Two words Hinch wants on his tombstone
In a moving interview before his death, Derryn Hinch revealed the two words he wants on his tombstone and the message he’s recorded for his own funeral.
Derryn Hinch revealed the six words he’ll be saying from beyond the grave to mourners at his funeral in a moving interview recorded before his death.
The legendary radio broadcaster and politician sat down for a tell-all chat with former 3AW host Tony Tardio just over three months ago at his Melbourne home.
“I plan to have my funeral at the comedy theatre in Melbourne. I’ll get my mate, Darren James, to be the emcee because, of course I’ll play as I’m taken out of the funeral, they’ll play (Frank Sinatra’s hit) That’s Life,” he told Mr Tardio.
“I’ll record: ‘I’m Derryn Hinch. That’s life. Goodbye,’ and that will be the end of it.”
In another candid moment, Mr Hinch was asked: “Do you fear death?”
“No, not at all, I’ve had a hell of a life” he shot back.
“I’ve had an aisle seat on the world for 80 years.
“I’ve met presidents. I’ve covered assassinations. I was there when men went to the moon. Neil Armstrong gave me a pair of his of his cufflinks.”
Mr Hinch went on to admit he had “never been good with money” and “drank too much”, revealing both his father and grandfather struggled with booze.
“There’s only two words I want on my tombstone,” he closed the conversation with.
“And it’s not ‘That’s Life’. It’s ‘He Tried’.”
Goodbye world
His last televised interview was along the same vein with Hinch joking his apartment’s balcony would be “a great place to cark it”.
“Sitting in that chair, staring out at the clouds. Goodnight, nurse. Goodbye world,” he told A Current Affair in November last year, prompting veteran reporter Marty King to call him a “fatalist”.
In that interview Hinch revealed that he’d had 30 falls in that year alone.
“I’ve had 30 falls in the last year. And they just happen, even when I’m holding onto Johnny [his walker],” he said, “I sometimes just hit the floor.”
They included a fall that left him stranded on the floor for 12 hours until he managed to get help, leading to a three week stay in hospital.
“I didn’t know that I had broken two ribs, but the thing was, I was just lying there. I couldn’t move my legs. I couldn’t use my arms. I couldn’t crawl to my bedroom to get a blanket. I just felt totally stranded.”
As tributes flow in for the once-in-a-lifetime icon, we take a look at his most controversial moments.
Remembering the Human Headline, Derryn Hinch
Prison stints
Mr Hinch once claimed the public’s right to know about sex offenders was far more important than laws of contempt and sub judice, according to reporting by the ABC.
Which is why the relentless campaigner for harsher penalties on convicted sex offenders spent time behind bars.
He was fined and jailed for 12 days in 1987 for naming paedophile Catholic priest Michael Glannon while a criminal trial was pending.
In 2011, he spent five months in home detention for breaching suppression orders over two other offenders.
In 2014, he chose to spend 50 days in jail than pay a $100k fine for publishing suppressed information about Adrian Bayley, the man who murdered ABC employee Jill Meagher.
These instances reinforced his image as someone willing to break court orders to push for harsher treatment of sex offenders and more transparency.
He also once told Triple J’s Hack program prisoners get it “too cushy” in jail.
“I had more quality meat in the week than most pensioners would get in the month,” he said.
“Judges and magistrates are out of touch with community expectations on sentencing.”
But Mr Hinch was a man of contradictions.
In his 2004 autobiography, The Fall and Rise of Derryn Hinch, the reporter confessed to once sleeping with a girl he thought was 25 but later turned out to be 15, according to reporting by Triple J.
He withdrew the comment nine years later saying she was actually 17.
Journalist turned politician
Mr Hinch had a long and often turbulent career in media.
He drifted in and out of talkback radio in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, nabbing ratings-hot slots like 3AW.
He was a panellist on the TV talk show, Beauty and the Beast, hosted The Midday Show on the Nine Network and was a frequent commentator on Seven and Sky News.
He once appeared with playboy playmate Allyson Best for a nude shoot in 1979.
Mr Hinch became a household name when he fronted current affairs shows on Seven and Ten in the late 1980s and 90s, both named after him.
But it was perhaps his time as a Federal senator that was among one his most eye-grabbing moves.
At 72, he threw himself into politics, campaigning hard for a public sex offender register. He would go on to win a seat in the Senate, serving from 2016 to 2019.
The oldest first-time senator at the time, Mr Hinch was lauded for introducing a new law restricting the overseas travel of convicted paedophiles and pushed for a national public register for sex offenders.
Mr Hinch used his maiden speech in the Senate to name alleged or convicted paedophiles. His supporters saw at it courageous but his detractors accused him of being reckless, according to multiple reports at the time.
In 2017, serious questions were raised about his eligibility for Australian citizenship after it emerged he held a US Social Security number.
He later formed his own political party, called the Derryn Hinch Justice Party, and saw three candidates win seats in the 2018 Victorian state election.
The party advocated for harsher sentencing for sexual and violent offences but was dissolved in 2022 when no candidates won a seat in that year’s state election.
Mr Hinch also played a role in relaxing rules around the types of photos the press can take in the Senate and was eventually pictured asleep in parliament.
Illness and public bust-ups
Mr Hinch’s politics were as muddled as his public life. He was a strong campaigner for a public sex offender registry, supported marriage equality as well as voluntary euthanasia, and wanted a ban on live exports. He opposed racial vilification laws, claiming it jeopardised free school, but backed breaching the civil rights of sex offenders.
Then there was his private life.
Mr Hinch was married five times, including to actress Jacki Weaver, with whom he appeared in the clip for John Farnham’s hit song You’re the Voice.
While in the Senate, he suffered a brain injury after falling from an Uber in Melbourne and revealed he had been drinking beforehand.
He also continued to drink after receiving a liver transplant.
That led to a public spat with former colleague Steve Price, who told Mr Hinch to “wake up to yourself and get off the grog” before laying into him as “a big noting tosser”.
Mr Price said the broadcaster “loved a long lunch, he loved a big drink”.
Mr Hinch’s ex weighed into the debate in 2016, rejecting his claims he only drank watered-down wine and non-alcoholic. She said he downed up to two bottles a day after getting a new liver.
Media Hall of Fame
Mr Hinch was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2018 by none other than his contemporary, Ray Martin.
“Senator Derryn Hinch has been a colourful, megaphone-campaigning, groundbreaking journalist. He has always pursued the story as ambitiously and doggedly as the headline,” Mr Martin said at the time.
“He has long been amongst the very best tabloid reporters in Australia, a special skill that should be recognised and rewarded. He has also consistently been on the ‘decent’ side of most public debates.
“Derryn Nigel Hinch truly deserves the accolades. He is a legend of Australian journalism.”
Mr Hinch was diagnosed with cancer shortly after celebrating his 80th birthday.
Aussie reporter Peter Ford was one of the first to confirm the news of the controversial personality’s passing on social media.
“Very saddened to report Derryn Hinch has died. What a life and career! Fearless & provocative. He achieved all he wanted to do in life. RIP,” he shared on X.
From the boy from New Plymouth in New Zealand to Australian media royalty, Derryn Hinch left his mark on all those who watched him through the years.