Obituary: Rob Astbury

Former journalist and TV presenter Rob Astbury has died at the age of 69.

For over 20 years, Astbury was a multi-award winning investigative sports journalist and at one point was the highest-paid sports journalist in Australia.

He worked across all three commercial channels in Melbourne — initially at ATV0 (Ten), then Nine and later at Seven.

He also worked in radio, including a stint at 3AK in Melbourne.

Astbury broke many exclusive sports stories and was a recipient of two Penguin Awards and ten VFL/AFL media awards.

After leaving the media, he moved into a successful career in real estate, in Thailand for more than a decade and then later back in Australia on the Gold Coast.

In 2005, Astbury was “outed” as the secret former lover of Graham Kennedy, amid allegations made by Derryn Hinch after Kennedy’s death that the TV legend died of AIDS. This was later refuted by medical records, though Astbury would later reveal that he had contracted HIV in the early 2000s.

Astbury later wrote of his relationship with Kennedy in a book, King and I: My Life With Graham Kennedy.

Source: The Age, Peter Ford, Wikipedia


YouTube: Rob Astbury

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2017/11/obituary-rob-astbury.html

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