Lost father found: Huge twist as Ali Clarke shares her pain with listeners

Radio star Ali Clarke’s journey into her tragic family past and the loss of her biological father has come to an emotional end.

Ali Clarke’s search for her long-lost biological father has ended in grief, finding his unmarked grave at a cemetery in Brisbane.

Ali has discovered Philip Joseph McManus died, aged 39, in Brisbane in 1987, and now hopes to find any other children he may have had, along with unknown aunties and uncles.

Interviewed by Mix 102.3 at a cemetery in Brisbane’s western outskirts a tearful Ali was recorded talking this week at his gravesite with her mum Mary Cale.

“When you turn up to a cemetery and there are beautifully cared for plots, but then just a piece of grass for him, it is easy just to think that nobody cared,’’ Ali said.

“Just to find something that maybe had his name on it would have been good.

“You know maybe I should have cared sooner and I worry now that maybe there wasn’t anyone there to look after him, or care and maintain the grave.”

Ali Clarke and her mum Mary Cale at the Brisbane cemetery where Ali confirmed her long-lost father was buried in an unmarked grave. Picture: Supplied

The host of the ‘Ali Clarke Breakfast Show’ on Mix 102.3 has been reliving on-air the traumatic disappearance of her father from her life while she was three or four years old.

Her only memory when she started the search was the day she was told he had died.

In one of the tragic revelations in her search so far, Ali’s mum Mary told her she had been the “apple of his eye” when she was born.

“I have been thinking about it a lot since Ali brought it up and one regret I have is not following it through with her when she was younger and I should have done more,’’ Mary said.

Ali Clarke and her mum Mary Cale at the Brisbane cemetery where Ali confirmed her long-lost father was buried in an unmarked grave. Picture: Supplied

Old photos of Ali Clarke with stepdad in Brisbane. Picture: Supplied

Ali’s search will continue in Brisbane and her father’s native England, from where her paternal grandmother would send birthday and Easter presents, after her father left the family.

“It makes me wonder how he ended up being here on the outskirts of Brisbane, when they met in Sydney and Canberra and Caboolture and then he was in the Antarctic for a while,’’ Ali said.

Mr McManus returned to work in Brisbane in 1984, long after a drinking problem had caused the end of his marriage to Mary.

“How did he end up here and me being really close and not knowing.

“And maybe (I am so upset) because I was stupidly hoping for a Disney ending, that there would be something with his name and my name on it.

“I just hope he was happy. I hope he was having a great time up until then.”