Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan says he yearns to move back to his native Australia but does not want to abandon his son in the US.
The 83-year-old has lived in Los Angeles for over two decades with son Chance, 24, but said in a rare interview: “I’m not in the place I’m meant to be.”
He moved to America after marrying Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski in 1990. Chance is their only child together and Linda left LA after they divorced in 2014.
He knows Chance would be fine without him, but would feel guilty leaving his son without family in LA. Paul, who has five older kids from his first marriage to Noelene Edwards, said: “I’m the only family he’s got really, here.”
The increasingly frail star said he is “held together by string” after suffering health problems, and relies on Chance to open jars for him.
But he dreams of a return Down Under, saying: “People in Australia are not aware of what an amazing place they live in.
“We’re a mighty nation. We have [an] independent, free, democratic government and sort of the best climate and some of the most beautiful, spectacular places in the world.”
He added: “I’d be happier if I was back in Sydney permanently, because I’m sort of bored here.
"[Chance] likes visiting there, but he’s got his life here.
“He has all his friends, his bands, girlfriends, hobbies, everything. He was raised here.
“My other children are...nearer 60 than 20 and so I sort of cling to my last child a little bit.”
The legend has shed all his body fat after suffering a condition called retro peritoneal fibrosis, a benign growth that pressed on his kidney. He was prescribed steroids to shrink it but how needs to build himself up again.
He told Australian TV station Channel 9: “The treatment fixed it, but it shrunk me. The muscles all shrank and the strength has come back, but it left me feeble.
“They [steroids] are supposed to make you fat but I got thinner.
“I’m now in the business of trying to put a bit of fat on.”
He added: “I maintained [my health] right up til 79, I was still fit. I’d still take out most 40-year-olds. And then I turned 80 – it’s lovely, that saying, that ‘turning 80 is not for sissies’, because things start to fall apart.”
