Sunrise host Mark Beretta named Father of the Year for 2019
Sunrise sports presenter Mark Beretta admits to feeling out of his league after being named the 2019 Father of the Year.
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Mark Beretta admits to feeling out of his league after being named the 2019 Father of the Year.
With previous recipients including former Prime Minister John Howard, acclaimed artist Ken Done and scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, the Sunrise sports presenter said he was humbled by the honour.
“I feel very out of my league,” Beretta tells the latest issue of Stellar magazine, available in The Sunday Telegraph this weekend.
“I’d like to think I’m just a normal dad. But look, if it’s something that makes people think about the roles dads play, it’s a good thing.”
The annual Father of the Year title is handed out by The Shepherd Centre, a charity for deaf and hearing-impaired children.
Other previous recipients include Beretta’s fellow Sunrise staffer David Koch, entrepreneur Dick Smith, former NSW Premier Mike Baird, Governor General David Hurley and basketball great Andrew Gaze.
Beretta, 53, and partner Rachel are parents to daughter Ava, 15, and son Dan, 12.
The award won’t mean any special dispensation on house duties for the TV presenter.
“I’ll be busier than ever,” he said. “There will be extra things for me to do.”
Beretta said his toughest lesson as a father to date has been around boundaries with teenage children.
“There are so many things I’ve learnt. We’re at a really tricky stage with Ava at the moment.
Year 9 is quite notorious,” he explained. “I am dealing with the parties on Friday and Saturday nights. And something I thought I’d always be pretty cool with, but turns out I’m not, is the outfits that go out the door sometimes. So I look at Rach and she just says, ‘Don’t say anything’. But, you know, it’s your little baby growing up, and all of a sudden the skirts are a little bit shorter than you might like and the tops are a little more midriff than you might have thought was the way to go, but what do you do? You just suck it up and keep your bloody mouth shut.”
As for how Beretta will be spending Father’s Day this weekend, he added: “I would love to do a big barbecue and have some friends over. My mum and dad are in Geelong so it’s unlikely I’ll see my dad, but I’ll give him a ring and have a good chat. They’ve been going through a bit of a tough time at the moment; my mum’s having chemo. She’s going good. They are just fantastic inspirations as parents. They’ve had a wonderful marriage for the better part of 50-plus years. And they’ve raised three boys, who’ve not always been on the right track. We all deviate a little bit. But I think they’re generally proud of us.”
