Surfing legend Layne Beachley reveals heartbreaking family news

Layne Beachley has revealed that her father Neil has been diagnosed with dementia.

The legendary surfer, 51, revealed the heartbreaking family news on his Instagram page this month.

Alongside a photo of her and Neil beaming at the camera, Layne wrote: ‘My dear old dad is battling dementia but still has the ability to smile, laugh and enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

“As a family we kept him in his familiar surroundings for as long as possible until we moved him out of his Manly home late last year, which quickly affected his memory.”

Beachley added that she had recently taken her father to visit the Manly Life Saving Club, of which he had been a lifelong member, and she was overwhelmed to see a crowd turn out to support him.

The Sydney-born athlete told this week’s New Idea magazine that her rock star husband Kirk Pengilly, 65, helped her through this difficult time.

In 2020, Beachley spoke about how being adopted pushed her to win seven world championship titles.

When she was just eight years old, the man Beachley believed to be her biological father broke the news that she was not related by blood and was put up for adoption as a baby.

Her biological mother was a 17-year-old aspiring model, living in Sydney from Glasgow, who was raped by a modeling agency employee.

Appearing on ABC’s Anh’s Brush With Fame, Beachley said she felt ‘worthless’ hearing the news just a year after her adoptive mother died.

‘The more he talked and the more comforting he was, the bigger the couch got and the more it swallowed me. I started to feel worthless, said the champion surfer.

The Sydney-born athlete told this week’s New Idea magazine that her rock star husband Kirk Pengilly, 65, helped her through this difficult time

In 2020, Beachley spoke about how being adopted pushed her to win seven world championship titles

‘Being rejected by our own mother… you just feel like, “Stop it, I didn’t deserve my own mother’s love, who do I?”.

Beachley, who started surfing on Sydney’s northern beaches, made a pact with himself that day to become a world champion – and set his sights on professional surfing.

She later married INXS saxophonist Kirk Pengilly in October 2010 and credits him with helping her through some tough times.

The couple first met in Sydney’s Dee Why on the Northern Beaches 20 years ago after promising mutual friend Jon Stevens they would go on a date.