At 81, he remains a devoted Warriors fan but attends fewer games due to mobility issues.
Leitch credits positivity and a strong social circle for his well-being, despite memory fading.
Sir Peter Leitch is enjoying a slower pace of life after hanging up his meat cleaver – and is grateful just to be alive after health scares had him worried the end of his life was nigh.
He retains his natural effervescence and straight-talking persona but admits his memory is fading now at 81. And while he’ll be a fan of his beloved New Zealand Warriors “‘til the day I die”, he can no longer get to Mt Smart Stadium to watch them as often as he used to.
But don’t try to tell him life’s not what it used to be – Sir Peter told Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night he has “no problem at all” with retirement.
“To be fair, that may be to do with my reasonably high profile I used to have, because people still want to come up and talk to you quite often. So I think I’m at a little bit of an advantage,” he said.
“I enjoy still being alive. I mean that’s paramount, you know? But I’m lucky – I’ve got verbal diarrhoea and I talk to everybody, so I never get lonely.
“There’s always people to talk to, and most people enjoy having a chat. The odd one might tell you to bugger off, but that’s life. You’ve got to be grateful when you’re my age – I’m just over 80 – to still be kicking around and feeling quite good about it too. I feel reasonably good.”
Sir Peter now lives in a retirement village in Auckland with his wife, Lady Janice, and they regularly get back to the home they own on Waiheke Island.
At 81, Sir Peter Leitch remains a devoted Warriors fan but attends fewer games due to mobility issues. Photo / NZ Herald
He told Real Life it’s good he’s no longer doing as much as he used to when he was overseeing 36 Mad Butcher shops across the country and hosting VIPs at the supporters’ lounge at Warriors games.
“ I used to do a lot of public speaking back in the day, [but] that’s all dried up now. That suits me because my memory’s not as sharp as it used to be,” he told Cowan.
“ I used to run a lounge at the stadium, and we had so much fun. I used to emcee it and we used to jack up special guests, and with my connections, we got some VIP people in there. No one was safe from my humour. I sort of miss that, but that’s life, you move on …
“I’ve got no complaints. I’ve lived a good life … I’m lucky I’ve got a good circle of friends.”
Sir Peter can perhaps count himself fortunate to have made it this far in life, having twice overcome major health scares in the past decade-and-a-half – prostate cancer from 2010 to 2016, and life-threatening complications from heart surgery in 2019.
”That word cancer puts the fear of God into you, mate. You think, ‘I’m gonna die’,” he recalls.
“You’ve got to try to keep positive all through life, don’t always take the negative side. And I think that’s what’s made me who I am – I’ve stayed positive, you know? Believing helps, and good doctors and good medicine make a difference.”
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in on Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
