Speaker 1: Ash.
Speaker 2: Today is a very very good day.
Speaker 3: Yes, Matt, we have a bonus episode and today's bonus
Speaker 3: episode is with former NRL player and Fox commentator Braith
Speaker 3: a NaSTA.
Speaker 4: You can catch him currently.
Speaker 3: Sunday Afternoon Footy along with NRL three sixty all on
Speaker 3: Fox League.
Speaker 5: And this story is one that we haven't actually told
Speaker 5: on the podcast before because Braith is a single parent.
Speaker 3: Yes, he's very open about the challenges he has navigating
Speaker 3: two kids. He shares with two separate relationships.
Speaker 5: His dad to ten year old Aaliyah, and also he
Speaker 5: has Gigi who is seven, So amongst that plus work,
Speaker 5: he is juggling a hell of a lot.
Speaker 3: We also want to give your heads up. Braith shares
Speaker 3: his experience of losing his father to suicide when he
Speaker 3: was just fifteen. It's a deeply moving part of his story.
Speaker 5: Yeah, his father's influence continues to shape how both parents
Speaker 5: his own kids today. I do want to say that
Speaker 5: whilst we do talk about the topic of suicide, if
Speaker 5: you are struggling or you need any help, please reach
Speaker 5: out to Lifeline on one three eleven one four. They
Speaker 5: are open twenty four hours. We'll also put some more
Speaker 5: details in the show notes.
Speaker 6: Shall we get into it, Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to three doting dads.
Speaker 1: I'm Maddie, Jay, I'm Ash, and I'm Breath and Asta.
Speaker 2: This is a podcast all about parenting. It is the good,
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 4: The bad and the relatable.
Speaker 5: And if you've come wanting any type of advice, don't
Speaker 5: do it. Not from us. Well maybe maybe from Braith,
Speaker 5: maybe some unintentional advice.
Speaker 3: We always we always preface the show saying we don't
Speaker 3: give advice so we don't get in trouble.
Speaker 2: Okay, we have been talking to Breath for a couple
Speaker 2: of minutes. Wise Man Wise, Wise Man Ash and I.
Speaker 5: Just sitting here just absorbing the knowledge that experience feeling
Speaker 5: out of break right now.
Speaker 4: There's these dad hierarchy too.
Speaker 3: It's like the older you kid, okay, the higher up
Speaker 3: you sit on the chain that I'm pretty like that.
Speaker 1: I've compared to you guys. I'm six and ten.
Speaker 2: Six and ten, so you're yeah, you're your top of
Speaker 2: the food chain.
Speaker 1: I'm looking down at you.
Speaker 4: We've got five year olds and three and two trenches.
Speaker 1: You are in the trenches. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Does it get easier?
Speaker 1: It gets a little easier.
Speaker 7: It depends like I had My youngest wasn't youngest was
Speaker 7: a poor sleeper, like debilitating, like just getting sleep. We
Speaker 7: tried everything for it, and that that really is the killer.
Speaker 7: The rest I feel like you can deal with. But
Speaker 7: I'm getting to the point now where my tour I'm
Speaker 7: worried about the teens.
Speaker 1: Two girls. Oh man, you got it.
Speaker 5: Actually, before we get into before we end, if we
Speaker 5: go back to when you were a youngster born in Sydney,
Speaker 5: grew up in Malabar, what was it like back then?
Speaker 7: It was awesome because I lived in Mali, which was
Speaker 7: on a golf course and it was a bit out
Speaker 7: of the rat race of Sydney.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not far.
Speaker 7: It's fifteen minutes from here and probably twenty minutes from
Speaker 7: the city, but it was like being in a little
Speaker 7: country town mailerbats. It's built up a bit more now
Speaker 7: in the jail actually so next to a long bay jail.
Speaker 7: But if they stay inside, the film used to break out.
Speaker 1: But that's another story.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Like there's times where the siren goes off and
Speaker 7: literally it's two hundred made us from Like we're in
Speaker 7: a beautiful place, but you're under made us from the
Speaker 7: biggest jailing the country and you see coppers running around
Speaker 7: looking for the and we're on a golf course, right,
Speaker 7: so you can see the coppers going on the golf
Speaker 7: course checking all the cliffs and the trees, and we're
Speaker 7: all I'm on the back and we're just.
Speaker 1: Like watching it all on fold.
Speaker 7: And we had a little alleyway next to us from
Speaker 7: the street to the golf course. One day I saw
Speaker 7: a prisoner running down the alley and I'm like, but like,
Speaker 7: didn't want him to see me because I'm thinking, I
Speaker 7: don't want.
Speaker 1: Nothing to do with Witness twelve. And they end up
Speaker 1: catching him.
Speaker 5: But did your parents have to say to you, like
Speaker 5: when you hear the siren?
Speaker 7: Yeahwhere But after a while it only happened every few years,
Speaker 7: but it did happen.
Speaker 1: Exciting, Yeah, pretty exciting anyway.
Speaker 2: Who who introduced it a sport? Was it your brother?
Speaker 1: Well, my, my, my mum.
Speaker 7: I was I was born in a sporting family really
Speaker 7: because my uncle was George Piggins and George he was
Speaker 7: played for Australia, was coach president of South City Rabbit
Speaker 7: Oz played for Souse. He's the hero really, so it
Speaker 7: was just ingrained me from the second I was born.
Speaker 7: I was born with a foot in my hand, and
Speaker 7: then I was I was just tragic sport like it
Speaker 7: was rugby league, rugby union, golf, so he grew up
Speaker 7: on a golf course, so I just jumped the back
Speaker 7: fence too.
Speaker 1: Which is good.
Speaker 2: So was it league league?
Speaker 1: For league?
Speaker 7: First I played just southeast and on there a piney
Speaker 7: parking Meliba, and then that was my first love. And
Speaker 7: then played rugby union for Couldie and then round we
Speaker 7: can New South Wales and all that the same sort
Speaker 7: of thing. And then yeah, cricket was the same, played
Speaker 7: for Eastern Cricket of all trade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a bit of everything.
Speaker 5: I got to ask as a youngster, I would have
Speaker 5: loved to play professional sport.
Speaker 2: The problem was I.
Speaker 1: Was a bit ship. It doesn't help.
Speaker 5: The best I really do was scrape into like an
Speaker 5: a team and that I'd be like, what sport did
Speaker 5: you play? I played everything, so cricket, rugby, athletics, Like
Speaker 5: I try my hand hoping I would like find one sport.
