It has been months since Kerri-Anne Kennerley farewelled her beloved husband John for the final time and now the TV host has sat down with talk show legend Sir Michael Parkinson, who attended their star-studded wedding at the Sydney Opera House in 1984.
The English broadcaster caught up with the Studio 10 host at his home in London, ahead of his upcoming Aussie tour, as he opened up on his friendship with John.
“He was a deceptively quiet man in a sense that you thought he doesn’t say much really does he,” Sir Michael explained.
“But he did, and what he did say was worth listening to.”
He continued: “And of course what he had was the most accomodating manner. You felt friendly towards him because he appeared to be the kind of accomodating man, someone you could talk to, look him in the eye and that sort of thing.”
In 2016 John sustained spinal cord damage following a freak fall, when he slipped off a balcony at a golf course in Coffs Harbour.
He was placed into an induced coma and taken to Sydney where he had emergency surgery on his spine, but the incident left him paralysed and he had to learn how to speak again. Kerri-Anne cared for him in the years that followed, all the way up until his sudden death in February.
The past few months have been heartbreaking for Kerri-Anne who had become her husband’s carer after the accident. Earlier this year the TV presenter opened up about her struggle to handle John’s estate following his sudden death.
The Studio 10 host told The Sydney Morning Herald that John took care of most of their paperwork and legal affairs, meaning she didn’t have to worry about it for most of their marriage, and that she was finding it challenging trying to organise his affairs while still grieving his death so deeply.
“There’s a lot of paperwork to do and I’m not great at paperwork, that was John’s domain,” she told the Fairfax publication.