ON KAK’S HEARTBREAKING LOSS
When a heartbroken Kerri-anne Kennerley farewelled husband John at his touching funeral, Studio 10 co-host Angela Bishop knew exactly what she was going through.
“It was the first time I had seen her since John died and it was just a very, very, very, very, very big hug,” says Angela, who lost her own husband Peter Baikie to a rare form of cancer only 16 months ago. “It is the worst time of your life, there’s no other way to describe it. There were a lot of tears.”
Especially emotional were Kerri-anne’s individual tributes to her “rock” – the kind, goodhumoured, endlessly supportive English gentleman she married almost 35 years ago at the Sydney Opera House.
Utterly bereft, Kerri-anne dedicated the Meghan Trainor song “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” to her late husband, with its heartfelt lyrics, “We were walking on moonlight/and you pulled me close/split second and you disappeared/and then I was all alone.”
His 65-year-old widow also ensured that John – a renowned model train fanatic whose railway ran right through their Sydney eastern suburbs home – was carried from All Saints Church, Woollahra, to a soundtrack of carefully-researched steam engine noises.
“The funeral was beautiful as you would expect, but they were two very special moments,” says Angela, 51, who last saw the ‘inseparable’ Kennerleys on the red carpet at the Sydney premiere of the stage musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on January 11.
“We had a very good chat then and John was in fine form, enjoying himself as usual,” explains Channel 10’s evergreen entertainment reporter. “He was a lovely man who just adored Kerri-anne.”
Sadly, the couple’s long and happy life together came to an end on February 27 when John died of pneumonia at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, aged 78, with Kerri-anne and his son Simon by his side.
“You were the love of my life,” his bereaved wife wrote, announcing his passing on Instagram. “As you all know, John has faced some tremendous challenges over the past few years and with each he has been extraordinarily brave and determined to overcome those hurdles and live a normal life.”
And so he did, as much as humanly possible, despite the freak fall – while posing for photos at a golf weekend – that left him an incomplete quadriplegic in 2016, confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his days.
“I remember interviewing them both backstage after Kerri-anne was inducted to the Logies Hall of Fame in 2017,” Angela recalls. “John was in his wheelchair – it can’t have been easy to get there, but he was so proud.
“He told me, ‘Of course I wish the things that have happened had not happened. There have been some difficult times, but you can’t change them. You just have to keep having fun, and that’s what we are doing.’ And that’s what John and Kerri-anne always did.”
From now on, veteran entertainer Kerri-anne must soldier on without her soulmate – just as Angela and her young daughter Amelia are doing. “We take one day at a time and hold hands and march forwards,” she says, reluctant to talk about her own tragedy in the wake of Kerri-anne’s bereavement.
“That’s all you can do, try to adjust to your new normal.”