Speaker 2: Even did the walk.
Speaker 3: You're a power walker, just to be like, maybe that's
Speaker 3: the you should see you should see his power?
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe after the record, we.
Speaker 1: Do it. We did it. The cricket.
Speaker 4: That's what we did, like a day of the.
Speaker 3: Were like dressed in full dad gear and were like
Speaker 3: he just took off.
Speaker 4: He was so fast.
Speaker 1: The blokes would have loved that, right. Yeah.
Speaker 5: The problem was I was actually pretty good at it
Speaker 5: and I went to States.
Speaker 1: But we went off track. You're actually good, but I.
Speaker 2: Was like, no one, no one wants to. I would
Speaker 2: have loved to play rug when you were playing sport.
Speaker 5: Was it a case of you're very good at anything
Speaker 5: you let your hand to.
Speaker 7: I don't want to your horn. Man, this is the time.
Speaker 7: I was very lucky. Like I don't want to sound
Speaker 7: like that. I was like gifted in that way where
Speaker 7: just the handle I start, fuck.
Speaker 8: You, it sounds like you're a professional athletic, professional athlete, breath,
Speaker 8: you're allowed to tell people that you were gifted.
Speaker 1: I was lucky. I was.
Speaker 7: I think my parents for that. But yeah, I was
Speaker 7: like I just whatever. I played there for a while,
Speaker 7: I was. I had quite a bit of success, and
Speaker 7: yeah I loved every bit of it. So I was
Speaker 7: pretty lucky there.
Speaker 5: And your Greek heritage was that something that was celebrated
Speaker 5: in the family.
Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 7: My dad was proud Greek, full Greek, and he spoke
Speaker 7: fluent Greek. But he was like an I was right,
Speaker 7: but he spoke fluent, very proud of his heritage. He'd
Speaker 7: seen the national anthem often, which is the only thing
Speaker 7: I kind of know, give us a little bit. I
Speaker 7: can't speak Greek, by the way, that's just from him
Speaker 7: singing a dinner that's pretty good.
Speaker 2: What do you sing it?
Speaker 7: He a family tradition before we eat kids. He's a
Speaker 7: his take. But yeah, so and and I'm still close
Speaker 7: to my Greek family. I didn't get the chance to
Speaker 7: go over to Greece much, which is a shame, but
Speaker 7: I have been there, but no, you know, I wish
Speaker 7: I got more invested in at a young age and
Speaker 7: learned the language.
Speaker 1: That's one of my big regrets. And I tell a
Speaker 1: lot of kids these days.
Speaker 7: If you've got the opportunity your parents speak a certain language,
Speaker 7: definitely try and learn it.
Speaker 2: Why didn't you want to pick it up?
Speaker 1: You know when you were young sort of.
Speaker 7: Growing up in a very Australian suburb and school and
Speaker 7: you know it's not really the cool thing to do,
Speaker 7: which is a shame, but at the point at the
Speaker 7: time it's you know, you just want to fit in
Speaker 7: and you know, do you want to be cool and
Speaker 7: all that sort of thing, which you look back on
Speaker 7: as stupid, but I think that was the reason why really.
Speaker 1: Else now I look back on it's one of my
Speaker 1: big regrets.
Speaker 4: What about when the movie The Wog Boy came?
Speaker 7: That was my family was where you guys a fan
Speaker 7: of the movie or I loved it jumping in front
Speaker 7: of the car and compo planes and that was such
Speaker 7: a kid with a big lunch box. You know that
Speaker 7: that's so true, but you know, you know, it's it's
Speaker 7: just the culture.
Speaker 2: Did you get sent to school with?
Speaker 4: Like would you lay your lunch out?
Speaker 1: And I wish I did, know because I love them,
Speaker 1: I wish I did. Greg food is.
Speaker 3: Believable, funny, Like as I get older and I see
Speaker 3: it because there's not a lot of Greek restaurants or
Speaker 3: Greek plays, especially on the beaches we've got, and when
Speaker 3: you come across the Greek restaurant, you're.
Speaker 4: Like going to get the Greg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not good for the question.
Speaker 2: I think it's that generation. Laura is my wife.
Speaker 5: Her background, they're Italian, they're down from in Woollongong And
Speaker 5: and he was he worked in the minds her granddad,
Speaker 5: and it was they tried to rub that out of them.
Speaker 1: I think that's probably a part of did she did
Speaker 1: she know? Did her dad speak fluent?
Speaker 2: Well, he was fluent.
Speaker 1: Does she does she speak?
Speaker 5: And she rarely would hear him speaking. But they still
Speaker 5: had like a goat in the garden.
Speaker 3: It's funny because my mind dad's side, they're indigenous, but
Speaker 3: his dad used to tell everyone that he was Spanish
Speaker 3: because he wasn't he They pretend that they.
Speaker 4: Went because my grandmother was white. You couldn't be with
Speaker 4: a black boy.
Speaker 3: It was like, yeah, there was the joke is that
Speaker 3: there's a really strong Spanish community in tari.
Speaker 5: Was there a case of there being a good cop
Speaker 5: and bad cop with your parents growing up?
Speaker 2: Was the displayer definitely?
Speaker 4: Who is scared of d.
Speaker 7: My my my dad was the good cop and my
Speaker 7: mom was a bad cop.
Speaker 1: But my dad was terrifying when.
Speaker 7: He actually lost it, when he got like the handprints
Speaker 7: I had on my body. It was run in the
Speaker 7: bedroom like that was. It took him a lot. But
Speaker 7: if he cracked it.
Speaker 5: And do you remember what would qualify for a spanking, Ah, yeah,
Speaker 5: a brother, older brother.
Speaker 1: We used to fight all the time, just when we
Speaker 1: just took it too far. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Well, one day actually, because I lived on a golf course,
Speaker 7: I tried to hit a ball from my backyard onto
Speaker 7: the green and we had glass panels, and he was
Speaker 7: on the phone inside.
Speaker 1: I think it was one more human.
Speaker 4: Was your backyard concrete or concrete?
Speaker 1: And I've just.
Speaker 7: And I thought, all right, I'm going all right here,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna hit the ball in the green my knife
Speaker 7: to straight smash the gall turned around, bolted and copped it.
Speaker 4: I think a window smashing is where it is worth.
Speaker 1: A pretty poor error judgment. Hopefully you improved your gold.
Speaker 1: I thought I was gifted.
