‘I’m a bit of a mush bucket’: Derryn Hinch on love and his four (or five?) marriages

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Derryn Hinch. The 79-year-old journalist, author, actor and former senator founded the Derryn Hinch Justice Party in 2015. His latest book is called Short Stories.

Derryn Hinch: “I like being in love.”Credit: Benny Capp

SEX

Correct me if I’m wrong: you’ve been married – what is it? – five times. Well, four times, really. But Jacki [Weaver] and I renewed our vows [first marriage 1983-96; second marriage 1997-98], so I could say we’ve both been married five times. And I’d call my last wife, Chanel, number five.

Are you just a really big fan of marriage? No, no. I find that people tend to change and sometimes drift apart. With Jacki, we still text each other all the time and are in touch by email and phone occasionally. I’m a bit of a mush bucket and I like being in love. I like committing to somebody. And that’s what I did.

What strengths do you bring to a relationship? I hope a sense of humour. And people seem to enjoy my kisses.

What about your weaknesses? For too many years, I drank too much. That affected my life – and my marriages, too.

What’s your status now? When I was in Canberra, I picked up again with a friend who came to talk about one of my favourite issues: the export of live animals. We had lunch, hooked up again and we’ve now been together for five years. She’s a former fiancée who walked out on me for another bloke, but to be back with her is wonderful because we know each other so well. So we’re partners, but we don’t live together. We live in different states and we just see each other when we can. And I don’t see anybody else.

What are the ingredients of good sex? Don’t be selfish. Pay attention. Be prepared.

DEATH

So we’re talking about death. Well, 12 years ago, I technically died on the operating table while having a liver transplant.

Wow, so you’re one of the few people who can tell us what’s on the other side. Is there anything? Nothing. I didn’t even know – until I was told – that I’d died on the table and was brought back. I have no [experience] of the afterlife. When you die, you die.

Did having a near-death experience like that change the way you now live? Well, I didn’t have a drink for seven years. Now, I occasionally have a glass of wine. My surgeon came to my 75th birthday. As always, I took a bottle of non-alcoholic wine with me. He said, “Aren’t you having a glass of real wine?” I said, “Of course not.” He said, “Your liver and kidneys are in better shape than mine. If you want to have an occasional glass, feel free.” So now I do, but I always put heaps of ice blocks in it or – a good trick – freeze some grapes and throw some of them into white wine.

In March last year, after Victoria’s state election, you announced that the Derryn Hinch Justice Party would be dissolved. At the time, you said it was one of the saddest moments in your life. Are you still grieving? I grieved more when I didn’t get re-elected in the 2019 federal election. Part of me died, it really did. I think I got wrongly tagged as being a bit too green. I’m a conservative but, on a couple of issues, I sided with Labor and the Greens – and that hurt. I did say at the time that sometimes you have to vote for what you think is right, not what will get you re-elected. That was over medevac [the bill that allowed for easier medical transfer of sick refugees from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia]. I should have let the government have its vote against medevac, then let the people throw them out five months later. I had a lot to do in Canberra and I took it very seriously because only about 700 people have been elected senator in Australia. It’s a huge honour and you should take it very personally and very determinedly.

POLITICS

When you were elected to the federal Senate in 2016, you were 72. I was the oldest senator in Australia.

Did you feel old? Hey, I’m younger than Joe Biden! And he’s running for re-election.

It’s likely Biden and Donald Trump will again battle for the US presidency. Should age be an impediment? It shouldn’t be, but I think it will be. I like Joe Biden, but I wouldn’t be upset if he stood aside. He has shown some signs of physical weakness – and even, at times, maybe mental weakness. I would like to see a younger man like the Governor of California [Gavin Newsom, who’s 56] get in there and give it a shake.

Trump is only four years younger, but he doesn’t seem to have the stigma of age around him that Biden has. Why do you think that is? Trump’s ramblings are those of an incoherent nincompoop. With Trump, it’s a cult. He shouldn’t even be considering standing for president, but he has this crazy following.

Who, in Australia’s parliament, either in the lower or upper house, do you rate highly? Penny Wong [Minister for Foreign Affairs] and Katy Gallagher [Minister for Finance]. On the Liberal side – although he’s not liked, and the polls show this – Peter Dutton; he was always very fair to me. I really admired Julie Bishop. In the early days, I thought Scott Morrison wasn’t that bad. Then, when we discovered he’d taken on five other portfolios, I thought, “This is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in politics.”

Did you make any friends, genuine friends, during your three years in parliament? Well, as Paul Keating once said of parliament, “If you want a friend, get a dog.”

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