Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan has called his 27-year-old son, Chance, “terrible” after a series of public incidents sparked concerns.
The 85-year-old actor said he is forced to remain in the US because of Chance’s behaviour and the negative attention he gets from tabloid newspapers.
The singer and chef is the only child of Hogan and his second wife and Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski. Chance shared a video on Instagram in January in which he was seen slurring his words while drinking wine.
He said at the time: “This is my life. This is what it’s been reduced to. Please kill me. I’m begging you.” Within moments he’d shared a follow-up video saying: “I take it all back. I am living the dream… I never want to leave this table.”
“I have business reasons and my son to stay in the States for now,” Hogan told the Today show, admitting that he would go back to Australia “tomorrow” if he did not have any constraints. “It’s where I belong,” he continued.
Asked for an update about his troubled son, Hogan said: “Alright. Better than he gets.”
He added: “He gets a lot of tabloid stuff, but he’s a terrible person because he knows they’re watching him and he puts something on for them.”
Hogan has been open about the struggles Chance has faced throughout his life, telling the Sydney Telegraph that his parents are “the only family” he has.
“I’m only living in Los Angeles because he’s not ready for me to leave,” the actor told ABC Australia in 2019. “He’s got his own friends that he grew up with and his band, they’re in LA. So the minute he’s set, or he comes with me, I’m back here. I’ve had my share of Los Angeles. I’d have come years ago if he’d have come with me.” The family are reported to live in a $3.5m house in Venice Beach, California, where Chance grew up.
Hogan has five children with his first wife, Noelene Edwards, including four sons and one daughter. The couple married and divorced twice before Hogan married Chance’s mother Kozlowski in 1990. The pair divorced in 2014.
Hogan played Michael J Dundee in the trilogy, released between 1986 and 2001, about a weathered crocodile poacher who arrives bewildered in the big city of New York.
The first film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 1986 Academy Awards. The actor has repeatedly turned down offers for further sequels.
He has since starred in Australian comedy films Charlie & Boots (2009) and Strange Bedfellows (2004). He most recently starred as himself in 2020 comedy The Very Excellent Mr Dundee.
