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Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald’s life has often seemed like an open book, with his high-flying runs as a footy star, Big Brother graduate and radio and TV identity. But now he has revealed the details of a little-known event that still fills him with shame: the night he spent in a police lock up.
Speaking to WHO’s celebrity interview podcast, WHO ARE YOU, Fitzy says the incident is still the biggest regret of his life.
‘I got locked up one night, for sticking up for a mate,’ he says. ‘I got lippy with a cop. If I had my time again, I wouldn’t have got locked up for the night.
‘That’s one thing I don’t like to tell the kids about.’
A young Fitzy had been in Melbourne on a football trip, when a friend had drunkenly decided to direct traffic at a major city intersection.
When police detained the friend, Fitzy, then 17, not only got involved and angry, but also apparently stepped way over the line.
‘I got a bit lippy and a bit physical myself,’ he recalls. ‘Then next thing I know I’m back of the paddy wagon with handcuffs on.’
Touching on some other life-changing personal issues on the chat, Fitzy further discussed his former gambling problem, which left him without much financial security despite a high-flying career in the AFL. At the end of his run as a footy star, he ended up pulling beers and wondering what happened.
Revealing his grandfather also had a gambling problem, Fitzy says his father’s disappointment at history repeating played a role in turning himself around.
‘There was a lot of downtime in the AFL, when we used to finish training we used to go to a pub and you’d watch the senior players have a punt and you’d want to get involved,’ he recalls. ‘I loved it.
‘Then next thing you know, it’s part of the culture and you are not saving much.’
Another deeply challenging time was when he and wife Belinda, also known as BJ, tragically lost their daughter to stillbirth in 2008.
‘That was about 20 weeks in, so that was tough on BJ,’ recalls Fitzy, who has two sons, Hewy and Lenny. ‘I had to be there for her as much as I could.
‘You think it’s the end of the world but there always other people out there that can’t have children who are doing it tough. It was a very educational.’
To hear the full interview, listen below.
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