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'What am I doing': Sam Newman's heartbreaking act after wife's death

Sam Newman, pictured here with wife Amanda Brown.
Sam Newman has opened up about the tragic death of wife Amanda Brown. Image: Twitter/Getty

Sam Newman has provided more details about the harrowing aftermath of his wife's tragic death on Saturday night.

Newman found Amanda Brown unresponsive on the floor of their Melbourne apartment after returning from having dinner with friends.

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Speaking for the first time about the devastating tragedy on Wednesday, the Geelong Cats legend revealed how he performed CPR on his wife for 20 minutes before she was pronounced dead.

And in a harrowing insight, Newman also opened up about his heartbreaking actions in the hours immediately after the tragedy.

“When I got home after the coroner and the police had been and the ambulance, I got into bed," the 75-year-old said on his You Cannot Be Serious podcast.

"Now here’s the interesting thing … I sleep on the left-hand side of the bed and my partner Amanda sleeps on the right-hand side.

“And when I got in after the ambulance had been and the police and the coroner, I didn’t think about this, I just instinctively got into her side of the bed.

"I was lying there for about half an hour and I thought, ‘What am I doing on this side of the bed?’

“I tried to go to sleep. The coroner left at about one in the morning and at about half-past two I thought I’d have a crack at going to sleep, and of course I couldn’t.”

Earlier this week it was revealed that Newman had become worried about his wife when she wasn't responding to his text messages.

Sam Newman, pictured here at the Shane Crawford Charity Bike Ride in 2013.
Sam Newman at the Shane Crawford Charity Bike Ride in 2013. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Sam Newman performed CPR for 20 minutes

On Wednesday he described the horrific moment he found Brown.

“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.

“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 triple-0 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.”

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”.

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.

Newman and Brown had been in a relationship for 19 years, but only married last November.

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