Speaker 9: But yeah, as a dad, now any damage to the household,
Speaker 9: yeah yeah, texters.
Speaker 7: And drawing, and you know it's hard to keep them
Speaker 7: in line, in at the kids, but yeah it's our
Speaker 7: mum was good cop, but she was not bad like
Speaker 7: she was great parents.
Speaker 4: But you just keep the day to day discipline, just the.
Speaker 7: Day to day which you need. But I was pretty good,
Speaker 7: to be honest, I wasn't. I wasn't a bad boy.
Speaker 7: I was pretty pretty good.
Speaker 4: With how much older is your brother three years are three?
Speaker 2: Was he as good at sport as what you were.
Speaker 1: No, very different to me. Were title opposites. He wasn't.
Speaker 1: He was good, like good, but not to that next level.
Speaker 7: But he played rugby league, but he was totally different
Speaker 7: than me, like different into different things. He was a surfer, skateboarder,
Speaker 7: extreme athlete, snowboarding, totally different, you know. And yeah, we
Speaker 7: were total opposites. So it was quite but it happens
Speaker 7: a lot. Even my two girls now are total opposites
Speaker 7: and they're only six and ten. But yeah, but he
Speaker 7: was a big supporter of me and sport and loved
Speaker 7: it and I just wasn't.
Speaker 1: It's very different.
Speaker 5: So with your sport, you were very gifted. Did your
Speaker 5: parents at all have to try and keep you disciplined
Speaker 5: with that or did you just want it from.
Speaker 1: The day I was hungry.
Speaker 7: I was like, my goal, like from a very young
Speaker 7: age was to be a professional athlete, and that was it,
Speaker 7: you know. I kind of dedicated myself to it, like
Speaker 7: crazy age. But I feel like I sound like a
Speaker 7: winker again. But my biggest challenge there was what one
Speaker 7: to focus on because I had reached quite a level
Speaker 7: at rugby union league, in cricket and golf, so I
Speaker 7: had to, because you can't do all of them and
Speaker 7: get to where you want to get to in the
Speaker 7: in the in one. Yeah, so that was probably a
Speaker 7: challenge for me.
Speaker 5: But your parents try and steer you in a direction,
Speaker 5: siding between golf and league for a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: My dad he was he wanted me to play rugby,
Speaker 7: but then he was a big fan of the golf
Speaker 7: as well. So I gave league up and rugby when
Speaker 7: I was six fifteen sixteen about a year and focused
Speaker 7: on golf and played on you know, played in the
Speaker 7: Jack newe And Foundation and played in all the Australian
Speaker 7: titles and got plus three and played in the New
Speaker 7: South Wales team there for a bit and so. But
Speaker 7: then there was a real sliding doors moment where there
Speaker 7: was a in the Jersey Estuly bore for South Sydney.
Speaker 7: Their fullback got injured, which I wasn't a fullback and
Speaker 7: I was I was a year high me as well,
Speaker 7: but the coach called me and said, I want you
Speaker 7: to come and play for us.
Speaker 4: We need to be guns.
Speaker 7: But I played for a while and I went back
Speaker 7: and we won the comp and then I made all
Speaker 7: the teams and the rep teams and then that was
Speaker 7: it side with the house and it was over from there.
Speaker 1: So that was the defining moment for that. Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have seen you swinging a golf club driving.
Speaker 3: I wasn't completely sober, but we did have driving range
Speaker 3: session there and we were average.
Speaker 5: I remember taking his swing and I looked over my shoulder.
Speaker 5: I saw Braith and he was dry reaching.
Speaker 2: All I wanted was just to look over and get
Speaker 2: a knot of a friend.
Speaker 1: I look back at the.
Speaker 2: I started walking instead.
Speaker 4: I've played played a cover drive in golf. I don't
Speaker 4: know if that's legal.
Speaker 5: But when I when I think back to being a
Speaker 5: young teenager around the age where they are, like fifteen sixteen,
Speaker 5: there's such formative year. And you have spoken before about
Speaker 5: the tragic events of your father passing away. Do you
Speaker 5: remember the events that unfolded leading up to when you
Speaker 5: found out?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was. It was horrific. So I was close
Speaker 7: with him Dad, and he was a big supporter. I
Speaker 7: had a good upbringing, you know, Mama. As I said before,
Speaker 7: Mum and Dad were fantastic. He was successful in his
Speaker 7: own right, so he taught me strong values and.
Speaker 1: He was a great human being.
Speaker 7: Went through a lot of drama himself with business and
Speaker 7: with the mate of his and got to a point
Speaker 7: where we knew he was struggling, but we just didn't
Speaker 7: know it was as bad as it was. And then
Speaker 7: he just one night he came home from We didn't
Speaker 7: come home from work. He went to work, and me
Speaker 7: and Mum and him at that point, because I was
Speaker 7: only fifteen, we kind of gove for dinner on a
Speaker 7: Sunday night and we're waiting for him and waiting for him.
Speaker 7: Didn't come home, so he killed himself, which was it
Speaker 7: was just even now, you can't it's hard to process.
Speaker 7: Like I deal with it more better now because I've
Speaker 7: had a lot of time, but it's it's just something
Speaker 7: you can never prepare yourself for as a kid, and
Speaker 7: it changed your life forever, even now, and yeah, it's
Speaker 7: just such a shock to the system that you just
Speaker 7: don't know how to deal with it. He kind of
Speaker 7: in morning for a long time, and you just don't.
Speaker 7: It's like it's very surreal when somebody you see them
Speaker 7: one day and they're gone the next and they're just
Speaker 7: their dad, you know, they're you know, they're everything to you.
Speaker 7: So that was debilitating, devastating, what's the.
Speaker 5: Rollercoaster of emotions that you go through? Obviously you start
Speaker 5: with that initial shock, but then how does it transcend
Speaker 5: following that?
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, I mean your first question, you're thinking why,
Speaker 7: and then you get angry because you left us and
Speaker 7: you left my mum to roller coaster for a number
Speaker 7: of years. But it kind of like, you know, like
Speaker 7: I drew inspiration as well. But like from the life,
Speaker 7: you eventually get to a point, and especially I think now,
Speaker 7: because it's so it happens a lot more now, and
Speaker 7: you get to know mental health more, and you get
Speaker 7: to experience yourself how tough life can be at times,
Speaker 7: with stress and anxiety and having kids and the expectation
Speaker 7: of jobs and relationship breakdowns, all these sort of things
Speaker 7: that all of us go through, men and women. As
Speaker 7: you get older, you appreciate the position he may have
Speaker 7: been in more and why he did it. I think
Speaker 7: that was the big thing for me. For a long time.
