I drove home across the Nullarbor to be with Mum, as she was on her own. One weekend, I went to the Blue Mountains to watch some mates play footy. I saw my future wife, Ann, a schoolteacher, on the sidelines, and I fell instantly in love.

Ann was very beautiful, but I also could see she was nice. That night, I told Mum I’d met the girl I was going to marry. I’d like to say I had a romantic story about my marriage proposal, but we were living together, and I said I’d like to get married, and Ann agreed.

We have three children – Charlie, 26, and 23-year-old twins Bill and Sarah. My wife is amazing for the relationship she’s created with Sarah. I don’t think there are too many relationships in which a mother and daughter go on holiday together, but every year they do. Sarah tells her everything. They are like best friends.

Ann has accompanied me to the Logies since 2003. She is extremely thrifty, and at one point she wore the same dress six years in a row. She’s like, “No one is looking at me. I’m not on the telly. They don’t know who I am.” She doesn’t have a thousand pairs of shoes and handbags. Our whole family tries to force her to go shopping.

When I was a young carpenter with three kids, and I didn’t have any money to give her that week, she’d say, “We’ll eat from what’s in the pantry.” She grew up with a great attitude.

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You have to work hard at a marriage. Just be nice to each other, then no one is unhappy. I like to cook breakfast for everyone when I’m at home in Sydney. I’ve got menus: crêpes, omelettes, baked eggs and beans in the oven. When the kids were at school, I did three sittings due to their different start times. So I am just like my grandmother. I have come full circle.

The Block: Tree Change airs on Channel 9 on Sunday at 7pm, and from Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm.

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