Paul Hogan’s bumpy life in the public eye: Messy splits, tabloid intrusion and tax troubles

The fierce backlash Paul Hogan copped this week would be a familiar feeling to the Aussie icon who’s seen his fair share of public controversies.

Australian icon Paul Hogan probably expected a better reception when he appeared on Sunrise earlier this week to lament about his homesickness.

Having lived in LA since 2003, Hogan was now desperate to return home. The pandemic and a rise in homelessness and crime in his adopted home of Venice Beach had taken a toll, and Hoges complained he now barely left his $4.5m mansion.

Viewers were merciless – not helped by Hogan’s puzzling explanation that he refused to submit to hotel quarantine, and would only return to Australia once those strict entry rules were removed (he might be waiting a while).

Nat Barr and David Koch were concerned for Hogan – many viewers felt less charitable.

Thousands took to social media and flooded the comment section of news.com.au’s report on his appearance – and most had little sympathy for the 81-year-old, despite a recent visible battle with ill health (he explained his bloated cheeks were due to steroid treatment for a kidney problem).

A sample of the comments:

“He made his home over they so he can stay there, he made his choice.”

“Paul Hogan has lived in the USA for what 20 years or so, instead of ditching Australia wayyyy back he should have come ‘home’ sooner.”

“Two weeks in an inner city 5 star hotel too tough for you Hoges? Where’s the hardy Aussie larrikin spirit, or was it all just an act?”

And so on. There’s a bitter edge to the sentiment around Hogan, particularly given his status as one of Australia’s most famous and successful exports. From his start as a loveable larrikin on The Paul Hogan Show in the early 70s, Hogan became a global superstar – and a one-man arm of Australia’s tourism industry – with the smash hit film Crocodile Dundee in 1986.

But as his star exploded, Hogan became embroiled in one of Australia’s ugliest celebrity divorces, one of several headline-making scandals that threatened to sour his reputation among fans.

Hogan and those close to him blamed the media.

“I remember him saying to the press, ‘I’m not a tall poppy, I’m an ironbark tree. You can’t cut me down,’” his friend and former colleague Delvene Delaney told Australian Story in 2019.

“But they tried.”

A bitter divorce

Hogan and wife Noelene in 1979.

The very same year Hogan became a global superstar thanks to Crocodile Dundee – which raked in more than $400m at the box office worldwide, off a budget of just $11m – his personal life was in turmoil.

Hogan and wife Noelene Edwards had a tumultuous relationship – they wed as teenagers in 1958, before splitting in 1981 and remarrying less than a year later. But in 1986 they split for good, with Hogan accused by some of “abandoning” the marriage and the couple’s five children when he left Noelene to be with his American Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski (he and Linda went on to marry in 1990 and divorced in 2014).

Hogan entered a new relationship with his Crocodile Dundee co-star.

In a candid interview with The Daily Telegraph last year, Hogan said his split from Noelene was nothing like it was portrayed at the time.

“The picture that was painted was five little kids hanging on the back gate while their Dad walked away, crying for him to come home, but the truth was they were mostly grown-ups,” he said.

And Hogan told the Telegraph that the problem was the same with both his wives. “I’m not much of a partner … I’m good early on, but after 20 or 30 years or so they get sick of me.”

The headline-making origins of their relationship dogged Hogan and Kozlowski years into their marriage.

“Every time she came to Byron Bay there’d be some sneaky paparazzi lurking in the bushes trying to photograph her bare bum. And not only that, she was still painted as this scarlet woman and yet she was legitimately Paul’s wife,” Hogan’s friend Delvene Delaney told Australian Story in 2019.

“It was really unfair.”

Messy tax problems

Hogan remained defiant throughout the ATO’s investigation, which was eventually dropped.

Hogan was living a relatively quiet life in the early noughties, raising his youngest son Chance with wife Linda and acting only intermittently in films like 2001’s mildly successful Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. But a new scandal was brewing: A messy, years-long war with the Australian Tax Office, which accused him of massive tax evasion.

Hogan battled the tax office in private until 2007 when the investigation was made public, Hogan named as one of a group a group in connection to $300 million tax fraud investigation called Operation Wickenby.

Hogan publicly insisted that he had paid “plenty of tax” and had nothing to fear from the investigation.

He was right: In 2010, all charges were dropped. Still, after years of “Paul Hogan investigated for tax fraud” headlines, the damage was done.

“It has besmirched his reputation a bit, especially in Australia,” his son Todd told Australian Story. “Even mates of mine will make a crack about it.”

Hogan himself agreed.

“I wasn’t charged but I’ve still got it attached to me,” he said.

“It never depressed me or anything but it made me angry — made me want to thump somebody. I haven’t really got it out of me system yet.”

Hoges today: ‘Downcast’ and ‘homesick’

Paul Hogan explains his different appearance on Sunrise.

The usually upbeat Aussie star appeared out of sorts during his Sunrise appearance this week – host David Koch noted that Hogan, a regular guest on the show, was the “most down” they’d ever seen him.

Hogan said he was trying to stay in good spirits, despite taking steroids for a kidney issue that had caused his face to bloat. But he said he barely left his house in Venice Beach, California, which has seen a huge rise in homelessness and crime since the pandemic struck last year.

“The crime’s up. I don’t go anywhere. The minute I can come home without being locked in a hotel for two weeks, I’m back,” he said.

It seems his feelings of homesickness now trump the anonymity he enjoys in LA, which he has in the past said kept him in tinseltown despite feeling “like a kangaroo in a Russian zoo”.

“I’m unknown,” he said in 2019, after so many years of scrutiny in his home country. “I can just put me sunglasses on or a cap or something and no-one recognises me … and that’s a luxury.”