’No one can imagine what it’s like’: Shock-jock Ray Hadley reveals family cancer battle
After 43 years ruling the airways, 2GB shock-jock Ray Hadley was ready to spend more time with his family. But he did not expect his wish to come true in such tragic circumstances.
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Ray Hadley gets up at 5.30am now — a sleep-in he says.
He reads the newspapers on the deck of his new home on The Central Coast’s Bouddi Peninsula, a world away from his previous life in Sydney’s northwest.
There is no radio, instead he’s listening to a new custom playlist on Spotify.
This is retirement for the shock-jock who ruled the airwaves for four decades, first with 2UE and then with 2GB.
But it’s all far from idyllic.
Over lunch at his new local, his mate John Singleton’s Railway Hotel, a tearful Hadley who has made a career out of bruising Australia’s toughest politicians, lets down his guard.
“I’ve asked my daughter and son Laura, if I can reveal this, and they’ve given me permission,” the talkback titan says in an emotional tone most of his listeners would rarely have heard.
“On January 6, my three year old granddaughter, Lola, was diagnosed with leukaemia and that was like a bolt out of the blue.
“In a former life, I was an auctioneer, so I get called on quite a bit to do charity auctions … (for) mainly children with, you know, really severe problems …. when it hits you in your own family, you understand the gravity of it, the financial impact on a family, the emotional impact, the physical impact, and no one can imagine what it’s like.”
The grandfather-of-seven says the whole family is drawing strength from “little smiling Lola” who has remained resilient in the face of increasingly aggressive treatment.
“It’s a two-year battle... this little baby girl has had a lumbar puncture yesterday, that’ll be her seventh, she’s had a biopsy and bone marrow six times all under general anaesthetic,” he says.
“She’s got tubes coming out of her left right and centre...they attacked the leukaemia and the tests came back a week ago which weren’t as good as we hoped so now they’ve really doubled down. She’s got four chemos a week.”
Hadley doesn’t believe in fate but concedes that something about deciding to retire and moving to a home closer to his children shortly before his granddaughter’s shock diagnosis feels predetermined.
He didn’t know about Lola’s diagnosis when he left 2GB on December 13, nor on Christmas Day when Lola and her six cousins and siblings celebrated the holidays with their grandparents.
“I don’t think I believe in fate … but I think that something must have pre-empted my retirement so that I can do what I’m doing now in relation to my granddaughter and my family. Because if I was still working, I wouldn’t been able to do it.”
Hadley is quick to rubbish reports his departure was related to 2GB owner Nine’s bombshell independent review, the Intersection report, that laid bare a toxic workplace culture.
“I mean there have been suggestions I’ve retired because of the Intersection report, and that’s a funny thing to say, because the Intersection report doesn’t name anyone,” he says.
“No one knows who’s in it.
“I simply had had enough …. I wanted to have a better lifestyle, I wanted to spend more time with the grandchildren, which I’m doing in different circumstances.”
In 2019, Hadley apologised after allegations of bullying in the workplace emerged, saying he would take responsibility for his behaviour.
In his final years on air, the radio king admitted he “mellowed” over time.
He now reveals that the news stories that used to drive him out of bed every day at 3.30am no longer feel as significant.
There is only one thing that matters, little Lola.
“My daughter and son-in-law have three children so their life is in absolute disarray, so the family pitched in,” he says.
“My daughter-in-law, who lives nearby, was a tower of strength straight away – her name is Cass.
“My son, who thinks he’s a chef and he’s not, he’s provided wonderful support in cooking and then Laura’s mum, Anne-Marie, my fellow grandparent is a really wonderful person. She basically put a life on hold and moved in with them to look after the other two children.”
For his part, Poppy has been looking for ways to keep Lola smiling.
“I was with her yesterday …. and she’s got this thing where she likes to trick me,“ he says.
“Her favourite thing is (to say) ‘Poppy, you’ve got a spider in your hair’ and I sort of brush my hair, and I say, ‘Where is it? Where is it? Get the spider out’ and then she laughs.
“I don’t know how she handles it, she’s only three.”
His world right now is fixated on his tiny granddaughter but throughout our chat Hadley still brings up sprinkles of the news of the day — from Sydney’s anti-Semitism crisis, to rail chaos and revelations of Immigration Minister Tony Burke stacking new Australian citizens to Western Sydney’s electoral role ahead of an election.
On this last point, he can’t help but add: “I know what I’d say if I was on air.”
What would you say?
“Pull your head in Tony.”
Asked about reports of a brewing radio collaboration with businessman and close friend John “Singo” Singleton, Hadley says it’s the first he’s heard of a comeback.
“I was quite stunned to read it, actually, first I knew about it, so I rang John Singleton yesterday and said, ‘Am I making a comeback? and he laughed and said ‘Well no.’
But he doesn’t entirely shut the door on a second innings — saying he would do anything for Singo, the man who saved him from a sacking at 2UE and took a chance on him at 2GB.
“If Singo ever wanted me to do something for him, and no matter what it is, I owe (him) a great deal, I owe my career.”
But beyond that, he hopes for a quieter retirement with more golf, time with his wife Sophie and fewer trips to the hospital once Lola recovers.
“I got a new car, which has done 6000km in six weeks. A lot of travelling up and down the coast,” he says.
“I figured out CarPlay with the help of younger people in my family... I’ve got a selection of Ray’s country favourites... I just put that on and off I go.”
No radio?
“No radio.”
Originally published as ’No one can imagine what it’s like’: Shock-jock Ray Hadley reveals family cancer battle
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