Mike Munro was forced to watch his loving mother turn into a monster as she fell victim to her alcohol addiction right through his childhood, and it became so torturous it’s now made him “scared” of alcohol.
In fact, he admits if it hadn’t been for his beloved wife and kids, he may have followed in her footsteps himself.
The 65-year-old TV presenter grew up with his mum in a monastery, where she worked as a housekeeper after fleeing his “bushranger” father. Struggling to adapt to her new lifestyle, she began secretly drinking – sparking fits of rage which often resulted in her beating her son.
Describing her as a “Jekyll and Hyde character”, Munro admitted he was confused as a small child by the conflicting behaviour – as she never drank in front of him – and he only caught on to her “closet drinking” in the bathroom when he was around nine or ten years old.
She battled her addiction throughout his early years, and despite him staying at home until he was 21 to try and help her overcome it – she never managed to kick the habit before her death at age 58.
Now, speaking in an exclusive chat with Starts at 60, Munro has admitted while he’s forgiven his mum and remembers her loving and caring side, her addiction has put him off drinking too much himself.
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“Alcohol has always scared the hell out of me. I was never a big drinker, making me a bit of an outcast in the early newspaper years!” he said.
“I do think though, if I hadn’t have met [my wife] Lea, I could have gone the same way as my parents. She’s someone that I really loved, and in turn who gave me two beautiful children who I wanted to love and I have a responsibility for, but without them I could have easily gone the other way.”
His love of his mum has spurred him on to work with victims of alcohol addiction himself, and he added: “I do a lot of work with AA these days, I’m not an alcoholic, but I work with them.”
Munro’s mum died after 28 years battling alcoholism, shortly after he welcomed his first child, and he admitted she missed almost all of his success – something he’s really struggled to get over.
“That was hard, all I ever wanted to do was buy mum a unit that she could call her own. But while she never had her own, she kept me stable,” he said.
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“I could see, sober, she was decent and gave up her life to move away from this modern day bushranger father to give me a better life. In the process though, she ruined her own.”
He can now rationalise his mother’s outbursts, having learned what the effects of alcohol can be, and he explained: “I understand a lot more about alcoholism now, I just wish I could have understood it more as a kid. I wish she was still here today and could see her great grandkids too.”
However, Munro admitted he couldn’t have trusted his mother to look after his kids, as she never managed to get over her alcoholism: “I feel tragically sorry for her.”
The TV star didn’t have a close relationship with his father once they moved away either, but he said he kept in touch with him despite the fact he “ended up on bloody race courses for most of his life”.
Munro recently worked on a new documentary looking at the lengthy relationship between the US and Australia, in a partnership between Foxtel’s HISTORY channel and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The show, named MATESHIP – Australia & USA: A Century Together, began airing on July 4.
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