Garry Lyon opens up on mental health issues and Brownless

Garry Lyon has apologised for all the pain he caused his family and friend Billy Brownless in a wide-ranging interview with AFL journalist Mike Sheahan.

Lyon took time out from his media commitments at the end of 2015 after it became public that he was in a relationship with the ex-wife of Footy Show host Brownless.

The pair had a falling out over the incident, leading to Lyon's year-long break to deal with his mental health issues before returning to work with radio station SEN.

“There’s obviously been a lot of pain for people I’ve been close to for a long time: my wife Melissa, my boys and Bill and his family,” he said.

“It’s important publicly that I apologise for what I’ve done and what I put them through. I do know that it’s been really hard for them.

"I genuinely acknowledge how difficult it’s been and it was hard to see them go through a lot of that, and I am really regretful of that.”

Lyon also confirmed that he has continued to see Brownless's ex-wife Nicky.

“Nicky and I are together and I’m eternally grateful she was able to support me through all of this and I’d like to think there’ll be no more interest," he said.

Lyon, who likes his privacy, sounded uncomfortable through much of the interview but said he knew he had to eventually talk and just wanted to get it out of the way.

He also told Sheahan that he was initially snubbed by Brownless after trying to text his friend before the relationship with Nicky became public.

They have since spoken but Lyon wound not divulge details of the correspondence.

“There’s no easy way to broach the subject,” Lyon said.

“I have, but I haven’t spoken to him since before Christmas,” Lyon said.

“I spoke to Bill before this became public, back a year or so ago - it’s something for he and I to work through.”

“If he wants to talk about it publicly that’s fine, but I never will.”

While embarrassed that his life has been in the public eye, he 'accepted the fascination' of the public.

Lyon talked about his battle with mental health issues during the 37-minute interview.

He spent much of 2016 out of the spotlight down the coast going to regular therapy.

“I was battling at the end of 2015, I just got myself into a hole, it’s hard to talk about this,” he said.

“I couldn’t get off the couch, I didn’t want to face the day, I was regretting the end of the football season because football gave me a structure.

“When you’re on your own sitting in a house by yourself, my relationship had broken down and you’re having these feelings about where you fit in the world. I couldn’t pick the phone up, every day you didn’t it got harder to do it."

“I was able to be exposed to some great people there who were good enough, kind enough to let me live down there.

“I had some really alternative treatment ... Meditating became part of it, in years gone by I would have laughed but I said, ‘Let’s do it’.”

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