‘Can’t imagine my life without her’: John Wood opens up on unusual marriage split

John Wood may be separated from his wife Leslie, but the Blue Heelers legend, 74, says he’s still nuts about her.

Speaking in an exclusive chat with Starts at 60, the Australian actor opened up about his separation from his wife and said, despite their differences, he still adores her. The former couple have been separated for about seven years now, but still live together as friends.

“Well, we’ve known each other for nearly 60 years and we’ve been married for 50 years… I can’t imagine my life without her in it,” he said.

“I’ve been nuts about [her] since the first day I saw her when I was about 16. I mean, she’s still, I still adore her, so there you go. What do you do?”

The actor also opened up about their unusual set-up, saying: “I’m living [at] one end of the house and she’s living in the other. She invited me to leave a couple of times which I did, [but] I didn’t like living alone.”

However, John said despite the fact that they’re not “married-married”, they still like each other enough to at least talk, share the cooking and hang out with their grandchildren together. The former couple, who married in 1970, share two daughters and three grandchildren together, who they see regularly.

John, who now lives in rural Victoria with his family, said he’s actually been conducting daily zoom readings of The Hobbit since iso started back in March.

“The two oldest grandchildren live just up the road so we occasionally go for a walk with them and they ride their bikes and I’ve been doing zoom readings of The Hobbit for them,” he said.

“So, the three grandchildren tune in and my brother’s oldest grandson tunes in and I read The Hobbit at 2pm every day. It’s been fantastic, it’s been the highlight of the last few weeks actually for me.”

Meanwhile, in the same chat, the actor also expressed his regret over moving away from his family back in 1987 for five years to play Michael Rafferty in the popular legal drama Rafferty’s Rules.

“I wished I managed to keep the family together more than I did, but that’s the nature of the business,” he recalled. “You have to go where the work is and Rafferty’s Rules was too good of a job to knock back. In hindsight, I probably would [have] made a different decision.”

This isn’t the first time John has opened up about his separation from his wife. Speaking to Starts at 60 back in 2018 the television star spoke openly about his split, saying: “My wife and I separated about five years ago, it happens. I didn’t make a big fuss of it at the time.

“We’re living back in the same house now. We’re friendly enemies I suppose! No, look I don’t know, I don’t suppose you could say it’s working out all that well but we’re battling on.