Ex-AFL great John ‘Sam’ Newman has long divided public opinion.
On one hand, he’s the straight-talking larrikin who refuses to be confined by the barriers of political correctness; on the other, he’s a sexist and insensitive man who once groped a mannequin dressed as footy journo Caroline Wilson on national television.
Regardless of what you think of the 71-year-old Footy Show personality, who has been married and divorced three times, the Geelong Football Club alumnus admitted he’s “not a great father”.
LISTEN: How Hamish and Sonny Blake are changing our perceptions of parenting. (Post continues…)
Speaking to the Herald Sun on the weekend, Newman says his lacklustre parenting is a result of being “not traditional”.
“I don’t show a hell of a lot emotion, I try and show it in different ways like giving tangible things rather than being tacit about it,” he told the newspaper.
“But that’s the way you are, you can’t choose your parents — unfortunately, my kids would say.”
Those kids are his three sons, Jack, Geordan, and youngest child Max, from his tumultuous relationship with Leonie Jones.
It was a partnership so marked by controversy, news that Jones – 26 years his junior – ran over and broke Newman’s leg dominated tabloids in 1997. She would go on to tell New Idea a year later that Newman had not bothered to meet Max until he was almost a month old.
The duo are now on amicable speaking terms, as are Newman and his son, it seems.
“I’m mates with the two older ones, the younger one is 19 and I have a different relationship with him because he’s at a different stage in life and another generation away from the boys I had earlier. We have a different relationship and view on things," Newman conceded.
While Newman refuses to put a line through the possibility of marrying again, he says he's done being a father.
“This will be a cause for great celebration, there will be no more Newmans coming onto the planet because not only have I had the snip I’ve had my prostate out," he said.
