FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Australia Today

'If I Feel Like Having a Glass of Wine, Yes I Will,' Says Unapologetic Derryn Hinch

After a near-death, Sauvignon Blanc-related fall, the senator has declared he’s staying on the grog.

Derryn Hinch has today declared he intends to keep drinking despite suffering “slight brain trauma” when he was knocked unconscious alighting from his Uber. He had consumed two glasses of “watered-down” Sauvignon Blanc with his daughter.

Hinch candidly discussed the incident with the Nine Network, confessing to marathon drinking sessions of more than 12 hours during the years he spent as an untreated alcoholic. A liver transplant a decade ago saved the Victorian Senator and media personality from succumbing to advanced liver cancer and cirrhosis.

Advertisement

“Was I pissed? No,” he said, defending himself against claims he was being disrespectful to the family of his liver donor by continuing to drink.

Despite hitting his head on a St Kilda Road gutter in Melbourne on Monday night, Hinch was able to pull up for a flight to Canberra for a War Memorial event on Wednesday. He is, as ever, unapologetic:

"I swore I’d never drink again," he told Nine. “[But] I thought, 'You’ve got to live your life.' Until I’m lying on the slab for the last time, I'm here to live my life the best I can … If I feel like having a glass of wine, yes I will.”

Hinch is the oldest Australian federal parliamentarian ever to be elected, and in spite of multiple convictions, imprisonments, sex scandals and marriages, the controversial media personality is, for better or worse, a uniquely Australian success story.

Follow Liam on Twitter