‘JOHN, YOU WERE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE’
1940 - 2019 HEARTBROKEN KERRI-ANNE
The TV legend credits her ‘beautiful’ husband with saving her life. Her heart broke last week when they lost the battle to save his
It’s hard to think of KerriAnne Kennerley without seeing her brilliant smile and the man who was always by her side – her partner in love and life, her mentor, her biggest fan and perhaps even more importantly, her soulmate.
She lost John, 78, last week, and that trademark smile was replaced with shock and tears. Her grief was overwhelming. Friends from around the world and millions of fans around Australia were filled with profound sadness over John’s death.
His catastrophic fall three years ago left him a quadriplegic, trapped in a wheelchair. However, the tragedy only made their incredible bond stronger. Their love story was like no other – they completed each other in a way that was both rare and beautiful.
PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE
Kerri-anne, 65, was too griefstricken to talk about her terrible loss publicly last week, but even amid the shock of her loss, she found time to pay tribute to the love of her life and share her sad news with the millions who followed their journey and hoped and prayed for a miracle, which sadly never came.
“It’s with a heavy heart and awful sadness that I let you know that my beautiful husband John passed away last night,” the TV host wrote in a heartbreaking post 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.
“I want to thank everyone at St Vincent’s Hospital for the beautiful care they have provided to John in his last days.
“John passed away peacefully with his son Simon and I by his side.
‘John was determined to overcome those hurdles’
“John, you were the love of my life.”
The couple met at a chance meeting in New York in 1979. John loved telling friends how the instant he laid eyes on the beautiful blonde bombshell he knew she would be his wife, no matter how improbable it seemed at the time – because e she was married to someone else.
Kerri-anne revealed last year in her biography – which she dedicated to “the love of my life” – that it was John who saved her from an abusive ex-husband and provided a safe sanctuary. He remained her saviour and soulmate from that day until she lost him last week.
The couple were married at the Sydney Opera House in 1984, and have rarely been apart since, enjoying what seemed like a never-ending love affair. Even the amazing holidays they took each year seemed more like an annual honeymoon than a holiday. He was her rock, her mentor, her lover and her best friend.
TRUE LOVE
Geoff Harvey, her much-loved sidekick on Midday, the daytime variety show that made her the queen of Australian TV, perhaps put it best when he said Kerri-anne found out what “true love” meant when John swept her off her feet all those years ago.
When he fractured his neck and damaged his spinal cord in a freak fall at a golf resort near Coffs Harbour on March 6, 2016, doctors thought he wouldn’t survive, but Kerri-anne refused to listen and searched the world looking for any way to save him.
Her grit and determination and their amazing shared love saw John recover enough that she was able to bring him home in time for Christmas that year and care for him with the help of around the clock nursing staff. She had never looked happier despite the enormous hurdles still to come.
When Kerri-anne was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame in Melbourne a year after John’s accident, she paid him the ultimate tribute.
“I would give away my 50 years of career on TV and all those incredible experiences and anything else I can think of to have you standing right by me, and holding my hand.”