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Kerri-Anne: “He is my priority”

Kerri-Anne lets down her guard as she details intensive care for husband, John.

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An emotional Kerri-Anne Kennerley shared her private pain with audiences last night as Sunday Night interviewed her following the devastating accident to husband, John Kennerley.

A tearful Kerri-Anne, letting down her guard with strewn make-up, told Mike Willesee, the couple’s life had changed in an instant after an accident at a golf tournament at Coffs Harbour.

“Right now the most difficult thing, apart from the gigantic question mark, is not being able to talk to him. I read him newspapers, I ask him questions…. it’s better than what it was, I hold up alphabets and do all that. And now I can lip-read,” she said.

“Watching him be sad, it’s like I’m inside my head screaming and it’s not real. But it is.

“He’s trapped in his mind, he’s trapped in his body. He can’t touch me. All I can do is ever so gently hold his head, and one shoulder.”

Asked my Willesee how she was holding up, she said, “A whole chunk of me just doesn’t exist any more.

“All he said to me last week was, he had a terrible dream.

“He said, ‘I dreamt you got fed up of all this and left me.’

“I said, ‘That’s never gonna happen.’”

“I want him back so bad. I want him to actually be as happy and have the creativity that he’s always loved and enjoyed.”

John Kennerley, 76, faces a long rehabilitation with a fractured vertebrae in his neck and paralysis that requires the aid of a ventilator. He is expected to face 12 months of intensive care.

“My life as we knew it …80% has gone. My life as I knew it is over. That was history,” Kerri-Anne said.

“This is now a new life. Because he is my priority.”

6 Responses

  1. I felt so very sad for Kerrie-Anne, especially as the accident happened in such a freakish way – her husband apparently falling awkwardly less than a metre, after being pulled in for a photo opportunity at a golf clubhouse.
    A one in a million chance of paraplegia, I think the doctors said !
    No wonder she is still in shock and to a point, denial.
    My heart goes out to her in her time of complete anguish and helplessness.

  2. I feel terribly sorry for them both. A catastrophic stroke left my father completely paralysed down the left side and with only partial movement in his right side for the last 11 years of his life. Until you have eperienced it, you don’t know how much this sort of disability in a family member turns your world upside down. And it comes without warning, so you have no way to prepare for it. I know how the anger, bewilderment, the “why us”, the denial, the pleading with God to make it better and the whole gamut of emotions feels, it is utterly devastating emotionally, it damn near wipes you out. Congrats to Sunday Night, the story was conveyed very well and never descended into pathos. Kerrie-Anne’s devastation and pain is obvious, I feel desperately sorry for her and her lovely husband. They seem to have an incredibly loving relationship, they will get through this, but my God,…

  3. I imagine this would be a tremendous drain on there finances, constant care does not come cheap, no matter who you are. I feel extremely sad for Kerrie Anne. Breast cancer and now all of this on top of the cancer scare, the stress on this woman is great. I wish Kerrie & her loved husband all the luck in the World. Any money she can raise will only help her husband to be cared for appropriately in the circumstances. Love ya Kerrie all the very best.

  4. My Father in Law suffered an horrific accident in the mines many many years ago, quadraplegia was the result, it changes the whole family, the happy days never come back, a lot of families know where you are at K-AK

  6. Without any judgement and I’m sure most would agree it is a worthy arrangement; this appears to be a “commercial agreement”, considering both Sunday Night and New Idea are involved. I feel it should be at least noted.

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