Daryl Maguire: Ex-wife Maureen Maguire known as ‘The Angel’
The former wife of the disgraced MP who had a secret five-year affair with Premier Gladys Berejiklian spends her time riding motorbikes and taking care of sick children.
NSW
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The estranged wife of disgraced MP Daryl Maguire lives a quiet, unassuming existence on the Sunshine Coast dedicating her life to animals and sick children.
A humble do-gooder, Maureen Maguire, 59, devotes herself to helping the lonely and elderly and supporting families of sick children at Noosa Hospital, near where she lives with her border collie Whoopie.
She left Wagga Wagga five years ago, where she split her time between raising her children James and Kara and providing respite in the home to exhausted families of sick children at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital where she unwittingly earned the sobriquet ‘The Angel’.
“We had breakfast one early morning more than five years ago when she told me she was moving to Noosaville to begin a new life after she and Daryl split,” Wagga Wagga councillor Yvonne Braid said.
“She is close to her daughter and wanted spend more time with her.
“She is such an exceedingly generous, lovely, kind person, she’s called ‘The Angel’ because she will do anything for anyone.
“Her passions are animals and the elderly. She spends time keeping them company in their home so they are not alone. It upsets her if the old are abandoned, and she donates funds and her time to care homes and to supporting families of sick and dying children.
“She adores her son and daughter but, you know, the last 10 years she and Daryl were not together, she never spoke about him, they lived largely separate lives, you never ever saw them together around Wagga.”
Maureen and Mr Maguire, 61, married in May 1981 but the marriage crumbled about a decade ago.
He embarked on “a close relationship” with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who is almost 10 years Mrs Maguire’s junior, before the unexpected affair was revealed in explosive evidence given to the corruption watchdog on Monday.
Ms Berejiklian said on Monday that she understood the Maguires were “separated” during the course of their relationship.
Those close to Mrs Maguire, “a deeply shy and quiet woman”, say the two simply drifted apart and they had “not been on good terms” for “about a decade”.
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“When she left for Noosaville she became a totally different person. She was free, she rode Harley Davidsons, she travelled Europe, she was herself,” a friend said.
She was not seen at 2015 state election campaign events, but even prior to the relationship breakdown she was described by a member of the Liberals as “not really being involved with the party side of things anymore”.
Mrs Maguire moved into a two-bedroom lakeside pad in Noosaville eight years ago and Mr Maguire bought her out of the $2.6 million, four-bedroom family home in Wagga Wagga in June 2017.
Ms Berejiklian said her relationship with Mr Maguire began after the 2015 election and she decided to cease contact with him after she appeared at a private ICAC hearing in August.
The Premier said she ended the relationship “a few months ago”. Mr Maguire has remained tight-lipped about his liaison with a deeply private Ms Berejiklian.