They were Australia’s golden couple and with 46 years of marriage under their belts, Bert, 83, and Patti Newton, 76, seemed more in love every day before Bert’s tragic passing.
WATCH: Bert and Patti Newton’s incredible love story
Bert first met the then Patti McGrath when the two of them were radio child stars and then moved on to work together at Channel Seven.
The pair stayed in contact throughout their teens and twenties with Patti even inviting Bert to her 21st birthday party before moving to the UK to further her career. It was then that Bert knew that Patti was The One.
“I was working on the QE11 in 1974 43 years ago. Bert surprised me and got on board and asked me to marry him. A wonderful Australia Day and the best thing I ever did xx,” she penned on Instagram in 2017.
Since their wedding day, Bert and Patti have welcomed two children, Lauren, 40, and Matthew, 44, and six grandchildren but at the core of it, they are each others’ rocks.
“We lived and worked everything that was happening on television, we’ve spent a lot of time together. If anything happens to either of us, whichever one it is will find it very difficult because we’ve been in one another’s pockets for well over 50 years,” Patti told Now To Love.
That’s not to say they haven’t endured their fair share of heartache.
Just one year after Patti married Bert in 1974, Bert’s beloved older sister, Alice passed away from cancer, aged 52. Bert, then a huge TV star, was devastated.
“He loved her desperately and she died,” Patti told New Idea. “But in her time all those years ago, it wasn’t homed in on you to keep checking and to go and have mammograms.”
Not only has their son Matthew long battled his own demons, but Bert has had a number of health scares including quadruple bypass surgery, a nasty bout of pneumonia in April 2017 and many hospitalisations.
“When he had a health scare with pneumonia in 2017, it shook him to the core,” a source previously told New Idea.
Most recently, the veteran entertainer underwent a leg amputation following an aggressive infection on his toe which wouldn’t clear up.
As Bert faced this challenging new chapter, wife Patti was by his side until his tragic death, which was announced on October 30, 2021.
But despite the ups and downs that come with marriage, the two continued to be one of the dedicated couples in the country.
“Patti is my oldest friend,” Bert told Now To Love at the 2018 Logie Awards.
So what’s their secret? Patti has previously revealed that it’s time apart.
“I think we have a great relationship because we’re not always in each other’s pocket,” she told Woman’s Day in 2015.
And the ability to laugh together, and at one another.
“I think you have to have a good sense of humour, that’s something I do have, I’m always ribbing him about something. I know that he doesn’t do the dishwasher very well, but the reason I know that is because if he did do it well, I’d ask him to do it more,” Patti laughed.
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This story originally appeared on our sister site Now To Love.
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