An Aussie radio star has made a shocking confession, revealing that she has never met her biological father as she announced a weeks-long hunt that will unravel on-air.
Mix 102.3 breakfast show star Ali Clarke was initially composed as she revealed the news to listeners and co-hosts Max Burford and Shane Lowe on Wednesday, saying her lack of knowledge about her biological dad was “one of her biggest secrets”.
Clarke said she had only a few pieces of information to work with — her mother’s memories, one photo, a name, and her paternal grandmother’s address in England, from which presents had occasionally been posted — but she was determined to know what had happened to the man she had never known.
Radio host Ali Clarke has revealed that she has never known her father, as she announces an on-air manhunt. Picture: Mike Burton
The radio host became tearful, though, as she described fears that the search for her biological dad would affect her mother or beloved stepfather, who had been in her life since childhood and even walked her down the aisle at her wedding with Crows AFLW coach Matthew Clarke.
“I have never talked about this … I don’t know anything about my biological dad and his family, or if I have brothers or sisters,” she said.
“All I know about my birth dad is that Mum left him, and the only other real memory I have is in primary school. One day my Mum told me he had passed away.
“We never spoke about it again. I don’t even know if there was a funeral.”
Clarke said she wasn’t sure whether the man was dead or alive.
Clarke said she was concerned about the impact of the search on her stepdad, who walked her down the aisle at her marriage to AFLW coach Matthew Clarke (right). Picture: Dean Martin
The revelations come after the Ali Clarke Breakfast Show used a private investigator to help two audience members in the same situation.
“I truly think it is incredibly brave what they (the audience members) have done. And … I am in a very similar position,’’ Clarke told listeners.
“I don’t have any of that history of mine and I am starting to wonder why.”
Clarke’s personal experience was not disclosed on the show until Wednesday, when she said the series had triggered deep-seated distress after years of only thinking about her biological dad “in passing”.
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Clarke gushed about her adoring stepfather, whom she said was her “dad” and had been in her life since she was three.
“He was the one who walked me down the aisle and he was the man who I have shared my life growing up with,” Clarke said.