Ray Martin on interviewing Audrey Hepburn and Sir David Attenborough

From a flirty exchange with Audrey Hepburn to a lasting friendship with Sir David Attenborough, Ray Martin remembers his career highlights.

Over a career spanning more than 50 years, you’ve earned five Gold Logies, been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, and interviewed roughly 10,000 personalities – from Elton John, Madonna and Robin Williams to then US president Richard Nixon – across more than 100 countries.

Who were you most starstruck to chat to?

I’ve got what I call my “holy trinity” – three of the most amazing blokes I’ve ever met: Sir Donald Bradman [because] I’m a cricket nut... it was like I’d died and gone to heaven; and Professor Fred Hollows and Sir David Attenborough, who [both] became good friends of mine, which doesn’t happen much in our business.

You also had a rather awkward run-in with Audrey Hepburn on your Nine Network daytime television show Midday in the early ’90s.

I got carried away in my introduction, gushing – which I don’t normally do – about how I fell in love with her when I was 15 after Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Out she came, and I didn’t know whether to shake her hand or kiss her cheek.

But as [Audrey] sat down, she tapped my knee and said, “It’s never too late.”

Every time I tell that story around my wife, Dianne, she sticks her finger down her throat as much as to say, “Ugh, how boring, I’ve heard that one before.” Audrey was 63 and exquisitely beautiful – the eye sparkle, the cheekbones, and that extraordinary smile. [She had] this aura you can’t explain. I was conscious that I was in the company of a genuine superstar.

“Everyone’s hurting from COVID, and we’ve all got our own problems to deal with, but kids are still getting sick, and we can’t forget about this problem.” (Picture: Supplied)

You gave the commentary at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018 for SBS. What do you wish you could have asked them on the big day?

It would be questions about how suffocating it must be when you’re expected to act a certain way all the time – they must have been gasping for breath. If I spoke with [Harry and Meghan] today, I’d pay them credit for being brave enough to break away from the royal family.

For the past three decades, you’ve been a patron of the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, which provides life-saving medical equipment to help children in hospitals across Australia. Why should Aussies dig deep and donate this Christmas?

When you donate to Humpty, you see exactly where your money goes – from buying ambulances to things as simple as providing blankets to remote Northern Territory hospitals. I’ve been to so many hospitals around Australia and seen what a difference [the foundation] makes.

“I’d pay them credit for being brave enough to break away from the royal family.” (Photo by Dominic Lipinski / POOL / AFP)

To hear, “We saved a little boy last week and without this piece of equipment he wouldn’t be alive” is a pleasure beyond description. It’s extraordinary when you think of how wealthy we are as a country and how I’d feel if I lost a child or grandchild just because the hospital didn’t have the equipment.

That’s reason enough to put your hand in your pocket. Everyone’s hurting from COVID, and we’ve all got our own problems to deal with, but kids are still getting sick, and we can’t forget about this problem. If people are generous this Christmas, we can actually save lives.

It’s clear that you have close relationships with your two children, Jenna and Luke, but growing up, did they love or loathe your notoriety?

Generally, they didn’t like it. It was embarrassing to have people stop and talk to me in the street. I remember taking them to a movie premiere when they were in their teens, and in the car park beforehand, my daughter asked for the tickets so they could go in ahead of me.

I had to walk the red carpet on my own like the loneliest man in the world! Even today, my wife goes berserk if I go to the supermarket with her. She wants me to wait outside.

Ray Martin features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

You’re also a doting grandfather to three-year-old Arlo.

He’s given me an extra 10 years of life. He’s just magnificent – the most beautiful thing I could imagine. You know that adage that the best thing about grandkids is that you can give them back? I hate that. Handing him back each day is the only bad part. I’d like it if they moved in with us so he was here all the time.

You’re an accomplished photographer, and tomorrow you’re celebrating your 52nd wedding anniversary with your wife. Is she still your muse and favourite subject all these years on?

I keep trying to get rid of her! [Laughs] No, I’m just joking. She absolutely is – she’s very photogenic but doesn’t think so. Like our two children, she’s had her photo taken by me so many times that I’ve now got to bribe or threaten or whinge to get them to agree. It ain’t easy!

Donate to the Humpty Dumpty Foundation’s Christmas Appeal at humpty.com.au

MORE STELLAR

Why Sir Michael Parkinson believes men are funnier than women

Miranda Tapsell: ‘Being Aboriginal isn’t a downer’