The traumatic moment that triggered Andrew O'Keefe's downward spiral
As Andrew O'Keefe continues his public battle with drug addiction and charges of assault, Daily Mail Australia has revealed the traumatic experience that triggered his downward spiral.
According to the publication, the TV presenter's self-destructive behaviour began barely 72 hours after his "deeply devout" father died.
Channel Seven colleagues of O'Keefe's were shocked when he embarked on a brazen, drug-fuelled bender at the Logie Awards in 2014 just a few days after his dad's passing.
Daily Mail Australia, who claim the Logies incident is well-known in the industry, marked the start of the concerning behaviour that eventually ended the former Seven star's career, marriage and relationship with his children.
Close friends fear O'Keefe - affectionately known as AOK among friends - has now descended so far into "the grip of an addiction he can't beat", he would be better off behind bars for his own safety.
One concerned colleague, who worked alongside O'Keefe for more than a decade at Seven, said O'Keefe had confided that he harboured a deep-seated resentment against his father right up to his dying days, revealing to his friend that him he endured a "traumatic childhood" and blamed his strict Supreme Court judge dad for failing to support him.
"AOK told me he had a really f***ed-up childhood," the colleague told Daily Mail Australia.
"A lot of his trauma relates to the emotional abuse inflicted by his father - there was never anything physical - but he absolutely ignored the pain Andrew was going through."
"From what he told me, his dad was this deranged Mel Gibson-type religious zealot and he would hold his own private Catholic masses in their home. He never forgave him for neglecting him in his time of need and never learned how to properly deal with all that pent-up rage."
"Now he's in the grip of an addiction he can't beat, and he's pouring through the money he made [while at Seven] and what he got from the sale of his properties. He's cut many of us out of his life and surrounded himself with a new circle of friends who are happy to get high with him, supply him with drugs and bleed him dry."
"It's f***ing tragic - maybe going to jail will be the best thing for him, I don't know - we're all just really worried about him and how this will all end."
Image credits: Channel Seven