'Changed me markedly': Sam Newman opens up on awful double tragedy

Sam Newman has opened up on the tragic deaths of wife Amanda Brown and close friend Shane Warne within the space of 12 months.

The AFL icon's wife died suddenly in March last year at the age of 50, leaving him devastated.

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And he was then rocked by more personal tragedy when Warne died of a suspected heart attack in Thailand last month.

"It changed me markedly," the 76-year-old told The Herald Sun this week.

"I became more circumspect and a lot more emotional about people I know and tragedies that beset them or befall them.

"It affected me those two deaths that I experienced. And dear Amanda, it's coming up the anniversary of her death and that really knocked me around."

Newman said the deaths of Brown and Warne "made me readdress or reassess how I do things."

"I think about both those people actually almost on a daily basis for a whole lot of different reasons," he added.

Newman discovered his wife lying unresponsive on the floor of their Docklands apartment after she suffered an aneurysm.

The pair had been in a relationship for two decades, but were only married in November 2020.

“She had no illnesses or underlying health problems,” Newman told 7News last year.

“Just to come home under those circumstances and find her where she was … well, I’ll just never forget that.

“The autopsy said she died from an aneurysm, a stroke. I have no idea what brought that on.

“Knowing she was dead, that is just so surreal. You just think, ‘This is not happening’.

“It seems absolutely unfair and I actually often thought I would rather it be me than her. But then she’d be probably feeling like I do.”

Sam Newman in mourning after double tragedy

Newman said he performed CPR on his wife for 20 minutes before she was pronounced dead.

“When I got home after the coroner and the police had been and the ambulance, I got into bed," he 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?’"

Newman and Warne were close friends and were often spotted on the golf course together.

The Geelong legend spoke at Warne's state memorial service at the MCG last month.

“I didn't go out that often with Shane," he said.

"We're a little different generations but when I did I couldn't understand what language he was speaking.

"And he spoke quickly and often.”

Warne was found dead in his villa on the Thai island of Koh Samui on the first day of a holiday with friends. He was just 55.

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