Poignant James Packer interview reveals gentle side to legendary TV journalist Mike Willesee

Channel 7’s Sunday Night has paid heartfelt tribute to legendary TV journalist Mike Willesee after today’s sad news of his death after a three-year battle with cancer.

The former Sunday Night reporter was described in the Facebook post as a “pioneer of Australian news and current affairs” and a “genuine titan of the game”, who was remembered with great fondness despite being a “man of contradictions”.

The post contains an excerpt of one of Willesee’s most poignant interviews, talking with James Packer in 2013 about the 2005 death of his media tycoon father Kerry.

The clip shows Willesee sitting in respectful silence as an increasingly tearful James, slumped in his chair in a momentary show of vulnerability uncommon for the business heavyweight, recounts his last moments with his father.

James tells of Kerry’s long-term sickness and the fact his father knew he was in “real trouble”.

He had been overseas when he got the unexpected call.

“I always got a bit jumpy when Dad called,” he says.

“I didn’t know whether it was going to be a good call or a bad call. And it was a beautiful call.

“He said he loved me. He said he was proud of me.”

The increasingly tearful James pauses to collect himself, before Willesee gently probes.

“Were they new words?”

James denies they were, but says he knew it was a strange call.

“He wanted me to know if anything ever happened to him he wanted me to live my life my way and never think about what he would have done or what he would want me to do,” he says.

Just 24 hours after the call Kerry’s doctor had called James advising him to return to Australia.

Tears spill over his cheeks as he talks of his last moments with his father, arriving in time to hold his hand as he died.

“He was a f...... big man, Mike. He was a big man,” James says.

“Pretty cool, pretty cool.”

Watch the full interview in the video player above.