MELBOURNE CUP LEGEND MICHELLE PAYNE REVEALS HEART-WRENCHING TRUTH ABOUT SISTER’S DEATH: ‘She was unrecognisable… Scary’
- Champion jockey Michelle Payne shares devastating insights into her sister Bernadette’s final years, ravaged by mental health struggles and addiction.
- Bernadette, a former jockey, died in March aged 51, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions and shattered dreams.
- Michelle’s emotional interview reveals the shocking decline of her sister, who became ‘unrecognisable’ and ‘scary’ in her final days.
Melbourne Cup legend Michelle Payne has ripped open the wounds of her sister Bernadette’s tragic death, revealing a shattering portrait of mental health struggles, addiction, and a heartbreaking descent into darkness.
In a candid interview, Payne recounted her sister’s painful journey, which began with a riding accident at 21 and spiralled out of control into addiction to painkillers. The devastating consequences left Bernadette, a former jockey, a mere shadow of her former self.
‘She would have been numbing the pain, or numbing a depression, or maybe both. Probably both,’ Payne said, her voice laced with anguish. ‘But by the end, she was unrecognisable… Who is this person?… Scary.’
One heart-stopping conversation with Bernadette still haunts Payne. ‘I just remember asking her, “What do you want?” and the answer was so sad,’ she recalled. ‘She said, “I don’t want anything. I just want to go back to when we were little kids and everybody was playing together in the puddles and laughing.”
Payne’s words were laced with a mix of grief and regret, as she wondered what more the family could have done to help Bernadette, who refused to accept their help. The discovery of a series of notes after her death, urging herself to keep going, has left Payne with a lingering sense of ‘what if’.
‘I talk about it — without any answers — because maybe someone going through a similar thing will come up with an idea, a different path. Or maybe they won’t feel alone,’ she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Payne’s family has been ravaged by tragedy, with her mother Mary passing away when she was just six months old, and her sister Brigid dying of a heart attack in 2007. The champion jockey has shouldered the weight of her family’s sorrow, but Bernadette’s death has left the deepest scar.