Speaker 7: I was, you know, a bit angry and couldn't understand it.
Speaker 7: But as you get older and you have the yourself
Speaker 7: and you see, you know, can you see other guys
Speaker 7: go through it as well?
Speaker 1: Like I see it a lot these days.
Speaker 4: And stress, stress and pressure.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I get it, and I don't blame him
Speaker 7: for it now, like I appreciate it, and I thank
Speaker 7: him for the lessons I learned too, but because I
Speaker 7: would never do it, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 7: I appreciate every day. But I also what he taught
Speaker 7: me as a father to me, I instill in my kids.
Speaker 7: But I also know that I'll be a better father
Speaker 7: for the experience as well, because it's made me a
Speaker 7: lot stronger as a human.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think back then, the difference between now and
Speaker 3: back then someone who has suffered from some mental health issues.
Speaker 3: It's so crazy how powerful it is now that it's
Speaker 3: spoken about, and back then it was you know, seen
Speaker 3: as though, like it was a bit selfish on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like there's there's times for me that I
Speaker 3: sit there and think about, thankfully not nowhere near as
Speaker 3: much anymore as what if I wasn't around. And the
Speaker 3: thing that pops into my head is the look on
Speaker 3: my kid's face. So do you think, do you think
Speaker 3: now you know so much about it that you know
Speaker 3: you wish that back then that people spoke a bit
Speaker 3: more and maybe he'd still be here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is I'm passionate like sounds like you are
Speaker 7: about men and men's mental health and talking like all
Speaker 7: of us, you know, like you know, I've started this
Speaker 7: is I'm not plugging it, but I've started a program
Speaker 7: called Strong Dad, which we're going to relaunch very soon.
Speaker 7: And it's comes from him because I've seen it firsthand,
Speaker 7: and back then it was like I wasn't proud of it.
Speaker 7: And people may have you know, the room as well,
Speaker 7: if someone committed suicide, you know, and it's okay to
Speaker 7: you know, not alone, like this is the thing with
Speaker 7: you as well, like all of us go through stress
Speaker 7: and pressure, through and anxiety and you know, life stuff,
Speaker 7: you know, And I think for me it's about men, no,
Speaker 7: and they're not alone, like we all feel it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: It's very it's not easy, you know, and we want
Speaker 7: to be able to talk about it. We want to
Speaker 7: be able to openly talk about how heart it is
Speaker 7: being a dad, the expectation of paying the mortgage, losing
Speaker 7: your job, going through a marriage breakdown, or whatever it
Speaker 7: may be. It happens. It's part of life and we
Speaker 7: can get through it. How do you get through it?
Speaker 7: That's where I think if you talk and we have
Speaker 7: all our all have our coping mechanisms and ways of
Speaker 7: getting through it. We share that with others. Then it
Speaker 7: shows that there is light at the end of the
Speaker 7: tunnel for guys.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when we when we did that episode last year
Speaker 3: about my mental health, the amount of blokes and wives
Speaker 3: coming out and the support and it was really overwhelming,
Speaker 3: Like we have people approaches in the street and talk
Speaker 3: about it, and it's so good that you know that
Speaker 3: we're in the right direction because it could.
Speaker 4: Help save so many young lives.
Speaker 5: And you talk before about you know, almost embarrassed about
Speaker 5: that Greek heritage when you talk about the stigma back
Speaker 5: then of suicide. How was it then with you dealing
Speaker 5: with that suicide publicly and other people finding out about
Speaker 5: the circumstances.
Speaker 7: Shocking, you know, like he had I'm at school in
Speaker 7: high school and all the kids out they're looking at it,
Speaker 7: you know, like you're like you're an outcast, like not meaning.
Speaker 4: Too, but they didn't know how to deal with it.
Speaker 7: Killed himself on the weekend, you know, like it's it was,
Speaker 7: you know, and this speculation, rumors, innuendo because people just
Speaker 7: you know, you people would like to make up unfortunately,
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 1: So how do you deal with that? Well? I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 7: I kept it all in for long time, and that
Speaker 7: impacted me through my early twenties so to mid twenties
Speaker 7: and even my career because you know, it was it
Speaker 7: was hard and dealing with it and they're not having
Speaker 7: that a mentor too, like, you know, really to talk
Speaker 7: to he's he's the guy. I would talk to her
Speaker 7: about those things, obviously, Mum, I do and still do today,
Speaker 7: but she can't. You know, it's hard for her, right
Speaker 7: because she went through it herself. A love of her
Speaker 7: life gone, he one day, gone the next, and then
Speaker 7: she has to bring up to two sons herself, and she,
Speaker 7: you know, like I said, it's it's sort of yeah,
Speaker 7: it was tough.
Speaker 5: It breaks my heart to hear that you're going through
Speaker 5: that with your family unit. I've heard you speak about
Speaker 5: the fact that your your family was a great family
Speaker 5: growing up. But in that moment where someone is such
Speaker 5: a pillar and keeping the family together is taken away,
Speaker 5: how does how does the dynamic change between you and
Speaker 5: your brother.
Speaker 1: It's hurt us, It's hurt our whole family.
Speaker 7: Like you know, he found my dad, you know, so
Speaker 7: it's something he will never get over as well, you know,
Speaker 7: and he's had to deal with that, and you know,
Speaker 7: it just adds a lot of stress on a family
Speaker 7: that was perfect one day, you know, it was fractured
Speaker 7: the next. And you know, like it's because we had
Speaker 7: a good upbringing and my mom's amazing. It's you know,
Speaker 7: we've we've kept it together. And you know, I think
Speaker 7: my career has helped because it's gave my family some
Speaker 7: light and something to look forward to and you know,
Speaker 7: really follow the progress and it's exciting and the success
Speaker 7: and it's I think it's given them hope and enjoyed
Speaker 7: the ride, the rollercase. But I think that was that
Speaker 7: that helped to at a pivotal time like playing first
Speaker 7: grade and just gave everyone in the family a bit
Speaker 7: of an upper you know for sure.
Speaker 5: And were you trying to feel that that father figure
Speaker 5: that was taken away from.
Speaker 7: Yeah, definitely with mum, you know, because not feel the
Speaker 7: father figure as such, like just but there be there
Speaker 7: for mum. You know, Like there was times where I
Speaker 7: had opportunities to go play in Melbourne or in France
Speaker 7: or England, and I didn't because I want to stay here.
