Surfer Mick Fanning Says Divorce, Shark Attack, and Brother’s Death Left Him ‘Bottom Line’

If 2020 hasn’t felt so bad for Mick Fanning, it’s because he lived through his own personal version of the year from hell five years ago.

The Australian surfing icon has opened up to a brutal 12 months in which his decade-long relationship with his wife Karissa fell apart before he nearly lost his life in a shark attack and then his brother died of an enlarged bone. heart.

“For me, 2015 was a very bad year,” Fanning told 60 Minutes on Sunday night. “I went through a divorce, I had the shark incident, and then at the end of it all, I lost my brother. I was totally empty at the end. I’m done.”

Fanning had met Karissa, a model, in 2004 and she had been by his side throughout all of his surfing world tour triumphs, including the 2007, 2009 and 2013 championships.

But after a fight to save the relationship, they went their separate ways.

“Karissa has supported me since we met in 2004. We have shared many good times, but most importantly, she has helped me get through some of the most difficult times in my life, especially last year. After giving it my all, he Last year, we made the difficult mutual decision to go ahead separately, “Fanning said at the time.

Fanning’s year only got worse when he was famously attacked by a shark at a competition in South Africa, an event that left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

To top off his year, his older brother Pete, 43, died of an enlarged heart. He was the second brother Mick had lost after a car accident took Sean’s life in 1998.

“That was the one that blew me away. I was like ‘what else? What else can you drink in a year?’ At the end of 2015, I hit rock bottom, “Fanning said.

“I felt like I had nothing to give, nothing to give to myself, to the people around me, to my family or friends. I just didn’t see the way back.

“I’ve never felt so empty before, I just lay in bed, didn’t do anything, didn’t leave the house.”

Fanning stopped competing full time and traveled the world on a wave-seeking and soul-searching mission. It was in Alaska that she took an important step forward in her recovery.

“I walked to the top of this hill and I looked at this beautiful landscape and I just remembered my siblings and felt the tears running down my face,” Fanning said.

“It wasn’t sad tears, I was smiling and I was like, ‘okay, that’s a step.’ That was the beginning of my recovery.”

Better times were on the horizon. In 2017 he went public with his new girlfriend Breeana Randall, his now-fiancee and mother of his newborn son Xander.

“Yesterday was one of those amazing days!” Fanning wrote the day after he proposed. “Breeana and I went to take some baby announcement photos and then this happened! This beautiful woman has stolen my heart and I am so excited to create a beautiful family with her. Bub is coming out in August. I am so excited to start this new chapter with a person that I really admire and love “.

They welcomed Xander earlier this month and Fanning, 39, loves being a father and wants more children.

“It’s amazing,” he said of parenthood. “Just the love and care that you can give a human, it’s wild. So mind-blowing.”