‘I wasn’t the first man, and I won’t be the last to think he could have it all’: Barry Crocker tells all on his five-year-long affair
Aussie icon Barry Crocker still can’t comprehend how a boy growing up in Chilwell in Geelong, ended up rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s most famous.
Books & Magazines
Don't miss out on the headlines from Books & Magazines. Followed categories will be added to My News.
“Regrets, I’ve had a few but then again too few to mention.”
Like his idol Frank Sinatra, legendary performer and Aussie icon Barry Crocker also had some. But he’s always locked them up in a little figurative box, far out of reach of his memory.
“Because, you know, there are decisions that you make when you’re younger that upset people,” he says.
“You’ve got this driving ambition and you have a goal that you must achieve.
“You have to virtually walk over people. And their emotions. And all you can do is hope that you can – somehow in the future – be able to say ‘I’m sorry’.”
The showbiz legend’s had to open up that once tightly sealed box for his second autobiography The Last of The Entertainers – a follow up to his best-selling Bazza: The Adventures of Barry Crocker.
Written over the course of 12 years, it’s an intimate – and rather unfiltered – look at his family life, and his illustrious career spanning six decades.
Was there a temptation to gloss over some parts?
“You mean some of the naughty bits,” Crocker says with a laugh.
“You can’t just make it about all the good parts.
“If you’re going to write something like this – you’ve got to let people know that you have weaknesses too.”
Crocker doesn’t hold back as he shares while his career and celebrity status soared across the globe in the ’70s, life was anything but hitting the right notes at home.
Crocker’s wife Doreen came to resent their nomadic showbiz lifestyle and headed back with their five kids to Australia.
It was in 1973, at the London premiere of his mega-hit movie The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, that Crocker, alone and mellowed by bourbon, struck up a conversation with a “beautiful girl” Christine Patel.
“She would come to personify the bittersweet justice duly meted out to me for thinking that I deserved more than my fair share of life’s rewards,” Crocker writes, detailing how he slipped into a significant period of infidelity which saw him living a double life between two continents and in love with two women.
A doting husband and father-of-five in Australia, and then living the life of a “successful single man” in America with partner Platel.
“My sharing of the marital bed with my wife felt almost like a form of adultery,” he writes.
“I still loved Doreen. but I had also fallen hopelessly in love with someone about whom I knew little. A woman who had shared my lonely London existence for a matter of weeks.
“The winter had driven my wife back to Australia, spring had come in the form of Christine, and I enjoyed a glorious five-year long summer with her.”
But, as he writes, glorious summers must end and he “endured the worst of winters” as he lost both within weeks of each other, as they each decided enough was enough.
“Although now I cringe when thinking of my implausible choices … (then) my heart and mind couldn’t find fault with my decision,” Crocker writes.
“I wasn’t the first man, and I won’t be the last man to think he could have it all.”
Crocker’s philosophical when asked how hard it was to pen those words, knowing his five children with Doreen, eight grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren would read it.
“It all happened a long time ago” he says.
“It’s sort of washed away with the tides, I suppose.
“Everyone knew at the time and it was painful at the time, but we all grew back together.
“It was one of those healing processes over a couple of years and now, of course, everyone’s on the same page.
“We all love each other and we all understand our foibles.”
He went on to make peace with his former wife dedicating his latest book to her memory, after she passed away in January. Crocker found lasting love with Dr Who actress Katy Manning. The pair has been together since 1990.
As this latest memoir title suggests, he is the last one standing from the glorious band of entertainers which included Graham Kennedy, Ernie Sigley, Don Lane, Bert Newton, and Barry Humphries.
“After the demise of Bert and Barry Humphries, I was left alone,” Crocker shares.
“I had no-one to talk to. Which a great shame. I’m the only one left of that wonderful, golden
era when television was king.”
Humphries’ death in April sent Crocker into a deep depression and a raft of TV appearances which followed didn’t help. Although he’s confident Humphries would have particularly enjoyed the macabre irony that his great mate appeared on morning TV saying he was doing fine, when Humphries had, in fact, passed. “He would have said ‘See Bazza I told you I was going to make a fool of you’,” Crocker said, with a laugh.
“Two hours (after appearing on TV) I got a call from my stepson saying that Barry died. It was like someone had punched me in the chest.”
It took days for him to contemplate lifting himself out of the depths of despair.
“You realise that you’ve got to come out of it because there’s nothing you can do,” Crocker says. “But it just permeated my brain, I was just constantly saying ‘Oh, my God, I’ll never see him again’.”
The 87-year-old is relieved he was afforded the opportunity of developing his craft far away from the intense glare of the spotlight, unlike many current wannabe entertainers.
