There was a time when Osher Günsberg was in so much pain that he thought it could end his marriage.
Osher, who shares his story in new documentary Osher Günsberg: A World Of Pain, was diagnosed with osteoarthritis when he was in his thirties.
“But like many white Australian men I was like, ‘I know you’ve told me I need to stop running, I’m just going to keep running,’” he tells TV WEEK. “And I just kept going.”
Surgeons told Osher he would need a hip replacement. It wasn’t until 2019, when his wife Audrey Griffen gave birth to their son Wolfgang, a little brother for Georgia, that the TV host began thinking seriously about it.
“I started doing the sums, going, ‘I’m going to be 63 when he graduates high school,’” Osher remembers. “At the time, walking for more than 20 minutes was a problem.”
Osher decided to go ahead with the hip replacement. He was told that only two per cent of people who had the surgery developed complications. Unluckily, he was one of that two per cent.
The pain that Osher experienced following the surgery was “just crazy”.
“Audrey would roll over in bed, for example, and she’d brush my leg, and the hairs on my leg just touched her leg and it felt like she’d hit me with a cheese grater. And flinching away from your wife’s loving embrace isn’t good for your relationship.”
Complicating the situation, Osher knew he had to be extremely careful with the painkillers being offered to him because of his history with similar drugs.
“Vicodin was part of the last few months of my drinking and using when I was living in America, so I was very, very aware of where it could go,” he says. “I’ve been sober a long time now and I work really well with my sponsor who helps me on my journey, so we were in contact the whole time.”
The chronic pain that Osher was experiencing had an impact on everyone in the family.
“I had no tolerance for anything, and so I was going to get divorced,” he says. “It was bad.
“I was saying, ‘If this is what my life is, I won’t be able to keep this relationship and I won’t be able to stay being a parent. I’d be amazed if we lasted a year if I’m like this.’”
Desperate for relief, Osher went to see a specialist who changed the way he looked at pain. It inspired him to make this documentary, which explores the latest research into chronic pain and innovative ways to manage it.
“The stuff we started uncovering was just unbelievable and the people we got to speak with were incredible,” he says.
The doco is one of the things that’s been keeping Osher busy recently, along with working on two new books and his podcast, Better Than Yesterday. Having hosted every season of The Bachelor on 10, Osher is now keen to watch The Golden Bachelor on the Nine Network, which Sam Armytage will be hosting. He says the concept of an older person looking for love is “fantastic”.
“I think Sam’s going to do a cracking job,” he adds. “I can’t wait to see what happens with it and what conversations it’s going to start in Australia.
“That’s one thing I really loved about working on Bach, the kind of conversations we got to have, particularly when Brooke Blurton was a part of the show and when Abbie Chatfield was a part of the show.”
As far as his pain goes, Osher says it’s still there but it’s not anything like it used to be. He can play with Wolfie and roll around on the floor, which he says is “really valuable”.
“Can I be with this sensation while I play and roll around on the floor with him? Yes, I can. I can do both. It’s absolutely possible to roll around on the floor and have a tickle fight.”
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