Game Show Host Sent to Rehab After Alarming Drug Overdose, Arrests: Judge Sends Strong Message to Andrew O’Keefe

Fallen Channel Seven star Andrew O’Keefe will leave jail and enter a three-month rehabilitation program following his string of recent arrests and a near-fatal heroin overdose. Appearing in Waverley Local Court via a video link from jail, the 53-year-old former game show host, who previously presented Australia’s Deal or No Deal, pleaded guilty to numerous charges as a judge warned him the “next step is jail.”

“You have been given lots of opportunities to do something about your use of drugs. I can assure you the next step is jail. I’m not just saying that, I absolutely mean it,” Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge told O’Keefe, according to news.com.au. “It‘s got to the state where the court would believe you just can’t be rehabilitated.”

During the Thursday, Oct. 10 hearing, O’Keefe was sentenced to a 30-month community corrections order, contingent on him engaging with rehab, ordered to pay a $2000 fine and a $500 fine, and had his license revoked for three months. The sentencing came after his lawyer, Jahan Kalantar, previously entered guilty pleas on his behalf to entering enclosed lands and breaching an AVO (charges relating to the Point Piper incident) and to possessing an illicit drug (in relation to the Rose Bay incident) in relation to a July incident in which he confronted a man in Point Piper, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The charges mark just the latest in a string of concerning behavior from O’Keefe, who was a Seven presenter for more than 15 years, hosting titles like Deal or No Deal and the breakfast program Weekend Sunrise. In January, O’Keefe was convicted on assault charges and possessing a prohibited drug. He had an appeal dismissed earlier and his bail revoked in September, just day safter he overdosed on heroin. He was later arrested at Rose Bay police station on Sept. 16, and a search of his vehicle uncovered a “clear resealable bag containing a clear crystal substance.”

Speaking to the court, Kalantar said his client was at a “final crossroads,” adding that there was “no more serious” lesson than O’Keefe nearly dying from a drug overdose. Kalantar said, per the Australian Associated Press, that the option to enter rehab “is a real chance for this man to get his life in order.”

For his part, O’Keefe said he believes he “can offer something back to the community again,” telling the court that despite his strained relationship with his children, they were “the dearest things in my life. They’re wonderful and I want to be there for them and I understand now that there’s no drug in the world that’s going to allow that to happen if it’s in my life.”