“I feel for the singers on The Voice and stuff like that because it was much easier when I was starting,” Crocker says.
“I had the very wonderful opportunity of being terrible without anyone knowing.
“But now if you go on television on a talent show, if you’re bad and you’re zonked out, that doesn’t stop the ambition flowing or the fact that you’ve got to front up to all your friends.”
He’s starred in movies, toured the globe and hosted his own eponymously titled variety show but for many younger Australians, Crocker’s probably best-known for singing the Neighbours tune from 1985, until it was revamped in 1992.
In February 2022, news that Neighbours would be axed, prompted passionate Brit fans to download his original version, propelling it to No. 1 on UK iTunes.
Crocker was rapt and cheekily suggests that’s why Prime Video came to the rescue of the iconic soap. The new chapter is slated to air from September 18, back on Channel 10.
He gives his stamp of approval to 2020 Voice winner Chris Sebastian’s version.
“I wish it was me (singing it again) – that’s only being selfish though,” he says, with a laugh.
It’s been a 12-year journey to write this second instalment of his rich life, and it’s been a somewhat cathartic process.
“The trouble is when you’re writing about yourself as a young person – your mind takes you back there,” he says.
“And when you suddenly stand up from the desk and you think you’re 36 or something, it’s a bit dangerous from that point of view. You might fall over.”
It’s also – mixed in with the deaths of his nearest and dearest – made him contemplate his own mortality almost daily.
“I wake up and I look in the mirror and go ‘Oh, you’re still here?’," Crocker says.
“Because now, all of a sudden, I’m left alone. My childhood friends, they’ve all gone.
“If I knew I was going to live this long – I would have taken better care of my body.”
So yes, regrets he has only a few.
Barry Crocker: Last of the Entertainers, New Holland Publishers, RRP $32.99, available from all good bookstores or online www.au.newhollandpublishers.com.
RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH THE RICH AND FAMOUS
Aussie icon Barry Crocker still can’t comprehend how a boy growing up in Chilwell in Geelong, ended up rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s most famous.
From Princess Diana to Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Priscilla Presley, Stevie Wonder and his idol, Ol Blue eyes himself Frank Sinatra, Crocker has a long list of celeb encounters.
“I’m gobsmacked – it’s mind-boggling,” he said.
“And you know, sitting back now, I think I should have taken more advantage.
“I should have been more excited when I met these people.
“But you’ve got to try and be cool. And just act like ‘I’m in the group, I’m just as good as them.”
Here’s just a few:
BARBRA STREISAND
The only time Crocker he lost his cool facade was meeting the legendary EGOT winner. Aussie compatriot, and great friend, I am Woman singer Helen Reddy introduced them at a party. Crocker, for once, was at a complete loss of words.
“I wanted to say so much to her but I was a babbling ape,’ he laughs at the recollection.
KYLIE MINOGUE
“She was a sweet girl and she deserves her success, she is as good as anybody.
(Back then) I just thought that she was a gorgeous, little girl and that she had been very lucky to have a hit record. But when she matured, she knew where she was going, and she made sure that she got there. Now with sold out shows in Las Vegas, I think they could put her in a bigger room. She’s finally making a statement in America.”
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
ONJ was a back-up a singer on Crocker’s 1973 album. “Shortly after that she was the hottest thing in America. I was at (Australian music producer) John Farrar’s house the night of the Grease opening, and she was so nervous that she threw up in the toilets. So, so nervous. But of course the rest is history. It’s so nice to have these memories. She was this sweet, sweet lady and the things that she did for cancer was just wonderful. She left a really wonderful legacy behind.”
PRINCESS DIANA
Sandwiched between “tiny Brian Rooney” and Jeannie Little after the 1988 Royal Command Variety Performance in Australia, Crocker met Princess Diana. “Her first words were ‘it’s so nice to be able to stand up straight and look someone in the eye.’ And what charming blue eyes she possessed. I am surprised at the amount of time I was allowed with her. One day I must get a lip reader to decipher what we were saying to each other.”
FRANK SINATRA
Meeting his idol following a fundraiser in the States, Crocker was nervous. It was not long after the singer had caused a furore in Australia, calling some female journalists ‘two-dollar hookers’. “ Don’t hit me,” I heard myself splurting out, after Helen Reddy’s husband Jeff Wald introduced me as “the biggest star in Australia”. I had no idea what to expect, but Frank rolled back his head and uttered his familiar laugh.
Originally published as ‘I wasn’t the first man, and I won’t be the last to think he could have it all’: Barry Crocker tells all on his five-year-long affair