Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has opened up about the experience of finding his absent father, saying locating him in Italy was “a moment I will never forget”.
Albanese has shared his family story in a new biography written by the Canberra-based political journalist Karen Middleton, revealing he located his father in Italy with the help of intermediaries after the death of his mother, Mary.
The Sydney MP grew up with his mother after Carlo Albanese returned to Italy after a romance in 1962. Albanese grew up thinking his father had married his mother but had died in a car accident before he was born. He was told the truth as a teenager.
Albanese told Middleton, and the ABC on Tuesday night, that he had resolved not to try to find his father while his mother was alive.
He said it had been “very traumatic” for his Catholic mother to tell him the truth about his conception, and growing up with her alone, he had felt the need to send his mother a message that she was all he needed.
His position changed after his mother’s death in 2002. Albanese recalled being asked by his son, Nathan, where his father was during a visit the two made to his mother’s grave. “It hit me I had a responsibility to him as well ... to find out more about my father,” Albanese told ABC’s 7.30.
The MP then asked for assistance in tracking down his father in southern Italy, including from the former Howard government minister and later ambassador to Italy, Amanda Vanstone.
Carlo Albanese was located in 2009. “It took my breath away. I didn’t think it would happen,” the MP said.
Albanese travelled to Italy to meet his biological father. Before the meeting, Albanese described his emotional state. “I went on a walk by myself. I was very emotional. It was a big deal. It was a big moment in my life.”
The two men formed a relationship, and Albanese was also united with two siblings, before Carlo Albanese died of cancer in 2013.
He was asked whether he thought about his mother when he was eventually reunited with his father. Albanese said his mother was very much front-of-mind, but he believed she would have understood why he felt a need to form a relationship.
“While she was alive I didn’t want to do a disservice to her. I didn’t want her to think in any way that I needed something else. But I think she would get it,” he said.
