AFL champion Sam Newman has revealed he suffered two mini-strokes, which saw him spend 10 days in hospital before being released on Sunday.
The polarising footy personality was rushed into surgery at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne after experiencing a transient ischemic attack (TIA), better known as a ministroke.
The 80-year-old documented the whole thing on his YouTube channel, where he revealed he was out with partner Sue Stanley in Port Melbourne when he began slurring his speech and lost strength in his arms, leading Stanley to immediately call an ambulance.
Newman was taken to Melbourne’s The Alfred hospital and went into emergency surgery to widen the main artery – the carotid artery – in his neck that supplies blood to the brain.
“A little fleck of blood went into my brain, and I lost speech temporarily, and I lost strength in both my arms, but that was very short-lived, five minutes,” Newman revealed on his YouTube channel on Sunday.
“I have had a stroke, I have had two little strokes.
“If this had happened to me up while I was on a boat on the Whitsundays a couple of years ago or going around Australia in a central caravan, if this had happened then, it might have been a different story.
“But I suffered a medical episode and if Sue hadn’t summoned the help she did I mightn’t be here.”
The Australian football Hall of Fame member said it was the first time he had been in a public hospital for more than 50 years.
“I’ve had an MRI, an ultrasound and had a bevy of tests and I’ve just finally had the operation to widen the artery which goes into my brain,’’ Newman continued.
“It took them a long time to find my brain but eventually they located it.
“I haven’t had a stroke, well I have had a stroke, I’ve had two little strokes.
“I wanted to say I’ve had it done and I have a glowing health report.
“It’s been a very interesting experience, for someone who’s never been to a public hospital except for in 1967 when I lost my kidney playing football in the first semi-final, I was admitted to the Alfred Hospital.”
Newman was absent from his You Cannot Be Serious podcast last week, with Wayne Carey taking the reins but not disclosing anything about Newman’s condition.
He is expected to be back on his show this week.
In recent years Newman struck up a friendship with Olympian and fitness guru Stanley, with that friendship blossoming into a romantic relationship.
Stanley and Newman, first linked at the end of 2023, have spent months travelling around in a caravan together and doing plenty of outdoor activities together.
Stanley, 59, represented Australia at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in water skiing after beginning her sporting career in the Australian Institute of Sport’s gymnastics team.
In 1998, she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for her contribution to the sport of aerobics.
After her successful professional aerobics career, in 2022, she was crowned Ms Fitness World Champion, described as a cross between aerobics and a beauty pageant.
Stanley and Newman have attended several public events together, including as a guest of Emirates at last month’s Australian Open tennis, and the 2024 Sport Australia Hall of Fame event in Melbourne.
Their romance is a happy development for Newman, who in 2021 tragically lost his wife Amanda Brown at the age of 50.
