
When Bob Hawke, Australia’s 23rd Prime Minister, died in May this year, his wife Blanche d’Alpuget was the one who broke the news to the nation.
“Today we lost Bob Hawke, a great Australian – many would say the greatest Australian of the post-war era,” she wrote in a statement at the time.
Now, six months on from Bob’s death, Blanche has opened up about how she’s been trying to come to terms with the loss of her husband of nearly 25 years.
Speaking to The Project’s Lisa Wilkinson, d’Alpuget said that she has been a “wreck” up until recently.
“In the last week, I think I’ve come good. Up until then, I was pretty much a wreck. People come up in supermarkets and I’d be trying to buy cauliflower and someone would come up and go ‘I just wanted to say’ and I’d cry on the cauliflower,” she said.
After Bob’s death, Blanche received thousands of letters and messages of “enormous affection and admiration.”
“He inspired me to do this. He inspired me to do that. It was fabulous to hear the outpouring of gratitude to him really. He seriously loved people,” said Blanche.
Bob and Blanche met at a friend’s party in Jakarta back in 1970.
Their attraction was “instantaneous” despite being married to different people at the time.
“I had no idea who he was. I thought his name was Robin. He sat down and we talked a lot. And I thought, ‘You’re a good guy’,” Blanche said.
Six years later, Blanche interviewed Bob for a biography on arbitrator Sir Richard Kirby. And that began the pair’s infamous love affair.