Tony Jones pours heart out about devastating family tragedy
Popular Australian sports presenter Tony Jones has opened up about a traumatic childhood that included the tragic death of his sister at the age of 20.
Jones is known for his lighter side as a regular on the AFL's Sunday Footy Show, with the veteran broadcaster also a long-time sports presenter with Channel Nine.
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However, in a heartbreaking interview with Neil Mitchell on Melbourne radio station 3AW, Jones has shed light on his turbulent upbringing.
As well as losing his sister to a tragic car accident, the now 61-year-old media identity also revealed that he had barely knew his father, and was forced to stand up to his mother's abusive partner.
“A rough start I suppose, talking about my home life," Jones said.
“I’m happy to go there, I’m conscious of my mum’s feelings but she had a rougher time of it than what I did. She basically raised four of us single-handedly.
"She lost a child, my sister was only 20 when she was killed by drunk drivers so I’m pretty passionate about that and absolutely paranoid even if I have one drink on a Saturday night not getting in your car the next morning.”
Jones says he can still painfully recall the moment he picked up the telephone at 2am to be told the devastating news from his mum that his sister had been killed.
“She said ‘I’m sorry we’ve lost Robyn’,” Jones said.
“I came back to Melbourne and I remember picking up The Herald at the airport and it was on the front page and I thought ‘oh this is real’. That was many, many years ago and for the life of me I don’t know how my mum did it. As she says, you never get over it, you have to live with it.
“Only recently we were doing a clean up and she came across all these letters that my sister had written to me and it was fascinating to go through them.
"As I get older I get a bit more emotional about it. Because my kids didn’t get to see her. I did a story for the news when my mum remarried and she remarried at a cemetery because it allowed my sister to be part of it. And my mum’s mum.”
Tony Jones barely knew her father
Jones was only two when his father walked out, leaving his mother to raise four children.
The AFL identity says he rarely had anything to do with his father, but admits his father's death eight years ago made him question whether things could have been different.
“I do tend to be a little bit emotional about it now — should I have given him a second chance, he treated my mum like s*** but should I have got to know him a little bit,’’ Jones said.
“Only two times I met him was more out of curiosity. Leading to another pang of regret, they asked me and I said no (about paying for the funeral). I said ‘what happens now?’ and they said he’ll go into a pauper’s grave.
“I don’t lose sleep over it but I have little bits of regret that I put my dad in a pauper’s grave.
"There was no support for my mum when he upped and left. There had to be payback at some stage.”
Jones went on to reveal more details of his mother's failed relationships, and one abusive partner who he was forced to stand up to as a 12-year-old, when the man turned violent.
“Mum herself says she was unlucky in love," Jones said.
“The blokes that were in our lives were dropkicks or drunks. That didn’t make it pleasant.
“I tried to (step in) once when this particular bloke was abusive physically to mum. I was 12, it was on the eve of the under 13s grand final.
“He flattened me. He knocked me from one end of the lounge room to the other... that was pretty awful.”
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