Former Seven Network television host Andrew O’Keefe will spend the night behind bars after he was charged with choking and assaulting a woman. 

The 50-year-old presenter was arrested early on Thursday after getting into an argument with the 38-year-old woman on Tuesday in a Sydney CBD unit, police say. 

He was refused bail to appear in Central Local Court on Friday to face two charges of intentionally choking a person, three of common assault, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. 

The former Deal or No Deal host is accused of “grabbing her by the throat, pushing her to the ground and punching her”, police said in a statement.

He allegedly then assaulted the woman for a second time by punching and kicking her again before she left the unit and reported the incident. 

O’Keefe, a former lawyer and son of former NSW Supreme Court judge Barry O’Keefe, was a founding member of domestic violence charity, the White Ribbon Foundation, where he served as chairman in 2017. 

The organisation – which went into liquidation in 2019 – said in a statement they were disappointed to hear of the allegations against O’Keefe, as with “many other distressing incidents of violence against women already this new year”. 

“We were dismayed to hear news that Andrew O’Keefe, who was previously aligned with White Ribbon Australia, was arrested following the alleged assault of a woman in Sydney on Tuesday.”

The organisation had already distanced itself from the one-time ambassador last year and said it stands in solidarity with every victim and survivor or men’s violence against women. 

AAP

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