Hidden truths

Every Family Has a Secret returns with even more unknown tales from people’s pasts. Host Noni Hazlehurst tells Danielle McGrane about the diverse group of Australians seeking out the extraordinary secrets within their families for this new season.

N oni Hazlehurst knows better than most, that everyone has a story.

As she hosts the second season of Every Family Has A Secret, she continues to be astounded by what’s been hidden in people’s pasts.

“You realise how much pain that we all carry,” she said.

“I think everyone holds a deep well of grief inside them for some reason or other but we’ve become very good at drawing the veil and just coping and pushing it to one side, but it’s deeply moving when these things are revealed to people. They realise the pain that their ancestors have been through, and the suffering that has not been shared.”

These moments of revelation are pretty astonishing this season. The participants are sent all around the world – to Italy, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic – to uncover long-lost family members and find out the truth about their ancestors.

In the first episode, Perth woman Ellis Treleaven follows her Dutch Jewish mother’s path through the Holocaust, to uncover the secrets surrounding her own birth in a Nazi concentration camp.

Teacher Matthieu Heimel, meanwhile, undergoes a very different journey.

“He investigates his mother’s disappearance and suspected murder, and on the way he discovers extra evidence about the person who is believed to be responsible,” Hazlehurst said.

There are also some happier moments for Heimel.

“He finds the person that his mother was living with, which is incredibly moving.”

There are also stories of potential spies and Hollywood moguls as Hazlehurst follows these people from the beginning to the conclusion.

“These people are so brave, because they want to find out these secrets that aren’t necessarily palatable or positive, and also because they go on television to do it,” she said.

She also feels a responsibility towards them because of the major, life-changing things they uncover.

“We’re still in touch with the people who were in the first series because they’re so vulnerable. We become very close to them because they

Noni Hazlehurst: These people are so brave, because they want to find out these secrets that aren’t necessarily palatable or positive, and because they go on television to do it.