Grant Hackett Opens Up About Bloodied Face In 1st Interview Since Incident

Grant Hackett has finally spoken out about the altercation with his brother in February this year, which left him with a bloodied and bruised face that he later posted to Instagram.

At the time, Hackett’s brother has spoken to reporters outside their parents’ Mermaid Waters home, describing how the family had “reached the end of the road” in figuring out how to help him, and this person was not “the Grant Hackett that Australia fell in love with.”

Hackett later slammed his brother on Instagram as “an angry man” who “beat the shit out of” him, but didn’t elaborate further.

He’s now spoken publicly about the incident for the first time, opening up to KIIS FM‘s Kyle and Jackie O about his ongoing mental health issues.

“I wasn’t in a good space for a couple of months and [my brother] came over to my house and I was refusing that help, I didn’t want him to come in and when I get in that state of mind I get quite reclusive,” he said.

“He wanted to come in, I didn’t want him to come in … I was trying to push him out and we got into a push-and-shove and he whacked me with his weak arm, so I’d hate to see him with his strong arm. We were both very regretful of the situation.

“I was very upset with my brother, he was very upset with me … I didn’t drink through that period but it all became too much.”

He also opened up about an incident a couple days later, when he was arrested at his parents’ home after reportedly “going off” at his family.

“Obviously it was pretty shocking from my end and to look back on that footage is quite agonising,” he said.

“I was in a bad place, I suffer from pretty bad anxiety and ended up drinking. I drank too much at my parents’ house and got into an argument with my dad.

“I went into their guest house and locked myself in there and I went to sleep, but they didn’t know that. They were worried about me, they were concerned for my welfare, so they called the police because they wanted to make sure I was okay. Next minute I knew, I got woken up by a couple of police officers. … I woke up to two police officers, I was shocked.

“It was quite terrifying. Once I was released with that I didn’t know where I was at with my family and I just went to a hotel for four or five days.”