Speaker 7: You know, like I may have taken different path, a
Speaker 7: different opportunity if I if things weren't That's just I
Speaker 7: wanted to stay here and here.
Speaker 3: For did sport feel a lot of your time so
Speaker 3: that you didn't have to sit there and think about it?
Speaker 4: Do you think?
Speaker 7: Yeah, why I was playing. That was around the time
Speaker 7: that I'd given up league. So I had a tournament
Speaker 7: on days after Wow. Holy my uncle caddy for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So I just they said do you want to you
Speaker 7: don't want to play? And I said, no, I'm playing.
Speaker 1: Wow. So that was my.
Speaker 4: Didn't break any glass.
Speaker 7: I can't remember what I played like, but it was like, okay,
Speaker 7: let's get on with business.
Speaker 2: Let's distraction.
Speaker 7: Distraction, which which is great at the time because I
Speaker 7: just went from tournament sport tournament sport, But then it
Speaker 7: hits you later because you don't deal with it why
Speaker 7: you probably should at the time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you remember when it when it crept up and
Speaker 5: it got you later in life.
Speaker 7: It was my mid twenties, early early twenties to med
Speaker 7: at sort of I will think would have been maybe bulldogs,
Speaker 7: maybe roosters there, bulldogs probably, but that period where you
Speaker 7: kind of struggle them a little bit with footy, and
Speaker 7: then you have the pressure, and you've got media, and
Speaker 7: you've got you know.
Speaker 2: You for me, and you're still young.
Speaker 7: I'm only kids still in everything I do is in
Speaker 7: the papers, and I don't have that my dad did
Speaker 7: to lean on. You've got financial decisions, to make relationships,
Speaker 7: all that sort of thing. It creeps up on you
Speaker 7: and then you you just yeah, it hits your heart
Speaker 7: and it hit me hard. And then that's why I
Speaker 7: kind of got a I got a sports sick and
Speaker 7: then I end up getting a psychologist as well, just
Speaker 7: and I sort of went back and relived it a
Speaker 7: bit and dealt with it the trauma and let it
Speaker 7: all out, and then I moved forward. And since then
Speaker 7: I've been probably, yeah, I've been a lot better.
Speaker 1: I deal with it. Well.
Speaker 3: Did you during that time did you have like a
Speaker 3: mentor we spoke earlier about now that you manage all
Speaker 3: these rugby league players and sort of act a little
Speaker 3: bit like a mental did you have really?
Speaker 7: I had a feel on the way, like a few
Speaker 7: coaches and a few mates and my mum, of course,
Speaker 7: But I encourage that, like it's something that's what I do.
Speaker 7: I do with the sports management. I think it's if
Speaker 7: you've had someone who's been there. Don't live that the
Speaker 7: good and the bad though, Like you don't always want
Speaker 7: to just be hearing all the good stuff. Like I
Speaker 7: like to think that I've lived a lot of experiences
Speaker 7: and I like to prepare players athletes for the worst
Speaker 7: as well. Yeah, how you're going to deal with that,
Speaker 7: you know, because that often it is how you deal
Speaker 7: more with failure than it is how you deal with success,
Speaker 7: so or vice versa as well, But they are both important.
Speaker 1: That's why I do it. Yeah, so it's important. Now.
Speaker 1: Mentors are great, I think, you know, if you can
Speaker 1: find the right one too.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 5: I can only begin to imagine what it's like to
Speaker 5: have to share this story again. I know you've done it,
Speaker 5: not just on this podcast, but others as well. I
Speaker 5: just want to say sayings for being so vulnerable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's so many young men out there that don't
Speaker 3: they It's funny they don't, especially like.
Speaker 1: My you know, my age.
Speaker 3: A lot of my mates they bottled so much shit
Speaker 3: up and it's fucked and then eventually when they hear
Speaker 3: someone that they they see a lot of themselves in
Speaker 3: or they might look up to whether.
Speaker 4: You know you don't know them.
Speaker 3: They don't know you, but they probably watch you every
Speaker 3: night on an RL three sixty or see you or
Speaker 3: in and around the game, and they think when they
Speaker 3: hear someone like yourself talk about it, they go, fuck,
Speaker 3: I need to talk about it too.
Speaker 5: And even get one juxtaposition because I grew up watching
Speaker 5: you play footing and then to hear you be so vulnerable,
Speaker 5: it's such a one eighty to how I saw you
Speaker 5: as as a player.
Speaker 7: It often happens, you know, like I meet a lot
Speaker 7: of people and they ageez, I didn't expect.
Speaker 1: That or what you know, Like that's what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you look at.
Speaker 7: A lot of people and you don't know their story,
Speaker 7: you don't know what they've been through, and when you do,
Speaker 7: you kind of maybe have a different perception.
Speaker 1: But also it helps yourself.
Speaker 7: But I think the most important thing is you're not alone, yep.
Speaker 7: And but also the repercussions of of something like that,
Speaker 7: like the severity of it and what it has not
Speaker 7: only I mean you know, on your family, your friends,
Speaker 7: your kids. It is debilitating and the people it's not
Speaker 7: only I mean, it's the people around.
Speaker 1: You that will never be the same as well.
Speaker 7: You know, so it's something that I think I think
Speaker 7: all men and women should think about.
Speaker 1: You know, it's pretty full.
Speaker 5: On becoming a dad yourself. Was that something that you
Speaker 5: always wanted to be?
Speaker 2: Did you always want to grow up and have a family.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was that kid or that guy that wanted
Speaker 7: kids from a very young age, like I wanted to
Speaker 7: be a dad.
Speaker 1: That was Yeah, definitely a priority for me from a
Speaker 1: young age.
Speaker 5: And then when you were in your relationship with Jodey
Speaker 5: at the time, when did you know that you were
Speaker 5: ready to start having kids Because a lot of people
Speaker 5: are like, how do you know.
Speaker 1: When you're ready?
Speaker 7: I don't think you're ever ready, right, Yeah, I just
Speaker 7: thought I was a back end of my career.
Speaker 1: I think it was my last year actually around that point.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I thought it was good timing, you know,
Speaker 7: like I'm going to retire from being a professional athlete
Speaker 7: but then move into the media. How old are you
Speaker 7: roughly at this age, around around thirty.
Speaker 4: When did you finish your career at the Roost Tigers?
