Brooke Satchwell: I'm A Survivor

Satchwell

Five years after he pleaded guilty to assaulting her, Brooke Satchwell has opened up to WHO about her troubled ex-boyfriend, actor Matthew Newton, saying she finds his public unravelling "incredibly sad".

The couple were living together in the Sydney suburb of Rozelle when the assault occurred in 2006, but despite Newton, 35, admitting he had punched Satchwell in the face and gouged her eyes, his conviction was quashed on appeal.

Now, as the son of veteran star Bert Newton waits to see if he will receive a criminal conviction following his arrest in Miami, Florida, on April 6 for resisting a police officer and trespassing, Satchwell, 31, has opened up the embattled man who was her partner for five years.

“I just find the whole thing incredibly sad,” says the straight-talking actress,whose April 17 debut as Frankie, an electrician, on Packed to the Rafters will mark her return to network television following a three-year hiatus. “I invested a large chunk of my life and,” she pauses, “I just find it sad.”

Newton’s ever-growing rap sheet is well-chronicled: in 2011 he was charged with assaulting a taxi driver and in 2010, another former girlfriend, actress Rachel Taylor, took out an apprehended violence order against him after he allegedly assaulted her in a Rome hotel. How disturbing is it for Satchwell to watch his deterioration? “I just know that I am incredibly grateful to wake up in my shoes, and that the prospect of waking up in another pair could be very confronting,” she reveals.

Satchwell says her current partner, film editor Dave Gross, helped her overcome the violent end to her relationship with Newton. “I think after an experience like that it takes a little while to find the baseline again. The most beautiful revelation about this relationship is that all the things I was certain in my guts were the way it was meant to be, are actually true.”

For Brooke's full exclusive interview with WHO Magazine, be sure to pick up this week's issue, on sale today.