Donald Bradman’s granddaughter opens up about autism diagnosis

Sir Donald Bradman’s granddaughter tells for the first time of a personal diagnosis she desperately wishes she could share with her world-famous “Grandpa”.

The granddaughter of the world’s greatest ever batsman has shared how the values that took him to the top of his sport have shaped her life, career – and response to a personal diagnosis.

Greta Bradman, the eldest of Sir Donald Bradman’s three grandchildren, says her famous grandfather – and his take on life – has influenced her more than anyone else.

And it was her late “grandpa” she most wanted to speak to when she was diagnosed with a neurological and developmental disorder as an adult.

The 40-something psychologist, celebrated classical singer and mother-of-two who grew up in Adelaide but now lives with her family in inner-city suburban Melbourne has revealed her Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis for the first time in a new book, What Matters To You, to be released next week.

Today, she speaks about it publicly for the first time.

“I was diagnosed with autism several years ago when I was in my 30s … I’ve never spoken about it before – ever,” she said, adding she desperately wished she had been able to speak as an adult about it with her granddad.

Greta Bradman, granddaughter of cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman, is readying to release a new book, What Matters to You. Picture: Supplied.

“Probably more than anything it was my experience with autism I would have liked to talk about with him … essentially my entire childhood experience sort of all of a sudden seemed to make sense.

“Initially, there was a sense of, ‘I wish that I had learnt this much earlier’ but what I have been left with is the sense of being really full of admiration for that younger version of me … because, frankly, it was bloody tough.

“It is so good to now see young girls receiving a diagnosis early and to have female presentation of autism more widely understood and recognised.”

Greta, who practises psychology in Collingwood and is an active member of the Bowral-based Bradman Foundation in NSW, describes her young self as “reclusive”, sitting in “that space of feeling like the sick girl and the weird girl”.

“I missed most of years eight, nine and 10 of school and spent that time in bed … initially with glandular fever and then with a weird sort of blood disorder,” she said.

“In addition, I was just, you know, very different from everyone else … for me it was challenging to cultivate that sense of self and who I was, rather than being the chameleon who shows up in a room in ways that people want.”

But she drew strength in the values her grandfather, “The Don” lived by, inspired to take “really teeny, tiny steps that took me toward the version of myself that I wanted to grow into”.

A young Greta with her brother Tom and their grandfather, Sir Donald Bradman. Picture: Supplied

“The amazing thing with Grandpa is he, more than any other adult I knew personally or knew of when I was growing up, would overtly talk about his values … values were front and centre for him and they enabled him to do what he did on the cricket pitch,” she said.

“He was very, very clear about that … his values were modesty, dignity, integrity and courage; if we had a conversation now, I might try and convince him that there’s something around competitiveness and ambition in there as well.

Sir Donald George Bradman is considered the world’s greatest-ever batsman. Picture: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, published in 1935

Cricket legend, The Don, lived and played by the values of ‘modesty, dignity, integrity and courage’, his granddaughter Greta says. Picture: Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

“His high performance aside, he was like any other person and had times he felt a bit lost but his values were there, anchoring him through his life … they provided him a way of understanding the world and thinking about what to prioritise.

“He was the one who taught me about values … yes, he was really awesome at hitting a ball around but (in his mind) that didn’t make him better than anyone else … I think that is what we were proudest of.”

As a psychologist she has long been interested in formal research showing what happens in a person’s brain when they make choices “either aligned, or not aligned” with their values, as well as the role personal values play in “navigating life’s greatest challenges and opportunities”.

Her new book aims to help people live their best lives by showing how “understanding and applying values can transform lives”.

Greta Bradman's new book, What Matters To You, published by Harper Collins will be released on Wednesday, March 19.

She says she’d have dearly valued input to it from her legendary sportsman granddad, described as “the greatest cricketer of the 20th Century”.

“I would have loved to have sat down with Grandpa and gotten his very plain-speaking (reaction) … ‘this is how I used values and this is how they helped me in these moments’ – that would have been really amazing,” she said.

She says values are integral to long-term “fulfilment and happiness”.

“I think in a world where we are so hyper-connected, so sort of pervasively under threat a lot of the time, connecting back to our values as a way of connecting back to what matters most,” she said.

“This can be a really powerful way of reconnecting with happiness, even in a really uncertain world; this is particularly the case for young people who are just kind of bombarded with uncertainty … to have values as anchor points can be immensely helpful.”

What Matters To You by Greta Bradman will be published by HarperCollins on March 19.