Speaker 7: So I was around thirty one thirty two It would
Speaker 7: have been trying to do the mass of my head.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thirty one thirty two, and I thought he perfect.
Speaker 1: I wanted him earlier.
Speaker 7: But yeah, you know, there's a lot of things to
Speaker 7: come into it, right, You're going to be happy in relationship, yeah, sure,
Speaker 7: You're gonna looking for stability and all that sort of thing,
Speaker 7: and then you know, time to actually give and be
Speaker 7: there as a dad as well as a professional athlete.
Speaker 7: I think a lot of the boys timers while they're
Speaker 7: playing because they're not there.
Speaker 1: They got his training. Oh sorry, love, I've got to.
Speaker 4: Has never changed U.
Speaker 1: That is crazy, That's what I sure. Yeah, I that
Speaker 1: was the first thing I did, isn't That's unbelievable.
Speaker 4: Have you heard that before?
Speaker 1: I have heard him.
Speaker 2: I probably give it to yourself.
Speaker 1: It's we're after your mate, just looking down upon me.
Speaker 4: I get it, like he's probably training a lot.
Speaker 3: But then.
Speaker 4: I threw him on the bars, and I felt bad.
Speaker 5: I think sometimes, I know for myself, I always wanted
Speaker 5: to be a dad. I was so excited, and then like,
Speaker 5: you have no idea the reality of being a parent,
Speaker 5: you know, like my taste of being a dad with
Speaker 5: my sisters older than this, she had children first, So
Speaker 5: I would like have a little five to minute window
Speaker 5: and be like, this is great, hand it back. And
Speaker 5: then when I became a dad, I was like, this
Speaker 5: is hard. How was it for yourself? As soon as
Speaker 5: you stepped into that role of.
Speaker 7: Being it was hard? I loved it. It was hard.
Speaker 7: I was very hands on and yeah I did a
Speaker 7: lot of time, like I thrive offer, but it was
Speaker 7: it was it was hard work.
Speaker 1: I mean lucky. Alia, our first was quite a good sleeper.
Speaker 4: That to me makes so like we often talk about
Speaker 4: you get one or the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, even though I was challenging, Yeah she was.
Speaker 1: She was. She's quite the angel. But you know, like
Speaker 1: everything's a challenge.
Speaker 7: Right, getting in and out of the cars, going to anywhere,
Speaker 7: going to parties and dressing and whatever. It's it's all
Speaker 7: a challenge, right, you got you gotta None of us
Speaker 7: can really understand, appreciated or be ready for what's to
Speaker 7: be able to happen until it happens.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, you can never be prepared.
Speaker 5: Ali, if she was a good sleeper, what were the
Speaker 5: parts of parenting that were really bloody tough?
Speaker 1: I think for me.
Speaker 7: And this kind of this is more been a single dad, right,
Speaker 7: it was more when I had it by like I
Speaker 7: can end up having it by myself, you know, after
Speaker 7: she was only one or two, you know, like it
Speaker 7: was pretty pretty early on. Unfortunately myself and my mum separated,
Speaker 7: But so that was that's a challenge, you know when
Speaker 7: you've got on one on one pretty much majority of
Speaker 7: the time too, I had her.
Speaker 2: How are you juggling that whilst because you're still playing for.
Speaker 1: I'm lucky for my mom. She's like my nanny.
Speaker 7: It still is like, you know, I've got three jobs
Speaker 7: and even back then I had a couple and yeah,
Speaker 7: so so that was Mum would help me. She's always
Speaker 7: lived close by. She's just been an angel. Like really
Speaker 7: I needed her because it's hard work, you know, like
Speaker 7: just from the second they wake up to the second
Speaker 7: they go to sleep, they need undivided and.
Speaker 4: Entertainment. I'm like a kid myself.
Speaker 5: And then you're like, I've got five minutes of duplo.
Speaker 1: And iPads and that weren't.
Speaker 7: You're like, I'm not going to be that parent with
Speaker 7: the iPad.
Speaker 1: And then.
Speaker 7: A lot of walking, a lot of a lot of laps,
Speaker 7: a lot of walking, a lot of you in sleep,
Speaker 7: and a lot of entertaining, Like you know, whether it's
Speaker 7: going to fun parks.
Speaker 3: And when you when you did separate, like having having
Speaker 3: a trial so young, how do you how did you
Speaker 3: split that out? Like did I mean there's probably people
Speaker 3: listening that are going through similar things. How logistically, logistically,
Speaker 3: how do you how did you guys work?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a bit of a tricky one.
Speaker 7: It's a bit of a tough one with with with
Speaker 7: I think Jody's been pretty outspoken about it, with her struggles.
Speaker 7: So I had Alia a lot for a lot majority
Speaker 7: of a life. So logistically it was pretty simple. She
Speaker 7: was at my place a lot, Jodie would have her
Speaker 7: when she was away from work, and you know, it
Speaker 7: was in a good space. So yeah, it was pretty
Speaker 7: much my whole life, you know, like it was it
Speaker 7: was a single dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again without my mom, I wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: able to do it.
Speaker 7: But you know, it's just it's pretty much, I mean, daycare,
Speaker 7: pick up, you know, and whatever meals everything.
Speaker 1: You know, you just do what you got to do.
Speaker 7: You just get by and then mom would help out
Speaker 7: wherever she could if I had work.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was pretty it's full on, Like.
Speaker 5: How is it when you're like I think everyone when
Speaker 5: they envision when they're younger, what it's going to be
Speaker 5: like having a family. Everyone thinks of this beautiful scenario.
Speaker 2: Why I pick it?
Speaker 1: Fans?
Speaker 5: Yeah, loving home, great relationship, but the reality is often
Speaker 5: different to that for yourself, when the reality was different
Speaker 5: to the dream of being a parent, Like, how do
Speaker 5: you digest that?
Speaker 1: Ah?
Speaker 7: Mine is so different to the way I thought it'd be,
Speaker 7: Like it's hard to you know, I mean it's tough,
Speaker 7: Like I mean, I've got two kids to two different women.
