Celebrity

Grant Denyer’s wife breaks down recalling star’s behaviour on pain killers

Jan 17, 2019

Chezzi Denyer has been caring for the couple's two daughters while Grant recovers from his injury. Scout. Source: Getty/Instagram.com/2dayfmbreakfast

Grant Denyer’s wife broke down in tears live on radio as she recalled her husband’s struggle with pain killers following his involvement in a monster truck crash more than a decade ago.

On Thursday, the 2Day FM co-host revealed how his now-wife Chezzi helped him quit the prescription pills, confessing: “I said things that I had no control over and I’m still humiliated.”

Grant told listeners he became dependant on the medication after spending four months in hospital with a broken back. The strong medication left him dazed and confused as he struggled to differentiate between dreams and reality.

“The one thing that nobody ever tells you when you do an injury and the hospital never lets you go telling you, is that the medication is often worse than the actual injury itself. The things it can do to your head … are so horrific,” the 41-year-old said on air.

“I’d hallucinate where I couldn’t tell the difference between dreams and reality. The moment you close your eyes you go into your worst and most horrific fears and when you wake up you don’t know the difference between that being real or not.”

Speaking candidly on 2Day FM, Chezzi has opened up about the “horrific” things the TV star did when he was on medication.

“The things that he did and the things that I saw were really horrific,” she revealed.

The pair had only just started dating at the time of the incident and Chezzi quickly found herself as Grant’s full-time carer.

“I had to receive quite extensive counselling afterwards because he honestly believed he would never walk again and we had no real outside help. When we brought him home from hospital, I’m not a nurse, I didn’t know what I was doing.

“Some of the things that we went through would test any relationship.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bstez0jBGJf/

The crash left Grant with a vertebrate that was shattered in 11 pieces and doctors feared he may never walk again. However, the much-loved presenter made a quick recovery, returning to TV screens and eventually nabbing a Gold Logie award last year for Most Popular Personality on Australian TV.

Grant and Chezzi married in 2010, and now share two daughters, seven-year-old Sailor, and three-year-old Scout.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Brwa3BuneIk/

Chezzi and Grant’s story come weeks after new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found opioids may only help slightly when it comes to treating non-cancer pain. Researchers reviewed 96 clinical trials of more than 26,000 people and found sleep quality, physical functioning and pain only improved slightly for those taking opioids when taking compared to a placebo.

The research also found opioids may increase the risk of side effects such as vomiting, drowsiness, constipation, dizziness, nausea. It’s always important to talk to a health professional about the side effects of pain killers before taking them.