Dave Hughes and Grant Hackett finally bury the hatchet after Logies speech

Dave Hughes made headlines when he infamously poked fun at former Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett at the 2017 Logies.

But on Friday, the comedian, 49, finally buried the hatchet with the athlete during a live interview on his Hit radio show Hughesy & Ed – three years after commenting on Hackett’s mental health troubles during his controversial opening speech.

Bringing up the elephant in the room, his co-host Ed Kavalee asked Hackett: ‘Hugh says you guys are cool about the infamous joke at the Logies some years ago now. He claims you guys are cool?’

Hackett, 40, made light of the situation, joking that he was at Olympic legend Michael Phelps’ house when he heard Hughes’ comments.

‘It was funny. That night I was overseas, I was at Michael Phelps’ place, I was cruising!’ he laughed. ‘I told Phelpsy, he was like “who’s that w****r who called you out, let me take him on!”

He continued: ‘I said settle down, he’s a good fella, this is what we do in Australia!’

Hughesy interjected: ‘Did he really call me a w****r? I wish he had,’ leading Hackett to confess he was only joking. 

‘We did talk about it over there, and we just had a bit of a laugh,’ he added. ‘I never mind with that sort of stuff – if you can’t take the mickey out of yourself as an Australian, then you’re in all sorts of trouble. I’m certainly the first one to do that.

‘But I’m trying not to give you any more content, that’s for sure!’

In 2017, Hackett had a highly-publicised breakdown and went missing for days after a fight with his family.

His disappearance – after an argument with his father and a punch-up with his brother – saw his family begging him to come home on TV in fear of his safety.

Hackett suffered a black eye and broken jaw in the fight, and had posted a photo of his injuries on social media.

In Hughesy’s controversial speech, he said of Hackett: ‘He’s been a bit whingey. See him on Instagram, put a selfie of himself with a black eye and said, “Look what my brother did.”‘

And Hughes wasn’t done there, quipping that the swimmer was lucky he hadn’t ended up dead like the brother of North Korea ruler Kim Jong Un, who was assassinated in Singapore the same year.

‘That’s what brothers do, Grant, be a d**k and they give you a clip. Look on the bright side, you could be Kim Jong-un’s brother,’ he said.

Hackett’s life now is a much different picture than it was three years ago.

The gold medallist is now engaged to fiancée Sharlene Fletcher, 35, and the pair welcomed their son Eddie back in January this year. 

He and Ms Fletcher got engaged in October after two years together and are planning a small coronavirus-friendly wedding later this year.