Speaker 7: You know, I'm not young, but I've that was serious relationships,
Speaker 7: long term, but it just didn't work out. Now, you know,
Speaker 7: that was not what I dreamed of at all, And
Speaker 7: unfortunately it happens, probably more more so these days than
Speaker 7: we don't like right with I don't know for whatever reason,
Speaker 7: but it's it's not ideal, you know, Like it's hard.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: For me, it's all about the girls, you know, and
Speaker 7: given them the best life that I can, and I
Speaker 7: work hard for that. But you know, I don't want
Speaker 7: them to be impacted by it as well, you know,
Speaker 7: broken families, and I want the girls to be together
Speaker 7: as much as they can, and.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a real tricky one. It's a tricky one,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 7: And then you're trying to discipline both girls the same way,
Speaker 7: and that's tough because one's in a different house for
Speaker 7: a period of time and she comes and joins my clan.
Speaker 3: Different people, different even asked with two kids, like you know,
Speaker 3: within our relationships are they're so different, so different, I
Speaker 3: can't imagine them, you know, two different two different moms,
Speaker 3: two different households, and then they come to you and
Speaker 3: you're like, Okay, now we're going to do things my
Speaker 3: way or this way that way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, must be.
Speaker 7: That's a big challenge for me, is instilling the right
Speaker 7: discipline and values like which I'm big on.
Speaker 1: Alia is by my side a lot.
Speaker 7: So she's got she's she's the easy going one, she's
Speaker 7: the class captain, she's got great mennas and I feel
Speaker 7: like she's had those instilled in there for a long time.
Speaker 1: The other one, Gg's a wrap back.
Speaker 7: And loa like cheeky, you know, poor eater, poor sleeper,
Speaker 7: you know, can't sit still, just wants to be doing
Speaker 7: something twenty four seven. But I love everything about it, right, Yeah,
Speaker 7: the total opposites. But then I'll bring them together and
Speaker 7: there they're they love each other to death, but.
Speaker 1: Click and she's just chirming away the older one and
Speaker 1: the other one gets the ships and now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden it's on.
Speaker 5: You know, But how how was it when you spoke
Speaker 5: about your second partner, Rachel? At what point do you go, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm now in a position where you know, I'm a
Speaker 5: single dad, but you would have been pretty young at
Speaker 5: the time, with thirty four.
Speaker 1: Around thirty five.
Speaker 5: There you know you're going to want to try and
Speaker 5: find another companion. Yeah, when you know when you're ready?
Speaker 5: And how do you juggle that?
Speaker 7: It's a hard one, right because when you single dad,
Speaker 7: you you not only want the right person for you,
Speaker 7: but more importantly for your kids and they need to
Speaker 7: be ready for that too. The partner like that's that's
Speaker 7: a red flag for me, Like I've hearn a lot
Speaker 7: of red flags. But it's hard you did to find
Speaker 7: the ideal partner who you know? And Rachel, I have
Speaker 7: to say she had a son and herself from a
Speaker 7: previous marriage, and she was a good mum. You know,
Speaker 7: she put in a lot of she was there for
Speaker 7: for earlier and you know, while I was off work
Speaker 7: and she was. She was dropping hert a school and
Speaker 7: doing all that for me. So that's that was you
Speaker 7: talk about. You know that however I juggle that well,
Speaker 7: that was with the help of Rachel, So that was
Speaker 7: very important. And you know, she was a natural mother
Speaker 7: and she did a very good job. So that that
Speaker 7: helped me a lot.
Speaker 2: When do you decide, OK, let's introduce the kids together?
Speaker 10: Now, this is like, you know, this is a tough
Speaker 10: one because you to introduce your kids, you need to
Speaker 10: be sure of the.
Speaker 7: Woman and vice versa for a woman with a man.
Speaker 7: So that's what I'm having trouble with a bit. Is
Speaker 7: you know, like back then it was you know, we
Speaker 7: kind of did it within six months and probably moved
Speaker 7: pretty quick.
Speaker 1: On that.
Speaker 7: Second time around, I'm a bit more awary of it,
Speaker 7: you know, because I don't want my kids going through
Speaker 7: that again. You know, I think the next time I
Speaker 7: introduce them to a partner has to be the one
Speaker 7: we all think it is at the time, right, and
Speaker 7: you know, things happen, but it makes it hard because
Speaker 7: I'm trying to It's been probably two and a half
Speaker 7: years now I've been single, and when you meet women,
Speaker 7: all of this comes into account, you know, like and
Speaker 7: I won't just rush any woman into meeting my kids.
Speaker 7: So it's a kind of an awkward situation for a while.
Speaker 7: And then when that does it get to the point
Speaker 7: where they do, it's tricky, you know, and it's you've
Speaker 7: got to be certain, and you're never really certain, right,
Speaker 7: But I'm certainly not in a hurry to do it.
Speaker 7: If I meet a girl, it's got to be right.
Speaker 4: Listening women just quickly, I want to go back a
Speaker 4: little bit, just really quickly.
Speaker 3: Being a single dad with girls, do you think that time,
Speaker 3: so much time with them has helped you build a
Speaker 3: much stronger bond than maybe some other dads have that
Speaker 3: are you know, still with the mom and there's that mix.
Speaker 7: This mixed for me, like Ali, that bond is unbreakable
Speaker 7: purely because from the day she was.
Speaker 1: Born, it's been me and huh for.
Speaker 7: Different circumstances answers GG, I don't get as much, which
Speaker 7: is hard for dads as well, right, because it's small
Speaker 7: than I would say the stereotypical you know breakup where
Speaker 7: the mother mother has majority. You know, we always want more,
Speaker 7: but that's it's different, you know, like we I had
Speaker 7: the hard thing is I wanted to look forward to
Speaker 7: seeing me every time she sees me. So as a dad,
Speaker 7: when you've got her, I don't want to I spoil her.
Speaker 7: But how much do you spoil them that they don't
Speaker 7: benefit the right way?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I've got Thursdays.
Speaker 5: Other days it's called Daddy doing night and and we
Speaker 5: have like swimming in the morning, and it's you know,
Speaker 5: it's it's the one day where Laura is working, my wife,
Speaker 5: and so she's me and the girls and and it's
Speaker 5: this hard balance of I want it to be a
Speaker 5: really memorable, enjoyable experience, and so you want to give
Speaker 5: them things that they enjoy. But at the same time,
Speaker 5: it's also hard when some it's just a bad day.
Speaker 5: Sometimes the girls didn't have a good sleep, they're cranky,
Speaker 5: they don't want to get their swimmers and got to
Speaker 5: swimming lessons, and so it ends up being a shit
Speaker 5: day where I've spent disciplining. And then how was it
Speaker 5: for you when you do that little window with Gigi
Speaker 5: and you build it up to be something great and
Speaker 5: then it's not, and.
