'Knew she was dead': Sam Newman's devastating act before wife's death
Sam Newman has spoken for the first time since the tragic death of wife Amanda Brown, revealing he performed CPR for 20 minutes when he found her unresponsive.
Newman had been out for dinner with friends on Saturday night when he became worried that Brown wasn't responding to text messages.
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Upon returning to their Docklands apartment, the Geelong Cats champion found Brown lying on the floor.
Ambulance Victoria said paramedics were called to the home after reports of a cardiac arrest at about 7.40pm.
According to the Herald Sun, the report was described as a “medical condition”.
Tragic news. Amanda was only 50. Thoughts with Sam Newman. https://t.co/frKVPRIONP
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) May 2, 2021
On Wednesday, Newman spoke for the first time since the devastating tragedy.
“I get home and I walk in the door and the television’s on in the bedroom. So I look down there and lying in her underwear - she’d obviously been in bed or she got out of bed to get something to eat,” Newman said on his podcast You Cannot Be Serious.
“She’s lying there on the tiles outside the laundry and as soon as I saw her I knew she was dead, I just knew it.
“I rang 000 and the very helpful person said you better try and give CPR and she talked me through that.
“I’ve got the phone on speaker and I’m pumping this poor woman who’s lying there looking so peaceful, obviously dead, but the operator said keep doing it in case there’s a spark of life in her, I think she said.
“So for 20 minutes I’m giving CPR to what I knew was a corpse.”
Sam Newman doesn't want sympathy
Newman said he didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him.
“I’ve had a pretty tough week so before I start, I don’t want anyone listening to this to feel sorry for me,” he said.
“There’s plenty of people that suffer adversity everyday of their lives and I’m not singling myself out for sympathy or anything like that.
“I’ve had people reach out to me, you wouldn’t believe the people who’ve reached out to me who’ve suffered similar episodes in their life.
“There’ll be a significant amount of people that don’t have sympathy for me and that’s fine too.
"They’ll say I got what I deserved and good luck and good riddance and all that, and I understand that and I don’t mind if you have that opinion of me and what happened to me.
"That’s fine because I’m a polarising influence I suppose.”
I’m devastated for my friend Sam Newman. His wife Amanda was only 50 and that’s far too young. It’s been a very sad 24 hours hasn’t it? 😔
— Rebecca Maddern (@RebeccaMaddern9) May 2, 2021
Horrible news about Sam Newman’s wife Amanda. I don’t always agree with Sams views but I worked with him on 3AW for 5 yrs and I found him one of the most loyal,honest and generous people you could find. Condolences to all.
— Tony Shaw (@TonyShaw22) May 2, 2021
Police said Ms Brown’s death was not being treated as suspicious.
“Police will prepare a report for the Coroner following the death of a 50-year-old woman in Docklands on Saturday May 1,” a Victoria Police spokesman said.
“The matter is not being treated as suspicious.”
Newman and Brown had been in a relationship for 19 years, but only married last November.
Newman, 75, played 300 games for Geelong from 1964 to 1980, kicking 110 goals.
He is a member of Geelong's Team of the 20th Century and Hall of Fame, as well as the AFL Hall of Fame.
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