Beaconsfield survivor makes shock confession he was drunk when he publicly revealed his dislike for fellow miner Todd Russell days after he died from cancer – as he makes heartwarming promise to his family

Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Brant Webb has broken down with regret over telling the world of his dislike for fellow trapped miner Todd Russell just two days after he died from cancer, and admitted to being drunk at the time of his bombshell comments.

In 2006, Mr Russell and Mr Webb survived 14 days buried alive after a 2.2-magnitude earth tremor caused a rockfall inside the Tasmanian mine, trapping them 900m underground.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail on Friday night, Mr Webb revealed he was ‘grieving’ and ‘drunk off half a bottle of rum’ when he appeared on the McKnight Tonight podcast and said he and Mr Russell did not get along.

Journalist Robert McKnight asked Mr Webb, ‘Did you like him?’ to which the former miner replied: ‘No, not really… We didn’t have anything in common at all. The only thing we had in common was we stayed in the hole for two weeks together.’

Following the interview, Mr Webb sent a message to the show claiming he was relieved after revealing his true feelings towards Mr Russell.

‘I feel a weight has lifted, a 20 years of keeping a secret for a bloke that didn’t respect me,’ he wrote.

Given Mr Russell had just died aged 54 after suffering from leukaemia, the backlash against Mr Webb was swift.

A contrite Mr Webb told the Mail: ‘It was a bit of a f***ing c**k up. I am grieving… the fallout was pretty heavy, to tell you the truth.’

‘I am going to try to make it nice for his kids. They’re beautiful kids, they’re magnificent. So is his ex-wife [Carolyn Rundle], and so is his wife [Donna Russell].’

Mr Webb, who has suffered from intense anxiety since the Beaconsfield disaster, said he ‘drinks to forget’ and had been drinking on the night of the interview with McKnight.

‘I’d forgotten the interview was on, and I’d had half a bottle of rum and gone to sleep,’ he admitted.

‘[My wife] Rachel woke me up saying my phone was going off. I was like, “Oh f***”, so I rolled out of bed and did the interview.’

Mr Webb notably did not withdraw his comments about disliking Mr Russell but conceded the timing was insensitive given his recent death.

‘I probably said too much, too soon, too quickly,’ Mr Webb said.

‘I do regret it a bit. I love his kids, they’re good kids. I’m just a loose cannon with full-blown anxiety.’

Mr Russell’s daughter Maddison politely declined to comment on Mr Webb’s remarks, stating: ‘It’s a very personal and private time.’

Mr Webb has a book about his ordeal coming out later this year and said his true feelings about Mr Russell, which were widely known in the tight-knit town of Beaconsfield, population 1,200, were ‘going to come out anyway’.

‘All that s***’s going to be in it, so I probably jumped the gun [in sharing his thoughts on Todd], but most people knew we didn’t get along. My problem is that I’m too honest,’ he said.

On Friday, a source close to Mr Webb told the Daily Mail that his chief issue with Mr Russell was his admission that he cheated on his first wife, Carolyn – something Mr Russell copped to during an interview on A Current Affair in 2017.

‘Brant was extremely offended when it came out that Todd cheated on his first wife [Carolyn],’ the family insider said.

‘Brant is a devoted family man, and he is friends with Carolyn to this day.’

Mr Webb refused to confirm or deny this on the record.

Since the Beaconsfield disaster, both Mr Russell and Mr Webb experienced enormous mental health challenges.

‘My wife Rachel and I went to the shrink’s a while ago, and she came out crying,’ Mr Webb said on Friday.

‘I asked her why, and she said the shrink told her that I was the most screwed up person he’d seen in 15 years in his office.’ 

Mr Russell’s funeral is set for Monday afternoon near Launceston, with questions arising over whether Mr Webb would attend following his shock public comments on McKnight Tonight.

‘I think I’m going to log in [to the livestream] and watch it from there,’ Mr Webb told the Mail. 

‘I’ve been to a few funerals where I’ve taken the limelight, and I don’t want to take the limelight from Todd.’

Poignantly, Mr Webb spoke to the Mail while on his way to a Foo Fighters concert in Melbourne.

While trapped in their cage under piles of rock, not knowing whether they would live or die, the pair famously requested an iPod filled with Foo Fighters songs.

The band’s frontman Dave Grohl heard about their ordeal, and wrote instrumental track ‘Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners’ in their honour – performing it at their show in Sydney earlier this week in tribute to the late Mr Russell.

The two men met with Grohl at the Sydney Opera House in 2006, after their miraculous survival.

Despite Mr Webb and Mr Russell’s differences now being revealed publicly, Mr Webb said he remained committed to honouring his fellow survivor’s memory.

‘I need to make it right,’ he said, adding that he was preparing to release a Great Escape beer in partnership with Miners Gold Brewery on December 9 in memory of Mr Russell, with proceeds to be donated to support homeless children.

‘I want to keep Toddy’s name alive, and it’s something for his kids, too,’ he said.

On McKnight Tonight, Mr Webb said: ‘We didn’t hate each other, we just had different views on life and what we were doing and where we were going.’

He added that they ‘had a few blues [arguments]. We had blues in the cage. We were trapped together, we couldn’t get away [from] each other.

‘You sort of get the s***s with each other, but that’s life.’

Mr Webb said he developed a better relationship with Mr Russell’s family than with his former colleague.

Less than a week before his death, Mr Russell wrote on social media that his doctors had no further treatment options to suggest.

‘After years of pain, uncertainty, appointments, treatments, setbacks and endless battles, plus the emotional exhaustion of having to pick myself up time and time again, [they] have left me with nothing left to give,’ he said.

‘The time has come, medically and [physically], where there are no further options on either front for me and there is no more fight left in me.

‘I will leave hospital tomorrow after eight and a half months for the last time to see out my days in my own home surrounded by my wife, kids, loved ones and friends.’

Mr Russell and Mr Webb had been working in a steel cage at the end of a teleloader in the Beaconsfield mine, north-east Tasmania, on the night of April 25, 2006.

A 2.2-magnitude tremor triggered an underground rockfall shortly before 9.30pm, trapping the pair 900m below ground.

The pair were feared dead after the body of a third miner, Larry Knight, who had been driving the work vehicle, was found in the rubble two days after the earthquake.

Many lost hope of finding the pair alive. However, the men were discovered four days after the collapse, during which time they survived on a single muesli bar and groundwater.

After a delicate two-week rescue operation, the pair emerged from the mine to worldwide attention before reuniting with their families.

Mr Webb paid tribute to Russell on Tuesday, and told ABC NewsRadio the two were ‘always bumping into each other’.

‘I’m very sorry to hear the news about Todd. My thoughts are with his kids and loved ones at this difficult time,’ he said.