Andrew Johns’ ex opens up on simple act which made her ‘burst into tears’
Andrew Johns’ ex-wife Cathrine Mahoney has opened up on a simple act after her divorce which made her cry in front of a stranger.
Cathrine Mahoney, the ex-wife of rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns, has revealed she burst into tears in a Centrelink after she realised her relationship with the footy legend was over.
Mahoney has opened up on her on-and-off 12-year relationship with the Newcastle Knights legend in a new book.
Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free During Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now.
Johns met Mahoney, his second wife, in 2002, with the couple tying the knot in 2007 and sharing one child together — 13-year-old son Louis.
They separated in 2011 before reconciling and then splitting again in 2014.
Mahoney, a former publicist who hosts the podcast So, I Quit My Day Job, has penned a new memoir titled Currently Between Husbands that comes out this week and, at times, delves into her relationship with Johns.
Speaking to 2DayFM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin, she revealed how she broke down in a Centrelink office when changing her name on her Medicare card from Johns back to Mahoney.
And she praised the kindness of a Centrelink worker who made her feel better about her marriage breakdown.
“I went into Centrelink and it’s the funniest things that bring you undone when you’re marriage has ended,” Mahoney said.
“And it was having to say to her that I need to change the name on my Medicare card from Johns to Mahoney and having to say to a complete stranger my marriage has ended.
“And I burst into tears. She was lovely, she opened the drawer and got her own private stuff, she got tissues out a box of tissues.
“She said ‘you’re the 10th one love, Christmas is a bad time, it’s a bad time, a lot of marriages end at Christmas’.”
Mahoney was Johns’ second wife after he split with Renae Chapman in 2002 after two years of marriage, while he has reportedly been dating yoga instructor Kate Kendall since 2016.
Johns, who lives with bipolar disorder and revealed he has epilepsy and has been treated for seizures.
He also admitted taking ecstasy and “other drugs” during his career in 2007.
Speaking to Stellar last month, Mahoney revealed how difficult it was to be in Johns’ celebrity wake.
Referencing her experience as a publicist, Mahoney knows the attention celebrities have to deal with — and what that means for the people they are in relationships with.
“I’d get exhausted sometimes being with Andrew because you’d have to smile all the time – usually when you were in the middle of a big argument,” she said.
“Even the most amazing high-end celebrity still goes to the toilet, still gets a period, still fights with their boyfriend and still has to get up with their kids, but they have to be ‘on’ the whole bloody time.”
As for the break down of her marriage, she said the pair were in love but their relationship just didn’t last.
“When a marriage ends, you shove it all in a box and stuff it in the back of your wardrobe and don’t want a word of it,” the 47-year-old said.
“But unpacking it six years later, you realise time heals and you look at things differently. I was bonkers crazy in love with Andrew, and he was with me. It just didn’t last the course.”