‘I didn’t blink when I left’: The Living Room host Amanda Keller reveals the one thing she wishes she had told her mother before her death
It is a bittersweet time for Amanda Keller as her sons go from being boys to young men – with one off at university and the other following closely behind.
In Saturday’s issue of Stellar magazine, the 59-year-old reminisced about her own relationship with her late mother, Jennifer, and what she wishes she had told her before she passed away from emphysema.
The 59-year-old TV presenter said: ‘I was listening to The Chicks song “Wide Open Spaces” about a mother dropping her daughter at university, and it made me miss my mum who passed away 17 years ago.
‘It made me want to cry’: Amanda Keller (pictured) revealed the one thing she wished she told her late mother, Jennifer, as she prepares for her own sons to leave the nest
‘I wanted to say I was sorry because I didn’t blink when I left and it made me want to cry,’ she recalled of her own memories of leaving home in her younger years.
She also acknowledged how hard it must have been for her mother, who was a stay-at-home wife, to let her children go out into the world.
The radio host noted that unlike her mother, she at least has the benefits of distracting herself with busy work schedule.
Memories: Amanda said, “Wide Open Space” by The Chicks, ‘made me miss my mum.’ She explained: ‘I wanted to say I was sorry because I didn’t blink when I left,’ she said of leaving home and her mother. Pictured with Amanda is her mum and son as a baby
Work life: Amanda also said it must have been for her mother, a stay-at-home wife, to let her children go out into the world. She noted that unlike her mother, she at least has the benefits of a busy work schedule. Pictured is Amanda with her Living Room co-hosts
She has already waved goodbye to eldest son Liam, 19, as he goes to university, while her youngest Jack, 17 is in Year 12.
The Living Room presenter admitted that the prospect of her sons not living in her home was daunting and joked that she would do everything in her power to keep Jack at home longer.
Amanda added: ‘Sometimes I look at toddlers at the beach and think what I’d give for a day of holding their hand at that age again.’
She shares her sons with her artist husband Harley Oliver, who she married in 1989.
Hard to let go: Amanda admitted that the prospect of her sons not living in her home was daunting and joked that she would do everything in her power to keep Jack at home longer. Pictured left is Amanda and her husband Harley, centre a family friend, and right her sons
Still going strong: Harley and Amanda met back in 1985 on the science TV show Beyond 2000, where he was an editor and she was a reporter
The couple met back in 1985 on the science TV show Beyond 2000, where he was an editor and she was a reporter.
In an interview with her good friend Andrew Denton, she recalled the moment she met Harley and said it was not ‘love at first sight’.
‘So I had to do a story in a wetsuit and I think that’s how Harley first saw me. He probably thought that I was some kind of seal,’ she quipped.
‘And it wasn’t love at first sight… but as soon as we started going out we knew we wanted to be together.’
Read more: In this week’s issue of Stellar