and they had time to share together and have a hug and it was an ending which released everybody," he said."We're just very shocked by the news,'' he said."He died peacefully at home with his family at his bedside.A renowned gambler, he seized control of Melbourne's Crown Casino when PBL launched a takeover bid in December 1998.Australia's existing media rules prevent one company from owning more than one TV licence, two radio licences or a newspaper in the same city.Friends and family began arriving at Mr Packer's Sydney home as the news spread this morning.He spent the better part of the 1990s and the start of this decade stalking the Fairfax newspaper group but never saw the regulatory environment which would have allowed for a takeover.Mr Packer's much-publicised battle with ill-health began in 1990, when he suffered a massive heart attack while playing polo.A Black Mercedes with tinted windows arrived at the family's property in Bellevue Hill, in Sydney's east.A car later pulled up out the front of the home and a man in his mid to late 20s dropped a card into the letter box.Another black Mercedes with tinted windows also entered the property.He turned the cricket world upside down with his World Series revolution in 1977, which ended with him getting what he wanted in the first place - the rights to televise top matches.Mr Packer knew it was his time and wanted no medical aid in his final days, radio broadcaster Alan Jones said today.Labor's response was to claim that the Coalition had promised the media magnate it would relax media laws if it won government.A white van, with a young male driver, was also admitted to the property shortly after 11am.When asked if he had any comment, the man simply said: "It's very sad.''The Coalition accused Labor of political payback because Mr Packer had backed then opposition leader John Howard as a future prime minister.He read a statement from Nine head of news Tony Ritchie: "Mrs Kerry [Roslyn] Packer and her children James and Gretel sadly report the passing last evening of her husband and their father Kerry."Because it's been a long worry for the family.
And then he suddenly perked up again and said, 'Am I still here?
Kerry has gotten weaker and weaker and at the end of the day, as I said, the system gave up and it's a pretty simple story."Mr Packer died before realising a long-term ambition of owning a television network and a newspaper in the same Australian city."Kerry said, no look I have had enough of this, there's only so much medication, and so many transplants ... he accepted no aid and he then knew, he said, I think his words were: `This is my time'," Mr Jones said in an interview on the Nine Network."He said to me only about five days ago, just before Christmas, he said look I can't eat what I want to eat, I can't do what I want to do and I can't go where I want to go, son what am I doing here?," Mr Jones said.Mr Jones said that just before Christmas Mr Packer had spoken to him about his illness.Mr Mills's friend also said he was saddened.But it looks like his son James, not his grandchildren, may be the one to fulfil the Packer plan for Nine and Fairfax. He was very thin. "I congratulated him because the ratings were so good, and he said 'Well son, who cares about that but you don't want to be the man who f***ed The Weekly. "It's odd for a man of such success and power, but I think he was struggling with a lack of self esteem and it took him a long time to overcome that," says Malcolm Turnbull.Richardson recalls: "There were reports in the paper that he'd lost $22 million in a weekend and it was a very big deal in Australia at the time. It made cricket a truly professional sport and pioneered the kind of lively cricket broadcasting we take for granted today.In a revealing interview in 1978, Packer recalled that by the time he returned to school in Sydney he was so far behind the other children he became "a bit of a laughing stock". Kerry Packer [In 1979] My father always said, ‘Son, by the time you get to thirty-five, thirty-six years of age they won’t let you into any bloody clubs, so join early. ""And thatâs basically what he was. He also said that it was that moment, or that event, that made him decide to give up drinking and to the best of my knowledge he never drank again. "Ros once said there was only one Mrs Packer, and that was her. "Robert's son, Frank, worked for him and later established the Australian Women's Weekly, which was the foundation of the family fortune.This so alarmed Packer that he called out to Stone, his increasingly panicked voice captured on tape. They're great kids. "Kerry's famous temper definitely did not let you down in any way, shape or form," she laughs.
"He'd lost a lot of weight, he had hearing aids, he looked gaunt. "People that withhold information â that makes me nervous.