Amanda Keller breaks down over simple question in TV interview

The radio host couldn’t hold back her tears as she was asked one simple question during an extraordinarily candid interview.

“Do you love your husband?”

An innocent question by a journalism student saw veteran broadcaster Amanda Keller become visibly emotional during a recent episode of ABC’s heartwarming new series, The Assembly.

The refreshingly candid show features high-profile figures facing a classroom of journalists-in-training, all of whom are autistic – and all of whom are allowed to ask whatever they want.

The Jonesy and Amanda radio host was among those in the hot seat, and teared up as she told student Savannah her question was “beautiful”.

“I think I’m going to cry, because my husband is going through some stuff at the moment,” Keller told her.

“My husband has Parkinson’s disease, and we've been married 34 years, and life is changing around us.

“He’s so good with it, in a way that I’m not, actually. We’re learning to find ourselves in the midst of changing circumstances, and part of me thinks – it’s easy for me to say, he’s the one going through it – but part of me thinks it’s a real privilege to be with someone long enough that you go through these changes with them.”
She finished up: “So yes, I love him very much, even though we’ve got some stuff going on.”

Keller became emotional as she opened up on her personal life. Picture: ABC

Another student, Evie, then asked Keller what had prompted her and her husband of 34 years, Harley Oliver, to go public with the diagnosis after keeping it a secret for so long.

Keller admitted she’d had to “think long and hard” about sharing the news, and had done so for “a couple of reasons”.

“One is that I work on breakfast radio, and a big part of that is sharing your life – and even though it wasn’t my story to tell, it affected me too, and our lives,” she told the class.

“ … Another reason I wanted to was that I wanted to open the window into why people look at us strangely when we’re out. Harley felt that people might think he was drunk, or they’d look at me and they’d look at him and think, ‘Well, something’s not right there, what’s going on?’

“I wanted to free us up by saying, ‘Here's what’s going on.’ I think that’s why I did it.”

However, Keller admitted that bringing people in on their personal struggle was “hard” at times.

“I do appreciate that by speaking publicly about it, I invite people to talk to me about it, and some days that’s hard – but I’m glad I did.”

The WSFM radio host and mother-of-two first revealed the heartbreaking news about Oliver on an episode of her Double A Chattery podcast last October, detailing the moment she realised something was wrong.

“I first noticed Harley’s footfall around the house changing, like he was dragging his leg, and his hands started to shake, and he said he’d just been whacked in the thumbs as a wicket keeper playing cricket, but I felt something was going on,” Keller told her podcast co-host, forensic psychologist Anita McGregor.

“I know Harley so well, and how protective he is of his inner core, he was absolutely scared and in denial, and who would blame him.”

The couple in 1999. Picture: Steve Lunham

Oliver was diagnosed with Parkinson’s around seven years ago. Picture: Instagram

Shortly after they noticed something wasn’t right, Oliver received news the couple had feared – he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s – an incurable brain disorder that causes uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and co-ordination, with symptoms gradually worsening over time.

“When he came home [from the doctor], we both just sat there completely numb,” Keller remembered.

“Two days later, I went with our eldest son Liam to an open day – he was in Year 11 – and I fought tears all day just looking at these people at the beginning of their journey, and I was so envious.

“I had such a flashback to when that was me. And I thought, ‘Their journey is just starting.’ And something closed off for me.

“I don’t necessarily feel that now, but this is how I felt in the early days.”

During her appearance on The Assembly, Keller also opened up about the “hurt” she felt amid the 2019 Logies, during which she lost out on the coveted Gold Logie to comedian Tom Gleeson.

“You’ve been nominated twice for a Gold Logie but you didn’t win … how did that make you feel?” one student, Stephanie, asked.

“It’s an interesting question, because it sounds trite to say it [but] it was such an honour to be nominated … so I was just thrilled to be part of the mix,” Keller explained.

“The first year, I lost to Grant Denyer, who’s a friend of mine. The second time, I was once again thrilled to be nominated, and Tom Gleeson decided to make it comedic for himself, as he should.”

Gleeson at the 2019 Logies. Picture: Nine

Referencing the Hard Quiz host’s high-profile, ironic – and ultimately successful – attempt at winning the Gold Logie, Keller pointed out that she understood the motive as “he’s a comedian, that’s what he does.”

“But in the midst of him making fun of it, it got picked up in a way by the media where I felt like I was the butt of the joke in a way that I found hurtful,” she said.

“I don’t blame Tom, it’s how the story was told – and then it was seen that it was ‘Tom versus Amanda’, and it’s Tom saying the Logies are worthless, and I felt really old-fashioned saying, ‘Oh, I think they’re all right’.”

“I felt like everyone’s grandmother, I felt 100 years old versus this new comedic wave of ‘aren’t the Logies silly’. So I don’t mind that I lost, really – but I wish I’d enjoyed the process more.”

As the wide-ranging interview session wrapped up, Keller declared it had been a high point of her career.

“What a life highlight this has been,” she told the class.

“Thank you, I’ve loved it.”

The Assembly airs 8.30pm Tuesdays on ABC TV and can be streamed on ABC iview.