Michael Cheika discusses his upbringing, career and the women who have influenced him.
Occupation Coach and commentator
Age 54
Relationship status Married
Best known for Coaching the Australian rugby union team
Michael Cheika: “Until the age of 40, my life was all about travelling for footy. It wasn’t easy to have a long-term relationship.”Credit:
My mother, Therese, is one of 12 children who came to Australia from Lebanon for a holiday in 1960 to visit her sister, Mary. Mum hadn’t left her village before she came to Sydney. She met my dad, Joe, and took a shine to him. He had arrived in Australia in 1950 and was already settled.
I met my maternal grandmother on a trip to Lebanon aged five. The village had a communal oven where locals would take their food to cook, then take it back home for dinner. I pined for her when we came back to Australia; I missed not having her around like the other kids did with their grandmothers where I lived in Sydney’s Coogee.
My sister, Caroline, is seven years older than me and my brother, Paul, is five years older. Caroline has always been very protective of me. Being the eldest daughter of an immigrant family in Australia was tough for her growing up. She really paved the way for me and had to deal with all the cultural changes, wanting the best of both worlds, but pushing boundaries for women in our Lebanese Christian culture, too. Caroline was a rebel, very family-orientated and often at war with the family in her younger years.
Mum is definitely the backbone of the family; she wanted our home to be vibrant with visitors. She didn’t mind if my friends dropped in when I wasn’t there; she always fed them.
Mum hadn’t mastered Arabic or English because she left school to help her family in the village. It was only after my dad passed away in 2002 that she got herself an English teacher, started to travel and got on with her life.
Dad’s passing was a huge deal for Mum, who is now 80. She was so reliant on him and he was on her. She went through her period of mourning, but she never really spoke about it. I could tell by the look in her eyes it hurt, but she just dealt with it.
Mum never understood my obsession with footy, but she was banned from coming to any of the games that my brother and I played because every time she did one of us would be sent off!
