Former footy star Beau Ryan reveals his secret boyhood regret

There’s much more to Beau Ryan than you’ve seen on the footy field or on television. While the father-of-two appears to have it all, he says his life could have gone in an entirely different direction if he’d let it.

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It’s hard to imagine Beau Ryan as anything other than a rugged NRL player or the larrikin television presenter on the Footy Show. But if the former Cronulla Sharks winger had his time over again, he could have very much ended up making his living on a stage rather than the football field.

The 33-year-old reveals to BW Magazine that one of his biggest childhood regrets was blindly following a football career instead of a more creative path.

While the father-of-two appears to have it all, he says his life could have gone in an entirely different direction if he’d let it.

Beau Ryan wishes he pursued the creative arts instead of just a football career when he was younger. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“I wish I did drama or acting as a kid and got to mix with more creative people rather than just go into footy and meet the footy boys,” Ryan says.

“Drama wasn’t cool when I was young. But I did some theatre recently and a lot of kids came to watch and a kid came up to me and told me he did the musical, Grease.

“And then the dad said that his son wants to do dancing because of me.

“And I wasn’t a dancer or an actor but I guess it was because I was on the stage and it made me feel better than I’d ever felt with footy.

“I didn’t have a role model like that (when I was a kid), I just looked up to footy guys.”

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But Ryan has had a taste of what his other path could have been like.

He appeared in the pantomime Aladdin And His Wondrous Lamp in 2015 and last year made his film debut playing a footy player in the movie Chasing Comets.

On top of that he has managed a successful transition from the footy field to television presenting since his NRL retirement in 2014.

Beau Ryan in action while he played for the Cronulla Sharks.

Now, Ryan is set to return to television screens on Ten’s new show Chris & Julia’s Sunday Night Takeaway alongside Chris Brown and Julia Morris.

The new gig is just another contradiction to the man everyone thinks they know.

He admits that while he is a joker, the bloke who loves to play pranks and doesn’t take life too seriously, he is also a deep thinker, especially when it concerns his family.

He worries how social media will affect daughter Remi, 6, when she’s older and laments the fact his young son Jesse, one, never got to watch him play football.

Few people would know that Ryan keeps in touch with a young brain cancer survivor, Caleb, and that he encourages his mates to talk about their feelings as an RUOK suicide prevention ambassador.

And despite a well publicised affair, he’s not afraid to gush about his high school sweetheart and wife of six years, Kara.

Ryan with his wife Kara, daughter Remi and son Jesse. Picture: Instagram

Before Christmas Ryan posted a photo of himself and Kara on Instagram with the caption: “I have never been happier in my life — experiencing the world with @kararyan who is my life. Love always wins.”

The post was a far cry from the 2015 scandal where Ryan was outed for having an affair with former Hi-5 children’s entertainer, Lauren Brant.

While he never mentioned Brant by name, he addressed the affair publicly at the time apologising to “all of the people who have been hurt recently”.

It’s clear now though Ryan refuses to let that incident define who he is.

“I like showing my emotions, I have had my ups and downs and it’s good to be happy and be proud of where you’re at,” he says.

Proud dad Beau Ryan with his daughter Remi. Picture: Chris Pavlich

“Some of my closest friends will comfortably say how much they love their daughter or their wife and it’s good, we need to see more of that.

“When I was younger the people I looked up to didn’t really share their emotions. You were taught as a man to not show your emotions.

“At footy training, guys didn’t bring their kids, they didn’t talk about their wives, they hung with the guys and were macho men.

“Some of the men I admire now are mates who take their daughters on coffee dates.”

Ryan is the first to admit his big mouth often gets him into trouble, which can be a concern on live radio.

He is a regular on the KIIS FM breakfast show alongside Jackie O, filling in when her co-host Kyle Sandilands is away.

And he says he often finds himself in the uncomfortable position of saying things he knows will land him in hot water.

“I get in trouble about stuff I talk about on radio all the time off my wife,” he says.

“She knows she’s going to expect something, but I don’t know if she listens to much that I do because she’s preparing the kids for school when I’m on radio. But parents will come up to her at school and say ‘he said this and that’. I forget that there are half a million people listening when I’m on KIIS.”

Ryan with his former Footy Show co-workers (from left) Erin Molon, Paul Vautin and Darryl Brohman. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Ryan doesn’t miss a beat when asked what his biggest on-air blunder was.

“I once said one of my good mates Benji Marshall had a baby and he hadn’t announced it yet,” he says visibly shamefaced.

“He had a baby boy and they’d done a gender reveal on their social but then they went quiet for a couple of weeks when he was born and I came out and said they’d had their boy. I didn’t think it was that bad — look at me still trying to dig myself out of this a year later.

“I got in a lot of trouble off Benji and his wife but mainly my wife.”

Former West Tigers star Benji and wife Zoe later confirmed they had welcomed a son they named Benjamin Fox.

His new role is hosting a segment on Sunday Night Takeaway called In For A Dollar, where members of the public can pay $1 for the chance to win $1000, seems perfect for the man who rose to fame as the cheeky roving reporter talking to punters on the NRL Footy Show.

Ryan admits being able to talk to just about anyone is one of his greatest skills, but again, one that can sometimes land him into trouble.

Ryan also competed in Australian Ninja Warrior. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“It’s probably not a great thing for me when I’m out with my wife and we’re trying to have personal time and someone comes up to me while we’re having sushi and wants to talk about how my kids are,” he says.

Ryan grew up in Albion Park, near Wollongong, the eldest of two.

He says he often got in trouble at school because he was a restless kid who preferred to be outside rather than in the classroom.

He reflects that becoming a dad finally forced him to grow up and become less selfish.

It’s another insight into what the popular personality likes to consider is a new and improved version of his former self.

“For the first few years of my daughter’s life I took fatherhood for granted because I was so busy and I look back and realise I needed kids in my life at that time because I was quite selfish,” he says.

“I worry about my daughter and social media too … There’s a part of me that wants to take my family and move to Uluru and switch everything off.”

* Sunday Night Takeaway premieres next Sunday, 7.30pm, Ten.