‘Never told before’: Benji Marshall in tears over dad reveal
Benji Marshall has revealed 10 men have come forward claiming to be his dad after his emotional breakdown on camera.
Benji Marshall will live his life never knowing his biological dad — and that’s the way he wants it.
The NRL legend has created headlines this week for a series of emotional reveals about his childhood and the father he has never known.
The popular Fox League TV host is opening up about his past for the first time since re-opening the old wound during a segment on Channel 9’s Celebrity Apprentice Australia this week. The Kiwi was announced the winner of the reality show on Tuesday night.
The 37-year-old revealed his childhood trauma on Monday night and it has triggered a series of fresh admissions about the side of his private life he rarely discusses in public.
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In an emotional segment on Monday night Marshall spoke about being bullied in primary school for not knowing who his dad was.
Having grown from an unashamedly scared kid into one of the greatest rugby league players of all time, Marshall revealed on Wednesday morning several men have come forward, claiming to be his biological father.
Marshall told Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa on Wednesday a documentary surrounding his NRL debut as a 17-year-old in 2002 resulted in 10 men claiming to be his biological father.
“After I made my debut, I did this documentary thing in New Zealand and said I’d never met my dad and I had 10 emails from people saying they were my dad,” he said.
Marshall confirmed his stance about not wanting to know his real father has not changed since his Monday night declaration that he has learned to put his childhood pain behind him. His mum, Lydia Marshall, gave birth to him when she was just 15-years-old and still at school.
“I don’t want to know my dad,” Marshall said.
“I’m one of those people, though that like if there’s like toxic people in my life, I can just cut them off and that’s it. I’m not really dealing with you again. But I do have this want to know like, what am I? Am I like, English? Am I, I don’t know. Like what half-nationality wise.”
Marshall in 2013 opened up about the mystery of his ancestry, revealing he had learned he has links to being Scottish and Australian.
His forefathers emigrated from Scotland to Tasmania. He learned this during a family reunion he attended in Porirua, near Wellington, in 2013.
The star footballer, who played 346 NRL games with the Wests Tigers, Dragons, Broncos and the Rabbitohs, has previously said he has several father figures in his life — referring predominantly to uncles he lived with at different times as he floated from one home to the next.
He has also previously talked about the people he describes as his “mum and dad” — Annalie and Michael Doherty, the parents-in-law of one of his uncles.
Michael Doherty is the only person he refers to as “dad”.
Doherty died in 2009 as a result of cancer. Marshall has honoured him with his ongoing work with the Children’s Cancer Institute.
It takes a village to raise a child — and that is exactly what Marshall has. But that village couldn’t always save him from his darkest days as a child.
Marshall said on Monday he remembers episodes of not feeling safe in his own home.
He says this child is the real him — not the flashy rugby league rock star that won an NRL premiership and a Rugby League World Cup.
“This is a story that I’ve never told. I’ve never talked about this publicly. I’ve never ever talked about this because it means so much to me,” he said on Celebrity Apprentice.
“That’s not the real me. You know how I know that? Because I don’t even know the real me. There’s a half of me missing that I haven’t found out about. I don’t know my real dad. I don’t know my culture. I don’t know my nationality. Who am I?
“I have this vivid memory of a seven-year-old little Maori boy sitting in his lounge room holding a butter knife, scared, sitting back in the dark in the corner so no one could come from behind me and get me.
“It’s tough. All I wanted was someone to save me. Someone to tuck me in. Someone to love me. All I wanted was a dad.”
Marshall said he has only asked his mum once who his father is and the look in her eyes means he has never asked again — and will not ask again.
“When I asked my mum who my dad was — I’ll never forget the look on her face,” he said.
“The look of fear, worry, it actually made me scared.
“I never ever asked her again. I still don’t know until this day.”
He finished the segment by walking off stage away from the cameras and bending over and crying near an elevator.
Marshall left New Zealand at the age of 15 to take up a scholarship offer with Gold Coast high school Keebra Park State High School.
His career in the NRL extended an extraordinary 20 years before his retirement in 2021.
He very nearly walked away from professional sport in 2007, but was talked out of it by Doherty.
Marshall and his fife Zoe now have two children, five-year-old son Fox and 10-month-old daughter Ever J.
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