Speaker 7: You sometimes heartbreaking because you got you've only got a
Speaker 7: short period of time, like a couple of days with
Speaker 7: us in a week, and if it's not a good time,
Speaker 7: you're disappointed and it's sad because you've got to drop
Speaker 7: her back on a bad note. Yeah, it just hasn't
Speaker 7: gone a plan and you don't have that every day
Speaker 7: time to be with her for her, you know. So
Speaker 7: it is hard for dads like that, and it just
Speaker 7: doesn't always care to.
Speaker 3: Plan, right, Yeah, especially as they probably get older as
Speaker 3: well and then they're into their own things or they might.
Speaker 3: I mean with my daughter, she's so young that like
Speaker 3: if we have a tip, you know, we can get
Speaker 3: over pretty quick, you know. Then that but as they
Speaker 3: get as she gets older and more stubborn and resilient
Speaker 3: herself and can be like, well, I'm going to hold
Speaker 3: this grudge against you now because that's not fair what
Speaker 3: you did.
Speaker 4: Whatever it might be, it must be really hard.
Speaker 3: I can't imagine that drop off at the end of
Speaker 3: your time and you haven't been able to mend that bridge,
Speaker 3: and then you've got to wait all that this time to.
Speaker 1: Try and try and have that moment and it's your
Speaker 1: own daughter, you know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's hard to take you as you go back
Speaker 7: again to all you ever think of is as someone
Speaker 7: as a kid or just growing up, is having that
Speaker 7: perfect family right where you've got your kids and you know,
Speaker 7: I was brought up in well it didn't end up
Speaker 7: being a perfect family, but it was from my childhood.
Speaker 7: And then you get to a point where it's just
Speaker 7: not yeah, and you've got to deal with it. But
Speaker 7: that's like, you know, we've all got we've all got
Speaker 7: ways of dealing with different things and things we've got
Speaker 7: to navigate through. And it's a constant challenge for me.
Speaker 7: But I love I love my girls, and I love
Speaker 7: being a dad.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I see a lot of your social stories, and I
Speaker 3: can see that the time that you spend with them
Speaker 3: you really appreciate.
Speaker 4: I see, I see.
Speaker 3: You know, you could be out walking with them or
Speaker 3: whatever it might be, or a selfie with them, and
Speaker 3: it's like, and that's that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 4: So commended for that for sure.
Speaker 5: Even though I wasn't good enough to be a professional
Speaker 5: athlete yet taking time and the fact that apparently athletic
Speaker 5: men produce females and if Braith's got two girls, I've
Speaker 5: got two girls.
Speaker 2: That's good enough.
Speaker 7: You can pick that walk in career and he's crazy though,
Speaker 7: like so many guys athletes.
Speaker 3: Have women, I've got a theory and it's not the
Speaker 3: shallow penetrators.
Speaker 5: When when you girls are a lot older and they've
Speaker 5: flown the nest, what is the one thing that you
Speaker 5: would want g G and Ali to remember about the
Speaker 5: household they grew up in?
Speaker 7: Just the I would say, just the love, the love
Speaker 7: that they had from the people closer to them. And yeah,
Speaker 7: just just to I suppose look back and think they
Speaker 7: had a great upbringing. They love their dad to death
Speaker 7: and they do anything for him, and you know, just
Speaker 7: that loyalty and that love really is that's a happiness.
Speaker 7: That's all you really want is just to put a
Speaker 7: smile on their face and know that they were given
Speaker 7: every opportunity to be the human beings that they were
Speaker 7: through the parenting of the of their dad.
Speaker 1: Really, that's all I can ask for.
Speaker 2: Graith, You've had such an extraordinary life.
Speaker 5: It's had great up some tough times as loads, but
Speaker 5: it's been fucking great to talk to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much for spending the time before
Speaker 3: we do go.
Speaker 4: I did mention a story.
Speaker 3: To you earlier, yeah, and I managed to track this
Speaker 3: down just to give the listeners.
Speaker 4: A bit of a bit of an idea.
Speaker 3: A friend of mine back in twenty eleven and today
Speaker 3: Women's Day competition where it was does your husband look
Speaker 3: like anyone in particular celebrity athlete? Which is a bit
Speaker 3: of both He.
Speaker 2: Did you know about the competition at the time, but.
Speaker 1: Probably not so.
Speaker 3: She submitted a photo of her boyfriend at the time.
Speaker 4: Now they married a couple of kids, and actually, I.
Speaker 5: Have a look first before we show the poor bastard
Speaker 5: phrase far better.
Speaker 4: Look you're preparing me for you spend some time with Josh.
Speaker 3: I'm in the gold code, so Josh is his name,
Speaker 3: but s wilkm South tweettheads she submitted this photo to
Speaker 3: Women's Day and actually one one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: She's got good taste. Oh copy that, Oh com back.
Speaker 1: He's probably doing better than me at this point.
Speaker 3: You've got a few've maybe got six or seven years
Speaker 3: on him there, but gee, you looking him there? That?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so they actually won that award twice in
Speaker 3: ive me two hundred bucks than you, Josh sending that
Speaker 3: to me so quickly.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your thanks for having me on. I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Love what you guys doing it's been.
Speaker 4: Fun than appreciate. Thank you.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say as Braith was a real surprise package.
Speaker 5: I grew up watching him play footy and I never
Speaker 5: expected someone like Braith who I see has been so strong,
Speaker 5: so vulnerable in a conversation.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we really want to thank KAO for lining
Speaker 3: that interview up and allowing it to be possible.
Speaker 4: And if you've.
Speaker 3: Enjoyed that, please jump on give us a review five stars.
Speaker 3: Let us know what you think or share with someone
Speaker 3: else who might be struggling or going through a similar situation.
Speaker 5: And if there's any other parents out there that you
Speaker 5: would like us to talk to and share their story,
Speaker 5: please hit us up either on Instagram, Facebook group or email.
Speaker 5: It's hello at Two Doting Dads dot com ash.
Speaker 2: Let's get out of.
Speaker 4: Here, my friends, see you later.
Speaker 2: You've got a big drive home.
Speaker 5: Thank you, big guy, Big guy. Let's get out of
Speaker 5: Two Doting Dads. Podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country
Speaker 5: throughout Australia and the connections to land, see and community.
Speaker 3: We pay our respects to their elders past and present
Speaker 3: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and torrestraight Onland
Speaker 3: People's Today. This episode was recorded on Gadigle Land