LISA TELLS: THE TRUTH ABOUT MY DAD
The Th swimming champion h i opens up about the horrific family abuse she witnessed growing up
Lisa Curry’s life has been filled with accolades, challenges and triumphs. And while the Commonwealth Games gold medal winner has mainly kept her personal life to herself, last week she bravely opened up for the first time about a dark family secret she’s held in for decades.
The star of an upcoming episode of SBS’ Who Do You Think You Are, Lisa, 58, has spoken of witnessing domestic abuse between her mother Pat and father Roy.
“There was quite a few years where we had pretty horrific domestic violence in our household,’’ Lisa said in an interview with The Courier Mail. “As children we would witness the fights and Dad hitting Mum, and the bruises,” she adds. And while the abuse sent ripples throughout the family, Lisa says her mother took years to leave him. “Mum always said, ‘I’ve got three kids and a grand piano... where am I going to go?” she says. “She couldn’t leave.”
However, when Lisa turned 15 and her swimming career began to take off, Pat divorced Roy, setting in motion what would be a more “distant” relationship with her father.
Lisa revealed that as her attention moved to the swimming pool – “her safe place” – and her father to his new wife, she drifted away from Roy.
The former Olympian says throughout her entire swimming career, he only watched her swim three times. “I probably would have preferred for him to be there a little bit more for me,” she says.
Lisa insists her strained relationship with Roy made her determined to “not be that type of parent” and to always love her children unconditionally.
Lisa went on to have three kids, Morgan, Jaimi Lee and Jett, with former husband Grant Kenny.
“My children know that they’re completely loved and supported.”
When Roy died in 2015, Lisa says she was left feeling “anger”, after she was restricted from speaking at his funeral, leaving her feeling as if she didn’t get true closure.
“I don’t really feel like I was able to say goodbye,” she says.
FINDING CLOSURE
Through her episode, Lisa is taken to Ireland where she uncovers the origins of her father’s story and finally gets to spread some of his ashes she had saved, bringing some closure. However, the pain left behind still lingers.
“I do see my mum suffer still. She is 85 and still sees a psychologist.
“I know it [domestic violence] affects people for a long, long time,” she says.
“[And] it’s difficult because I still live with how my mum has to deal with it.”
Lisa has since turned her charitable efforts to Hairdressers with Hearts, a not-for-profit charity that supports victims of domestic violence.