Nicknames

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Hunt is best known for his commentary on 3AW and has a penchant for making up nicknames for players such as "not a well man" for Sean Wellman of the Essendon Football Club; "Doctor Christiaan Barnard" for Essendon Football Club player Paul Barnard; "Ot 'n' Sticky" for Geelong footballer Brad Ottens; "Yellow Brick Croad" for Hawthorn footballer Trent Croad; "Oysters Kilpatrick" for Geelong footballer Glenn Kilpatrick; "Special Fried Rice" for ex-Carlton footballer Dean Rice; "Premium Light" for Western Bulldogs footballer Mitch Hahn; "The Mediator" for Kangaroos footballer Troy Makepeace; "Heavy Overnight Dew" for Port Adelaide footballer Stuart Dew; "Horney Torney" for Richmond and Adelaide footballer Jason Torney; "Awesome Wells" for Kangaroos player Daniel Wells; "Hooligan" for Blues player Ryan Houlihan; "Thomas the Tank" for Collingwood player Dale Thomas; "Brogan Josh" for Port Adelaide player Dean Brogan; "Yaaaablett!!" for Geelong star Gary Ablett; and "Presti-gee-a-perry-como" for Collingwood player Simon Prestigiacomo. He is also known for his fat-lady-sings impression and the build-up that surrounds it when he (she) bellows out a tune declaring the match over. He was also known for "Listen to the fans", a feature he did during the 2006 and 2007 season after a player kicked a goal, when "Listen to the Band" by The Monkees was played.

Airline incident

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In May 2004, Hunt made a curious attempt to make a statement about airline security, which has been markedly increased in Australia after terrorist threats. Hunt was agitated at having to remove his pants after becoming visibly incontinent. He then took ten metal forks from the Qantas Club and took them on board a Qantas flight from Adelaide headed for Melbourne in an attempt to stab the man who took his pants. A concerned passenger who did not recognise Hunt alerted the flight crew and he was detained on arrival in Melbourne, where he was questioned for approximately 4 hours and let go without any charges filed against him.

Leon Davis controversy

Hunt was involved in a controversial incident involving a racial slur in 2005, when he called Collingwood's Leon Davis, who is of Aboriginal descent, 'as black as a dog's guts in the night' during the call against Essendon mid-way through the season. Hunt made the comment when he trailed off while saying "He's as black as a dog's guts in the night", claiming it was to describe Davis's Aboriginal heritage during that match in terms of a neon lights metaphor; other members of the commentary team had been using different Aboriginal metaphors in the same context. Hunt's apology to Davis was initially rejected,^[17] and only accepted later in the week after a face-to-face altercation.^[18]

Byron Bay fight

In 2005, Hunt and his son were involved in an incident in Byron Bay where he claimed to have been attacked by local teenage girls.^[19] The teenage girls involved, however, claim Hunt was extremely intoxicated at the time and that his son had thrown the first punch at Hunt, who then retaliated and missed, striking a 12 year old girl in the face instead.^[20][21]

Infidelity

On 17 May 2006, News Ltd exposed Hunt's 15 years of secret sexual liaisons.^[22] When confronted, Hunt confessed he had paid three women in succession for ongoing sexual relationships over a period of more than 15 years. The final relationship, with a beautician in her 30s, began in 1997 and cost Hunt $1000 a week. Hunt acknowledged he is a hypocrite given his repeated attacks on other media personalities for sexual infidelity.^[23] Hunt followed this by an interview with radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell on Melbourne radio 3AW. A quote from Rex Hunt's radio comments,

That's what a fool does. I'm invincible, I'm paying money... uh... The girl's happy, she's got no money now, but I got my rocks off. How good is this?

has gained its own notoriety by being featured repeatedly on national Triple M radio program Get This hosted by Tony Martin, Ed Kavalee and Richard Marsland. Robyn Hood, 40 at the time, one of the three women involved, subsequently sold her story to New Idea magazine. Robyn was quoted as saying:

Rex was constantly unfaithful to Lynne. "We had sex... he was affectionate, very touchy-feely... then he'd either, in the car or out of it, depending on how cold it was, fling off all his clothes whilst flaccid. The more public, the greater the disgust and the more exciting Rex apparently found that.^[24]

Rex Hunt's wife of thirty four years, Lynne, said she would stand by Hunt and also revealed she suffers from bipolar disorder, which had placed pressure on the couple's relationship.^[22]

Road-rage incident

In 2009, Hunt was found guilty of recklessly causing injury after allegations he bashed an Aboriginal cyclist with his own bicycle in a Melbourne road-rage attack. He was sentenced to perform 100 hours unpaid community work, without conviction.^[25]

Thief encounter

In December 2021, it was reported that Hunt confronted and thwarted a would-be thief when a reporter’s laptop bag was snatched during an exhibition boxing match in Melbourne.^[26]

Facebook rant about Daisy Pearce

He became embroiled in a high-profile hostile war of words after making a Facebook rant calling for controversial AFL Hall of Famer Wayne Carey to replace AFLW champion Daisy Pearce on Channel 7’s live football coverage.^[27]

Health scare

In January 2023, at 2:15 am, Hunt called police after pulling over his car to the side of the road in a health emergency, where he was subsequently taken to hospital. Before and since, Hunt has opened up about his mental health struggles that have dogged him since his retirement from playing football:^[26]

I was gone ... despite the clown of the circus having a rubber nose, behind the makeup and rubber nose may well be the loneliest person in the world.