Australian tennis legend John Newcombe has revealed that the revelation of his drinking duel with George W Bush could have cost him the 2000 US presidential election campaign.
The 70-year-old former tennis player opened up about the drink-driving incident that occurred in 1976 and said that Bush, who served as president from 2001 to 2009, was a bit of a "party boy" in those days, News.com.au reported.
Newcombe admitted that he was with the Bush family that night as a guest of George H.W. Bush, who was then director of the CIA, and so they went to the local pub, along with Newcombe's wife, Bush's younger sister, and Peter Roussel, then press secretary to George H.W. Bush.
Newcombe added that as they began drinking "reasonable-sized mugs of beer," he noticed that Bush was sort of eyeing him off, which eventually led to a little silent drinking game.
The pair staggered back to their car and Newcombe's wife Angie offered to drive but Bush insisted he was fine and so though they had about three miles to drive down that road along the sea and after a about a mile he got pulled over.
Newcombe recalled that the cop Calvin, who made Bush walk the line and back, was writing him a ticket, that's when Roussel told him he was George Bush's son.
Eventually, Calvin, who was worried that he is in trouble for booking the son of the director of the CIA, came back with the story breaking during the presidential campaign.
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Newcombe revealed that Roussel called his Sydney office when the story broke and said that Bush informed him that they found out about Calvin and so Newcombe had to flee as reporters swarmed his Sydney office.
Bush, who was fined 150 dollars over the offence, gave up drinking in the 1980s.