Footy legend's partner gives a shattering account of his last moments as she tried to save his life with CPR as meth killed him: 'I was screaming at him to keep his eyes open'
Hunter, 43, was a premiership hero with the West Coast Eagles in 2006 – but he also battled drug addiction for decades, including during his decorated playing days.
A coronial inquiry has pinpointed meth–induced heart failure as the cause of his death.
Latisha Yacoub recalled frantically administering CPR to Hunter on the night of February 4.
'I was screaming at him to keep his eyes open,' she said.
'He was looking at me. He couldn't move anything except his head.
'I said, "Just don't die on me". That was the last time he looked at me and then he closed his eyes and I started CPR.'
The WA Coroner believes Hunter's ongoing drug use exacerbated his heart complications, which included cardiac hypertrophy – a thickening of the walls of the heart – and coronary artery disease.
Hunter's drug use was no secret – and due to his addiction, he had multiple houses repossessed.
He also died bankrupt after selling most of his football memorabilia to pay drug dealers.
The couple initially met when Hunter was drafted to West Coast as a teenager – but she soon suspected she 'wasn't the only woman in his life'.
They reconciled in August 2022 and Hunter pledged never to hurt Yacoub again.
In December that year, Hunter moved into Yacoub's house with her two children in Bunbury, south of Perth.
The fallen footy star worked occasionally as a truck driver, but the majority of his pay 'went on drugs', Yacoub said.
She also revealed Hunter previously told her he avoided drug testers while he was playing with the Eagles by shaving his head so they couldn't perform hair-follicle tests.
Hunter's drug use – mainly meth – increased after injuries forced his retirement from the AFL in 2009.
'Even when he was playing (state league in Western Australia) for South Bunbury, he would treat it like the AFL,' she said.
'He would weigh himself relentlessly, on game day up to eight times. He was using steroids and any supplement he could find.'
Yacoub said Hunter was using elective androgen receptor modulators, which help promote muscle and bone growth. He was also taking the fat–burning drug clenbuterol.
'He didn't want to age,' she told the West Australian.
'He would try anything to stay young. He wanted to be that person in the 2006 grand final.'
Yacoub – a qualified nurse – believes Hunter took meth on the day he died.
'I had just come back from Bali with my children,' she recalled.
'We had a conversation about how I couldn't have things keep on the way they were.
West Coast Eagles premiership–winning coach John Worsfold paid an emotional tribute to Hunter, stating he would have loved to have played alongside the defender
'He said 'I really want to make things work'. (Next) I heard a noise. I went to the bedroom and he was on the floor. There was a little bit of foam coming out of his mouth and I thought he had overdosed.
'I was screaming, "What have you done, what have you done?" I lifted his head up and I screamed at him to open his eyes. I kept asking what he had done so I knew what I was dealing with.
'He opened his eyes. I said I was calling the ambulance and he shook his head because he had always said he never wanted to wind up in hospital if something went wrong.
'I said, "I don't care, I need help because I don't know what you have done". I asked him to lift his arms and his legs. He had no motor response, no verbal response.
'My eldest was on the phone to the ambulance. I didn't stop CPR. My son said Adam was turning blue. I knew he had gone. He had turned really blue. And then he turned bloodshot purple.'
Speaking at Hunter's funeral, Yacoub labelled the former footballer 'my lover, my best friend, my soulmate and the absolute love of my life'.
'We've had our fair share of ups and downs but no matter what we both knew that there'd never be anybody else,' she said at the service.
'Some people wait a lifetime to experience the love we share.'
Following Hunter's death, Yacoub's relationship with his grieving family became strained.
'He didn't have a will... but when he died, his family made it clear to me that I would be looked after because of all the money I had spent on him over the past few years,' she said in the coronial inquiry.
'But now things have got very uncomfortable between us.'
Star swingman Hunter played 151 games for the Eagles over a decade-long AFL career from 2000-09, before injuries led to his premature retirement.
Hunter kicked a career-high 29 goals in 2006, including a crucial major in the final stages of that year's epic one-point grand-final win over the Sydney Swans.
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