were called into question by the hosts of Melbourne’s Fox 101.9 breakfast show on Tuesday morning,<\/a> with Brendan Fevola, Kate Langbroek and Nick Cody suggesting Stewart had put “a lot of mayo” on her remarkable survival story – particularly her description of what was going through her mind during the attack.<\/p>\n“I’ve never been in this position and I wouldn’t understand what would go on, but if a shark was attacking you, you wouldn’t have much time to think,” Fevola said.<\/p>\n
“No, most people say you don’t even know what\u2019s happening,” agreed co-host Langbroek.<\/p>\n
The trio then turned their attention to a particularly confronting moment from Stewart’s interview, in which she revealed she deliberately punched the shark with her left arm because it was the limb she was more “willing to lose”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I was on the couch with my wife going, ‘She’s lying! Too much time to think!’ You\u2019re not thinking all that are you?” Fevola said.<\/p>\n
“Come on, oh right or left? Like bro, you are amazing – you punched a shark in the face and survived – but you’re not thinking all that,” he added.<\/p>\n
“That’s a lot of mayo.”<\/p>\n
Adelaide-based shark expert Andrew Fox has come to Stewart’s defence, drawing on the remarkable experience of his own father, Rodney, who survived a great white shark attack in South Australia in 1963.<\/p>\n
Fox said his father’s recollection of his near-death experience was similarly vivid and detailed, arguing the brain can process an extraordinary amount of information in the space of mere moments.<\/p>\n
“The doubters are always jumping in with opinion but anybody that\u2019s been through near-death experience will know an infinite number of possibilities are processed by your brain in microseconds,” Fox told the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n
“My dad has told me the same detailed story a hundred times over the years.<\/p>\n
“At first he actually thought he had been hit by a train and then he remembered he was underwater so he thought it must have been a submarine and then he realised it was a shark.”<\/p>\n
Rodney Fox was just 23, newly married and spearfishing off Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide, when the great white clamped its jaws around his torso.<\/p>\n
In a desperate attempt to break free, Rodney gouged the shark\u2019s eyes, but during the struggle ripped his arm across its teeth before grabbing the predator in a bear hug as the surrounding water filled with blood.<\/p>\n
He was on the verge of drowning when he managed to swim towards the surface, only to discover the shark was still behind him.<\/p>\n
Rodney kicked at the predator before it instead swallowed a fish float attached to his belt.<\/p>\n
His ordeal remains one of the most severe great white shark attacks ever survived.<\/p>\n
Rather than turning him against the animals, the attack sparked Rodney’s lifelong fascination with great white shark, a passion he later passed on to his son.<\/p>\n
The pair have worked together through Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions in South Australia and established the Fox Shark Research Foundation, dedicated to the research and conservation of great white sharks.<\/p>\n
Fox’s defence of Stewart comes as the radio hosts face a growing backlash over their response to the young mum’s account, with listeners accusing them of unfairly questioning someone who had survived an almost unimaginable ordeal.<\/p>\n
“Bit harsh Fev, she knew the shark was there for over a minute before it attacked her, I dont think Fev listened to the whole story,” wrote one listener on the show’s Facebook page.<\/p>\n
“Wow, sounds like Fev is a bit jealous of the attention this incredibly brave woman has been receiving,” added another listener.<\/p>\n
A third penned: “If you can\u2019t be dramatic about a shark almost eating you alive, what can you be dramatic about?”<\/p>\n
Stewart has not publicly responded to the suggestion that she “added mayo” to her account, while Fevola, Langbroek and Cody have also yet to publicly address the backlash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shark expert Andrew Fox has hit back at Melbourne breakfast radio hosts who accused young mum Leah 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