John Kennerley farewelled in touching Woollahra funeral service
Almost three years to the day a cruel twist of fate shattered their otherwise picture-perfect world, showbiz icon Kerri-Anne Kennerley farewelled the love of her life and husband of more than four decades John Kennerley.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at Woollahra's All Saint's church on Monday morning for the moving funeral service.
The past three years have not been easy for the Kennerleys after that fateful evening on a Coffs Harbour golf course in March which irrevocably altered their lives.
"I still wake up wondering if it had been a nightmare ... but there is no other alternative, you just have to keep going forward, I have to for John's sake," KAK told PS some six months after his accident, having tumbled over a low hedge while posing for happy snaps during a laughter-filled golf weekend, which left him a quadriplegic.
For three years Kennerley required around the clock care, and while he defeated the odds to survive as long as he did and to remain by his beloved "Kerri's" side, his prognosis after fracturing his C2 and C3 vertebrae was never going to be an easy one.
But the Kennerley's soldiered on in their trademark style. Kerri-Anne literally moved heaven and earth to get her husband out of their Woollahra home for nights at the theatre and opera, even getting him on a plane so he could witness his wife being inducted into the Logies' Hall of Fame two years ago.
And despite his physical immobility, Kennerley continued to treat his wife like the Princess he always saw her to be.
In 2016 "KAK" celebrated her birthday by his bedside. She later recalled: "He asked me to get something out of his wardrobe ... I was rummaging through and came across a huge Chanel bag ... I said: 'what's this?' and the cheeky bugger had managed to get someone to go online, find the bag and had the people from Chanel send it to the hospital to surprise me ... I said:'You can't go spending money on things like this anymore John' but he told me: 'I can't do much for you anymore darling, but I knew you would love the bag' ... and I do!"
Faced with the daunting costs associated with his care, KAK threw herself into her work, not to escape the reality of what was now confronting the Kennerleys, but to raise the money needed to pay for her husband's ongoing care.
According to figures published in the United States, High Tetraplegia (C1-C4) care for the first year after sustaining such is the equivalent of around $1.5million, and a further $250,000 for each year after that.
"I hate it," she admitted of the circumstances the couple had found themselves in 2016. "But I love him, I'll do anything for him."
A renowned model train model maker, Kennerley's coffin was adorned with two of his favourite “o” gauge creations as his widow sat by listening to the tributes for her husband.
Dressed in a brightly coloured cocktail dress and trademark towering sparkly stilettos, his grieving widow told friends: John would hate me wearing black”.
But the technicolour ensemble couldn’t hide her sombre mood as Kennerley farewelled her biggest fan. Laughter filled the church as tales of Kennerley taking his celebrity wife to the model train makers convention. And tears flowed as his difficult last years were remembered.
A mix of society and celebrity made up the mourners including fashion designer Jonathan Ward, jeweller Nic Cerrone, former News Corp boss John Hartigan, racing identifies Fran and John Ingham, Channel 10 personalities Sarah Harris and Denise Scott, Deborah Hutton, Dawn Fraser and Andrew Banks.