Paul Henry rolls with the punches

BY CATH BENNETT

He might be making headlines, but everything life throws at Paul Henry is water off a duck's back, writes Cath Bennett.

Giggling on the set of Breakfast with co-host Pippa Wetzell, Paul Henry doesn't look like a man at the centre of a major controversy.

Despite the fact that social commentators, campaigners and even overseas journalists are baying for his blood after he called singer Susan Boyle a "retard," the presenter shows no inclination to tone down his act.

When Sunday News arrives at TVNZ studios he jovially calls out, "Did you see the paralympians have it in for me now?" before the cameras start rolling.

He then happily ponders on air whether Tiger Woods' wife needs some advice on the best golf club to use to control her husband.

It's perhaps not surprising that the man who survived joking about a woman's moustache, calling a teen mum a "slapper" and branding obsessive compulsives "crazy freaks," shrugs off this latest storm.

"I honestly can't remember ever saying something I regret," he says, adding that he usually doesn't think before he speaks. "I say the sorts of things you'd hear if you went into any tearoom, shop or business – the difference is I say them on TV."

Having spent the last five years keeping the Broadcast Standards Authority busy investigating complaints, this could well be Henry's last big scandal before he bows out of Breakfast.

The former radio host, who insists TVNZ have always been supportive of his conduct, has finally had enough of starting work at the crack of dawn.

"I'm ready to move on from Breakfast. Having said that, what I'm really ready to move on from are the hours," he says.

"I always say it's the best show at the worst time.

"There are different ways it can end, you can be dragged off the stage or you can just step off the stage – and that's my preference, to just step off at some point."

More than two decades in the limelight have ensured Henry's past has been well documented – from his emigration to England when he was 11, to his poverty as a teen, to his near death experiences as a foreign correspondent.

He might have sniggered at Boyle's experiences of bullying, but he admits that at school he was reduced to tears by kids who "made fun of my accent and called me `Jesus Boots' because I wore sandals".

Diagnosed as a dyslexic soon after arriving in the UK, he faced his weaknesses head on, and while "to a dyslexic reading out loud is anathema" he won a scholarship to drama school, before getting a job at the BBC and later finding work in radio.

For several years he was a foreign correspondent, putting his life on the line from the Congo to Cambodia – experiences he seems to remember mostly for the lack of toilet facilities.

"I don't mind being in a dirty situation, but I don't want to be dirty in a dirty situation," he says. "I've been in Afghanistan, locked in a compound and needing the toilet and the guy wouldn't let me through. It was just hideous."

"Hideous" and "ludicrous" are two of Henry's favourite words, along with the expression "water off a duck's back," which seems to be his attitude to all life throws at him.

Henry admits he felt "bullet-proof" as he travelled the world. When asked if he feels lucky not to have been killed, the broadcaster responds: "I've made my luck, it's about attitude."

Contributing to his decision to give up the overseas reporting was the importance of his kids Lucy, 21, Sophie, 19, and Bella, 17, with his ex, Rachael Orsman. He says he's "not a good family person," but reveals his passions are cars, boats, gardening and his children.

"Sometimes Lucy worries for me," he says. "She'll sit there in a motherly way and say, `Oh dear what are we going to do about this?' Sophie is largely concerned with Sophie so she lets me do my business and for Bella everything is water off a duck's back."

When asked if he still gets on with the girls' mum, Henry gives a non- committal "mmm", and he shuts down completely when asked about his current relationship status, "that is just my private business".

He admits he's a bit of a loner with just a small circle of acquaintances. "I mostly just sit around on my own," he says.

Lurking on the horizon is Henry's 50th birthday, a landmark he is facing with gloom.

"This is the first time I have thought about my mortality in terms of a birthday," he says. "I think about dying all the time but I never linked my thinking about dying with actually getting old, and 50 is old."

After years of speculation he'll take on the Close Up job, he now claims he's lost the desire to do it. Since running as National's candidate for the Wairapa and losing out to the world's first transsexual MP, he has been offered several easy runs into politics, but has declined.

So what's next? "I'm getting old, maybe it's time for me just to step off the stage," he says. But his loss would be felt.

When asked who could replace the motormouth on Breakfast, executive producer Tony Davenport replies: "I don't think there is another Paul Henry."

- © Fairfax NZ News