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Grant Denyer reveals shock health scare on Sunrise: 'Going to die'
Grant Denyer has opened up about the extreme health troubles he experienced while working as Sunrise’s weatherman, a position he held from 2004 to 2006 and again from 2010 to 2013.
Appearing on the Along for the Ride podcast with host Anthony Madaffari, the beloved TV presenter revealed that his fast-paced lifestyle travelling all over the country for the breakfast show lead to a devastating health diagnosis.
Grant began by describing his time on Sunrise as the “greatest experience of [his] life”, where he was allowed to do whatever he wanted from wherever he wanted.
“If I wanted to stand at Uluru tomorrow, I could,” he said. “If I wanted to wrestle a crocodile in the Top End the day after, I did. If I wanted to jump out of a helicopter and set a Guinness World Record, no worries.
“It was limitless. In three and a half years I had something like 750 flights. So you were in a different part of the country every single day, and you had to because it affected the ratings.”
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However, the two-time Dancing with the Stars champion said he pushed himself “to the limit” because he is “a competitive little bastard” and he was “addicted to the success of the ratings”.
“I wasn’t listening to my body and it just fell into a heap, it just shut down,” he continued. “I had massive chronic fatigue. I was f**ked. I was absolutely f**ked.
“The hard part is that when you’re operating out of adrenaline every day, which live broadcasting gives you, let alone all the stunts you’re doing. You’re depleting everything.”
‘You’re going to die’
Grant revealed that his health troubles got so bad that the doctor told him some surprising news when they examined his organs.
“They tested them and they said they were running at about 7 per cent,” he shared. “And they said, 'If you don’t do something drastically, you’re going to die, and soon'. That’s when I was like, holy s**t, this is serious.
“I was trying to push on and I realised I just had to give in to it – forget about television, forget about success, forget about ratings – and just focus on my health because it wasn’t going to end well.”
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He said that it took him around three years to recover fully, adding: “I had to do a fair bit of work to get my health back in order.”
After leaving Sunrise in 2013, Grant hosted a string of TV shows including Million Dollar Minute, Family Feud, The Great Australian Spelling Bee, Game of Games, Celebrity Name Game and Dancing With the Stars.
He also hosted 2DayFM’s breakfast show with comedians Em Rusciano and Ed Kavalee from 2017 to 2019, with Ash London joining the show in its final year, and took home the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality in 2018.
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