Rolf Harris was jailed in 2014 after being found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault. Photo / AP
Rolf Harris was jailed in 2014 after being found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault. Photo / AP
Disgraced Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, 93, is reportedly gravely ill amid his battle with neck cancer.
According to multiple news outlets, an ambulance was seen outside the convicted sex offender’s UK home last week which he shares with his wife Alwen, 91, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
Following his release from prison in 2017, it was reported Harris was struggling to eat. After spending the Covid years holed up in his £5 million (NZ$10m) home in Berkshire, England, last year the former TV star, artist and musician’s health was understood to be deteriorating amid a battle with neck cancer.
The Mirror reports Harris’ speech has become difficult to understand, with the former star “gurgling” as he talks, and private investigator and author William Merritt told the Daily Mail he is “obviously unwell”.
Rolf Harris and wife Alwen Hughes in 217. Photo / AP
After visiting Harris last year, Merritt said: “Rolf has been very sick. When I saw him he was able to speak to me. He was with it, but he was obviously unwell”.
A neighbour told the news outlet Harris’ health had worsened after the death of his beloved poodle, Bumble.
“Only carers and nurses, who care for him 24 hours, come and go. I’m told he can’t eat any more,” they said.
For more than 60 years, Harris was a celebrated artist and entertainer whose talents spanned the music, television and art industries and he was also a familiar face on New Zealand screens.
But in 2013, as part of an investigation which also brought down fellow entertaining legend Jimmy Savile, Harris was arrested on historic allegations. Eventually convicted on 12 counts of indecent assault, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
In 2017, after serving three years of his original sentence, he was released from prison and has been battling neck cancer from the confines of his Berkshire mansion.
From lauded entertainer to disgraced sex offender
Born in 1930 in Bassendean, Perth, Harris initially found fame in the 1950s as an artist, television star and musician - notably, he wrote the now-classic Aussie tune “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport.”
In 1953 after studying at the City and Guilds of London Art School in South London, Harris began a career in television with the BBC in a series of children’s shows centred around his drawing and performance abilities.
At the end of the decade, having married Alwen Hughes and after becoming the only entertainer to work with both the BBC and ITV at the time, Harris was headhunted when the medium took off in Australia.
Returning to Perth, he fronted a five-day-a-week children’s show and an evening variety show, cementing himself as a familiar face to Australian audiences.
Rolf Harris entertaining children with his artwork in 1986. Photo / Getty Images
His familiarity and background as an artist saw him become the poster boy for Dulux paint, and he toured the country with a live art show.
When Harris went back to the UK with his wife, the next two decades saw him solidified as a high-profile British entertainer. Starting as the presenter of Hi There and Hey Presto it’s Rolf in 1964, the year his daughter Bindi was born, he went on to host The Rolf Harris Show for almost a decade. He fronted other children’s shows and a short film called Kids Can Say No!, the first British children’s film about sexual abuse which he later brought to New Zealand as a campaign series in 1986.
Australian entertainer Rolf Harris with his wife Alwen and their daughter Bindi in London in 1969. Photo / Getty Images
A successful musician who could turn his hand to many an instrument including a didgeridoo and stylophone, Harris’ classic “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” reached number one in Australia in 1960 and in 1992 he was nominated for an ARIA Music Award for Best Comedy Release. He also illustrated the cover of The Great Australian Songbook.
He toured throughout New Zealand, Australia and the UK from 1968 to 1975 performing with Kiwi guitarist Gray Bartlett who would later tell the Herald he was “stunned” and “very disappointed” for Harris’ family and the victims as the star’s 2013 convictions came to light.
His artistic talent continued to be profiled and in 2005, Queen Elizabeth II sat for a portrait with him.
Rolf Harris with his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Photo / Getty Images
But Harris’ long-running star status was shockingly brought into disrepute when he became part of a British police investigation called Operation Yewtree in 2013.
The operation looked into child sexual abuse cases against Jimmy Savile and others. Harris’ allegations were not linked to Savile and the Australian entertainer denied any wrongdoing.
Harris continued to deny myriad allegations brought by women, one as young as 8 at the time of an alleged offence. But in July 2014, he was convicted of 12 counts of indecent assault and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
Harris also allegedly abused two girls during his visits to New Zealand. But the claims were deemed to be outside the jurisdiction of the court and did not form part of the charges.
Following Harris’ conviction, New Zealand’s Maggie Barry came forward to reveal she was groped by the disgraced Australian in a Palmerston North recording studio when she was working as a journalist. She told the Herald more than a dozen New Zealand women approached her to say they were also indecently assaulted after she shared her story.
In 2016 a further seven indecent assault charges were laid against Harris who was allowed to attend the trial via video link from Stafford Prison because of his age and poor health. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and the prosecution did not pursue a retrial.
Harris was released from prison in 2017, having served three years of his initial sentence.
He returned to the world having been stripped of his many accolades for his service to entertainment, charity and communities. Honorary doctorates he had been awarded were rescinded and he was removed from the Aria Hall of Fame, had his Bafta fellow annulled and his once-beloved roles as the face of British Paints and Dulux had also been canned.
Since his release from prison it is understood Harris has been battling neck cancer while also caring for his ailing wife.
