NRL star Benji Marshall said that ’10 men once claimed to be his father’ while opening up about the struggles of not knowing his dad in a new interview.
The 37-year-old spoke to Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa about his paternity problem on Wednesday, saying that he once received ’10 e-mails from men claiming to be his real father’ after publicly revealing that he’d never met his dad many years ago.
‘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,’ Benji told the pair.
Footy star Benji Marshall said that ’10 men once claimed to be his father’ while opening up about the struggles of not knowing his dad in a new interview. Pictured with wife Zoe
The retired footballer said that while he wasn’t interested in having a relationship with his father, he was interested in knowing more about his identity and culture.
‘Don’t you want to just confront him Benji and just look him in the eye?’ Fitzy asked the footballer, pointedly.
‘No, but I do have this want to know like, what am I? Am I, like, English? I don’t know. Like, what half nationality wise?’ Benji added.
Benji said that while he wasn’t interested in having a relationship with his father, he was interested in knowing more about his identity and culture. Here with wife Zoe and son Fox, five
He went on to say that his mother Lydia wasn’t understanding of his desire to know about his paternity.
‘I spoke to my mum about it. I think she didn’t understand that… Or she didn’t know I felt like that,’ he said, of the conversations.
He then recalled a story as a kid of not knowing his father and asking about him, only to see how upset his mother became, so he never asked again.
He went on to say that his mother Lydia wasn’t understanding of his desire to know about his paternity. Pictured with his one-year-old daughter Ever
‘But when I was a kid, I asked the question and the look that I saw,’ he said.
‘I never wanted to ask again. You know, so. And to be fair, I still don’t want to put her in a position to ask her,’ he continued.
‘She had me when she was 15 at a really young age. So the whole circumstance of that, people might not understand.
‘I still don’t want to put her in a position to ask her,’ he said of his mum Lydia. Here with son Fox
‘I don’t want to dig there with her. That’s her story. This is more about me and what I’m doing. I don’t we didn’t really want to drag her into it.’
Benji said Warner Bros are looking at producing his story as a limited series, with details yet to be announced.
Marshall is married to wife Zoe and they share two children: Fox, five and Ever, 10 months.
Benji said Warner Bros are looking at producing his search for a father as a limited series, with details yet to be announced. Here with wife Zoe
Benji won hearts by talking about the difficulty of not knowing his dad while on The Celebrity Apprentice.
The footballer said the real him is not the ‘flashy rugby league rock star’ but the man in search of his identity.
‘This is a story that I’ve never told. I’ve never talked about this publicly,’ he said.
‘I’ve never ever talked about this because it means so much to me,’ he added.
Benji is married to wife Zoe and the couple have two children: Fox, five, and Ever, 10 months
‘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?’
Marshall called time on his 346 game NRL career last year after coming off the bench for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in their loss against the Penrith Panthers in the NRL Grand Final.
The five-eighth made his NRL debut as a schoolboy prodigy in 2003 and won a premiership with the West Tigers two years later, where his famous flick pass set up a try during the 2005 grand final became part of NRL folklore.
The five-eighth made his NRL debut as a schoolboy prodigy in 2003 and won a premiership with the West Tigers two years later, where his famous flick pass set up a try during the 2005 grand final became part of NRL folklore. Pictured, Benji playing for West Tigers in 2005 at age 20
Source: | Dailymail.co.uk