Luke on top of world as big change a real boon

Giving himself a break has allowed this Gold Coast radio personality to undergo a critical transformation. He has broken free from the shackles of self-loathing, has found true love and is enjoying being the best father he can be

Bulletin SOMETHING had to give. And for Luke Bradnam, it started with a jawbreaker. Two years ago, the man who makes a living by talking discovered what he thought was an extra tooth growing from the bottom of his mouth – but instead it was a physical warning cry from a body burning out.

“There was a bone growing out of my jaw and the specialist literally said it was happening because I was so run down,” says the co-host of Gold FM’s The Rush Hour.

“For five years, I worked every single day. Even if I had time off, it was to go climb a mountain. I didn’t know how to take a break, if I stopped for five minutes I felt guilty and lazy. “It wasn’t just my body breaking down, it was my relationship with my partner and my relationship with myself. I had to break down to rebuild myself.”

Sitting in the sunshine on a glorious Gold Coast winter’s day, it’s obvious that Luke is still soaking in the positive changes of his transformation.

While it came too late to save his relationship with high school sweetheart Cathy Hallam – his partner of 25 years and mother of their daughter Coralie – he has found new love with Lauren Fitch.

He “only” works two fulltime jobs – hosting the city’s No.1 drive show with Margaux Parker as well as presenting weather, beach and surf reports for Channel Nine – and now even has Sundays off.

But most of all, he’s savouring the relief of no longer hating himself.

Known for his open and authentic attitude on-air, it’s still bracing to hear him articulate the innermonologue that drove him for so long.

“So often I’ve been criticised as being arrogant and I’m just like – what? I hate myself. I’ve been filled with selfloathing forever. I’ve felt so resentful of so many things and always just that I was a failure. That I should be doing more and succeeding more and it was eating me up on the inside.

“It poisoned my relationships. I

feel guilty still that Cathy had the worst of me. The man I have become over the last two years is someone completely different.

“I started therapy when our relationship started to break down and it is the last thing I would ever give up. It has been hard and it has been painful but I have come out the other side a better person. I’m learning to reprogram myself, to live in the moment, to be content with what I have, to go easier on myself. It’s a cliche but when you treat yourself right, you treat others right.

“I’m starting to feel like I can be proud of some of the things I’ve done – and even proud of who I am as a person as well. It’s a very foreign feeling, I can tell you.”

Luke says while splitting up from Cathy was incredibly difficult, they are still on good terms and focused on coparenting Coralie, 13, the light of Luke’s life.

He says his own parents divorced when he was 17 and he’s learned from their example that separation can be the best path forward for a family.

“It was so hard to call it a day with Cathy, but we were just leading separate lives. We weren’t happy anymore. She was my first girlfriend and she’s the mother of my daughter.

“Our focus was always and will always be on Coralie and we will always be in each other’s lives.

“When my parents divorced it was horrible, but it was actually the best thing to ever happen in our family. Not only did they both become the best versions of themselves but they also introduced fantastic new partners into our lives.”

As Luke speaks of girlfriend Lauren, a sales executive for Nine, it’s clear he still can’t believe his good luck.

While he says there is no professional competition between himself and twin brother Ash, breakfast host on Brisbane’s Nova 106.9 – who celebrated four years sober this week after a long battle with alcoholism – Luke says he long envied his brother’s relationship with wife Jodie, a clinical psychologist on the Gold Coast.

“Being a twin is amazing. I am so lucky that my brother is my best friend. Ash and I are so incredibly close, we talk every single day for at least 30 minutes. We talk psychology, therapy, radio, everything.

“But Ash once said to me: ‘You know how lucky you and I feel about being twins? That’s how I feel about being married to Jodie. She’s my best friend, my other half, my soulmate’.

“Cathy and I loved each other but we just didn’t have that connection.

“But I’ve got it now. I’m so in love. I just feel so unbelievably grateful and lucky. I genuinely didn’t know a girl like her existed, let alone for me.

“When I met her, she said she was heading off on holidays and I asked where she was going. And she said ‘I’m going to Everest base camp’. I just said: ‘Bulls---. So am I’. I couldn’t believe a girl like this existed. I get to go and do all these things with her – we’ve run a marathon together, we train together, it’s like we were made for each other.”

In fact, the pair have just enjoyed a week’s holiday in Bali together – a first for Luke.

Not because of the destination, but because he had no plans but to relax.

“Yeah, it’s ironic but I have to work on relaxing. It’s a skill,” he says.

“I used to see those people sitting and just looking at the ocean and I could not understand it. But I’m trying to be more like them. My therapist said, we’re human beings – sometimes we just have to be.

“I’ll go for a surf but no major physical feats on this trip.”

Not that Luke will be giving up on his love for endurance sport any time soon. After completing 21 marathons, two ironmans and climbing both Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest base camp, he’s not done yet.

In fact, he credits his physical fitness with helping him through times of emotional turmoil.

“What endurance sport has taught me is that I am way tougher than I thought I was. When I think I have to stop, I don’t. When I think I have to quit, I don’t. I know that if I keep moving forward, I will eventually get there. And you don’t remember the pain.

“When you’re in a s---fight, keep going. I’ve been in a lot more pain in my life than the physical pain of a marathon,