Tragedy strikes twice: Breakfast radio host whose first husband took his own life quits her job after learning her new partner is dying of cancer
- Robin Bailey resigned from her breakfast radio post at Triple M Brisbane
- She will focus on spending more time with her husband Sean Pickwell
- Mr Pickwell was told his cancer was terminal more than a year ago
- Bailey’s first husband and father to her kids, Tony Smart, commit suicide in 2014
A breakfast radio host who lost her first husband to suicide has stepped away from her job to spend more time with her second husband, who is terminally ill.
Robin Bailey resigned from her breakfast radio post at Triple M Brisbane this week in order to spend as much time as possible with her husband, Sean Pickwell.
The pair married in November 2018 after a whirlwind three year romance.
Mr Pickwell proposed days after he learned his liver cancer had spread to his bones, blood and other organs.
Robin Bailey (centre) resigned from her breakfast radio post at Triple M Brisbane this week in order to spend as much time as possible with her husband, Sean Pickwell (top left) and their blended family
The couple travelled to Europe and the United States, and are sharing as many memories as possible from Mr Pickwell’s bucket list
The 56-year-old was told he had six months to live more than a year ago, and now lives every day with the knowledge that his death ‘is imminent’.
Bailey told The Sunday Mail she spent a lot of that time searching for a cure to his condition, but the pair have now accepted the prognosis.
After accepting that he was going to die, Mr Pickwell ‘had to fight’ for doctors to allow him to stop treatment and return home.
‘That wasn’t living,’ he said. ‘What I’ve been able to do in that acceptance is live even more than I ever have before in my life. I came home and would literally stop every single day and think ‘I’m so grateful’.’
Earlier in the week, Bailey went to a tattoo parlour where she got Mr Pickwell’s heart beat inked into her forearm
The couple travelled to Europe and the United States, and are sharing as many memories as possible from Mr Pickwell’s bucket list with their blended family.
Earlier in the week, Bailey went to a tattoo parlour where she got Mr Pickwell’s heart beat inked into her forearm.
She said all three of her tattoos had been ‘carefully thought out’ and that this one represented ‘my pandas heartbeat so it will be with me always.’
‘I hope this is a miracle and he (Sean) is here next year, but I need to spend time with my husband and not feel bad about the juggle,’ Bailey said of quitting her gig on The Big Breakfast.
Bailey said she and Mr Pickwell decided to bring as much happiness, joy and love to their lives as they possibly could in the time they have left together
Bailey said she and Mr Pickwell decided to bring as much happiness, joy and love to their lives as they possibly could in the time they have left together.
She said her children Fin, 19, Lewin, 17, and Piper, 14 – who lost their own father to suicide in 2014 – had found the process somewhat healing.
Bailey said the boys she shared with her first husband, Tony Smart, were ‘resilient’ after losing their dad, but that this experience had been entirely different.
‘I think the process has actually been really healing for my kids,’ she said.
Mr Pickwell agreed, saying their experience with their father was that he died overnight, whereas the boys have had a longer time to process his diagnosis and are really working hard to connect with him.
‘However this ends, it ends in love,’ Bailey added.
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Bailey’s first husband Tony Smart (pictured together) commit suicide in 2014. The couple shared three children