Five years ago, Blanche D’Alpuget couldn’t even envision writing again.
While still grieving her husband, the formidable former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who passed a year prior, the lauded writer was battling myriad health issues herself.
“It really was one thing after the other,” she tells Woman’s Day.
“I had breast cancer, so I had to get a mastectomy, and then chemotherapy and more surgery. And then I got Covid and pneumonia – twice.
“It was all happening in a short space of time, all while grieving Bob,” she adds.
Following the many surgeries, Blanche took some time off to focus on her health, but as we catch up with her exclusively in her stunning Sydney home, Blanche, now 81, looks and feels fitter than ever.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I feel so young inside. I don’t feel as if I’m older than 60 or late 50s! I wish my skin would get the memo though,” she adds with a giggle.
As well as celebrating her health, Blanche is readying for the release of her new novel, The Bunny Club, which marks a series of firsts for her.
Not only is it her first foray into the murder mystery genre – she’s long made a name for herself penning historical fiction such as the best-selling Lion series – it’s also her first release since Bob’s passing, a fact that, when reminded, causes her to tear up.
“Oh, I miss his jokes,” she says when asked what she misses the most about her “best friend” and husband, who died in 2019 aged 89. “He was a terrific joke teller. And of course, I miss his affection. He was enormously affectionate,” she adds.
“It’s funny, there are moments when I really wish he was physically present. Particularly telling jokes. But, the rest of the time, I feel he’s here with me the whole time anyway.”
It’s a surprising admission given her home, which sits high above the Sydney CBD skyline, is scarce of any Bob related memorabilia. Blanche insists this is deliberate.
“I think it would be a distraction,” she says. “It was another life and I’m in a new life now. A new chapter.”
WRITING A NEW LEGACY
And in this new chapter, her writing is going to take precedence, Blanche says.
“I think for a long time while I was with Bob, I couldn’t even consider writing because we were travelling so much and having so much fun.”
And it’s only now that Blanche, and perhaps the public, are realising just how important her writing is, so much so that she’s visibly shocked when told that her bombshell 1982 biography of Bob, Robert J. Hawke: A Biography, that led to them meeting and falling in love, is also credited by some in helping him land the role of Prime Minister in 1983.
“Really? Oh gosh, Bob nearly had a fit [when that was released],” she says. “He was very shocked, because I talked about his drinking and womanising, which hadn’t been reported before. But it was the truth and he respected the truth, and I think once he realised he had to face up to that, then it was a political plus for him.”
As well as his biography, Blanche reveals Bob read all of her novels – “he hated reading novels, but out of sweetness of character, he always read mine” – and adds she hopes he’d be proud to know that she’s continued to write since his death.
But for fans who are hoping for an in-her-own-words memoir, you might be waiting a while.
“Look, a bloke called Derek Rielly is doing one, I think it’s going to be called Fridays with Blanche,” she reveals nonchalantly.
“It’s coming out later this year. God knows what it’s going to be like,” she says with a laugh.
LIVING THE QUIET LIFE
Although she doesn’t seem to think so, Blanche’s life story will be one hell of a page turner, particularly her years with Bob, which were filled with luxurious homes, holidays and parties.
However now, Blanche reveals she now revels in living “the quiet life”.
“I go to the gym three days a week, I see my family and close friends and that’s it,” she says. “I’m in bed by 10pm every night.”
And yet, every now and again, there’s an incredible encounter that pulls her into her surreal past.
“Just the other day I was walking in the Botanic Gardens and there was a woman who went passed and she stopped me and said, ‘Are you Blanche? Oh, what a privilege to meet you’ and then she blessed me. It was so sweet and lovely,” she says.
When asked whether she’s ever had any negative interactions – she was after all once considered “the other woman” when she famously had an affair with Bob while he was still married to his wife Hazel in the 1990s – she says, “No, but I think that might be because I have no social media.
“I also like to think people are less judgemental now.”
Blanche adds she also still speaks to Bob’s children, and even reveals her son Louis’ son often has playdates with Bob’s granddaughter Sophie’s daughter.
“They’re treating each other as cousins, it’s really nice.”
SETTING THE ROBE STRAIGHT
Later in our interview, we steer the conversation to those robe photos, after all it would be amiss of us not to mention the now infamous towel robe photoshoot that, 30 years ago this year, were splashed across the cover of Woman’s Day, causing widespread controversy.
“Oh yes, I want to tell the story of the robes!” she announces.
“So we’d done the interview and we were on the way to the airport and we were walking past the [hotel] swimming pool and the photographer is there and he said, ‘How about one more shot?’ and so we went to the pool shop and got two bathrobes and we sat on the deck chairs.
“So they took the photos and then [during the editing] they cut out all the palm trees and everything around it, so it looked like we were in the bedroom or something,” she laughs.
“We were both mortified. I mean I was naive enough, but Bob knew much more about the press and I think he was really cross with himself.
“I’d love you to print that, because I’ve told many journalists but it’s never been published.” Blanche now looks back at the photographs and thinks it’s “fabulous”.
“I’d love to know how many copies it sold,” she laughs.
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