Barry Hearn says wife's reaction to his heart attack was 'one of funniest moments in my life' - The Mirror

The Matchroom founder has opened up about his bouts with illness, light-heartedly looking back on his first heart attack – which he dubbed one of the ‘funniest moments’ of his life

Barry Hearn says his first heart attack was one of the ‘funniest moments’ of his life because of his wife’s reaction.

Matchroom supremo Hearn has had fingers in various sporting pies since the 1970s. He is credited with bringing darts, through the PDC – of which he was chairman until 2021 - and snooker into the limelight while building a stellar reputation as a boxing promoter alongside son Eddie.

On The Barry Hearn Show podcast, the 76-year-old was asked about health troubles, having suffered from two heart attacks – one in 2002 and the second in 2020.

He replied with a comically macabre comment, saying that his wife’s failure to understand the gravity of the situation the first time around was incredibly humorous.

“I enjoyed both of them,” Hearn stated, questioned as to why the incidents occurred. “They were quite good experiences. They were funny. I grew up with my father being ill, so I wasn't unaccustomed to it.

“I had my first heart attack at four o'clock in the morning twenty-odd years ago, which was one of the funniest moments of my life because I tapped my wife on the shoulder and said, get I could hardly breathe.

“You know? Get me an ambulance. I'm having a heart attack. And she said to me, let's give it twenty minutes and see how you go. She doesn't like using the phone, my wife. 'Oh, dear', she said. Now, I can't dial 999 and I can hardly talk. I'm saying: 'Why? Why can't you?'

“'But it's only for emergencies.' I'm like, 'What? What?!' But looking back on it, it was just like, no. No. We don't have that. You know? Look after yourself. She's very, very single-minded.”

Hearn then elaborated, commenting on the second incident that went a bit more swimmingly than the first, revealing that he doesn’t fear death.

“The second one was easy, easy peasy. You know? Just went in and they stick a few more stents in and turn you out,” Hearn continued. “I'm not gonna spend one second of my life worrying about anything like that because I believe in the almighty. I believe that fate is already there.

“And when it's my time to go, if it's tomorrow, I'll go with Grace. I hope it's not for years and years and years and years because I'm enjoying myself too much, but it's not my decision. So therefore, if it's not my decision and I can't influence it, I'm not gonna worry about it.”

Hearn’s grandfather sadly passed away at the age of 44 due to heart problems, and his father also suffered – but this has only made the sports promoter more eager to live life to its fullest.

“When my father had his first heart attack, treatment was very different then,” Hearn added. “And they said to him, there's a chair over there. Sit in that chair for three months and don't move. Oh. They didn't tell him to stop rolling his own cigarettes.

“The world's a changing place. If you can do something about it and you don't, you're an idiot. But if you can't do anything about it, then you have to accept the reality of life.”