The mother of surfing legend Mick Fanning has suffered the painful loss of three children, with just her youngest Mick and her eldest child Rachel remaining of the five kids she raised on her own.
Sean died aged 20 in a car crash in 1998, Peter, aged 43, from a heart condition in 2015, and Edward died less than three months ago in Madagascar, aged 48.
Liz Osborne said she felt her heart breaking when she got the call from Edward’s friend Blair, who broke the awful news that she’d lost a third child.
‘The universe couldn’t be this cruel again. A third son of mine has left this world. Sean, Peter and now Edward,’ she told The Australian.
‘The sadness and panic were overwhelming.’
Three-time world surfing champion Mick experienced his own brush with death in July 2015, when he fought off a great white shark during the final round of the J-Bay Open in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.
As if the horror of having her children die or come face to face with a great white shark wasn’t enough, Ms Osborne has now revealed she suffered her own close call from a heart attack less than two months after she lost Edward.
Surfing legend Mick Fanning’s mum Liz Osborne (right) has seen three of her children die, with just her youngest Mick (left) and her eldest child Rachel left of the five children she raised
Mick (right) credited his older brother Edward (left) with introducing him to surfing as a child
On May 16, as she took the bins out at her Tweed Heads home in northern NSW, she couldn’t catch her breath.
Ms Osborne knew she was having a heart attack and that she had a very limited amount of time to get help.
But she wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t call triple-zero – instead she rang Mick and asked if he could come and get her.
He did. Mick drove her to John Flynn Hospital and they arrived within half an hour of the heart attack.
‘He was so calm and reassuring, holding my hand,’ Ms Osborne said.
‘He’s always treated me with so much love and generosity.’
She recalled being terrified and telling the nurses that she didn’t want to die. She said they did an ‘amazing job’ of reassuring her and later saving her life.
A cardiologist inserted three stents into her blocked coronary arteries, with Ms Osborne feeling very fortunate to have survived.
She is now taking better care of her health after a ‘big lecture’ from Mick.
‘I think I just needed a super-hard wake-up call, reminding me to be grateful, humble, kind and courageous,’ she said.
Mick Fanning (right) is pictured with F1 driver Pierre Gasly in 2018 in Torquay, Victoria
Mick had a brush with death in July 2015, when he fought off a great white shark (pictured) during the final round of the J-Bay Open in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
In April, Mick and his fiancé Breeana Randall announced the birth of their daughter Lyla just weeks after Edward’s death.
The 42-year-old previously revealed the depths of his devastation in an emotional social media post soon after Edward died.
‘Ed, love you my brother,’ he wrote. ‘You taught me so much over the years about everything that life could deal up. The good and the bad you were my teacher. You introduced us all to surfing, the joy and freedom of riding a wave.
‘The meaning of going to the ends of the earth to find waves to following a passion in the belief that surfing could be that ultimate job. As the years went on you would fall in and out of the ocean but your pure talent would always shine through.
‘To where you ended up in teaching kids the joy of riding a wave. With out you I’m not sure what the world would of made of me so thank you.
‘Ed you had the biggest heart and were too loyal for your own good. Always sticking up for the underdog and caring for those who needed help. You gave everyone everything you had, and if you didn’t have it you’d still give it to them.’
Mick paid tribute to his brother in emotional scenes at the Greenmount Surf Club on the Gold Coast on April 6, just two days after his daughter was born.
At the service, Mick told a story about how Ed had played air guitar at a school concert, miming to the 1985 Dire Straits song Money for Nothing.
He joked that the song’s lyrics of getting ‘money for nothing and your chicks for free’ became Ed’s theme song throughout his life.
Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning (pictured) is pictured at a memorial for his brother Edward at the Greenmount Beach Surf Club on the Gold Coast on April 6, 2024
Mick Fanning’s daughter Lyla (pictured) was born on April 4
Ed had regularly raided Mick’s wardrobe and boardroom for free clothes and surfboards, he told those gathered.
He said his older brother had loved a beer and he always feared that he would one day get a call that Ed had drunk ‘his last schooner’.
That call came last month, but Mick said Ed had been in his ‘happy place’ in Madagascar after moving there in 2020 to teach surfing to locals and tourists.
With a life that has brought great highs and lows, Mick gave his mother a heartfelt tribute, saying ‘I don’t know where I’d be in my life without her.’
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