Grant Hackett denies having problems with alcohol

Melbourne -  Disgraced Olympic swimming champion Grant Hackett believes that he doesn’t have a problem with alcohol despite trashing his apartment in a drunken rage after an argument  with his pop singer wife.

The 32-year-old said that the breakdown of his marriage to Candice Alley had caused him to snap, not the alcohol.

“The reality was it (the marriage) wasn’t going well and I kept those cards really close to my chest and I just wasn’t dealing with it, wasn’t dealing with it well at all,” the Daily Telegraph quoted  him as saying on Channel 9’s 60 Minutes show.

“And it gets to a point where it’s like a Coke bottle, it just keeps getting shaken and shaken and shaken and shaken and if you don’t release it it explodes,” he said.

The former 1500m champion said that he had been drinking on the night, but he does not blame the booze for the incident at his Melbourne home.

“I don’t blame the alcohol,” he said.

“I think the alcohol exaggerated and exacerbated the emotions of that night and made it worse.

“But I don’t blame that, I blame myself,” he said.

Hackett said that his wife and two children left their apartment after he began throwing photo frames.

He admitted to targeting his wife’s most prized possessions - including her baby grand piano - in the fracas and wanted to end the relationship that night.

“I just continued to push over furniture and make a mess,” he said.

“I was sobbing and then a policeman knocked on the door. I took him through the place. It was just a night I hoped to forget.

“I exploded that night and clearly you can see the ramifications of that wasn’t pretty,” he said.

Hackett denied allegations he threw his wife against a window or touched her in any way and said he did not know why she would make those claims.

“Candice was totally unharmed. I didn’t threaten her in any way,” he said.

“There’s one thing I remember and that’s certainly the interaction between Candice and I and there was no physical interaction.

“There was words exchanged, it was a very heated argument don’t get me wrong,” he added.