He’s one of the most awarded stars in Australian TV history, but he didn’t have it easy. This is his family story.

To say Ray Martin has led an interesting life is something of an understatement. The Australian journalist and entertainer grew up in poverty, he has conducted some 10,000 interviews during his storied career, and even attended his own funeral, generating a whole heap of headlines along the way.

His latest legacy? Having a Logie named after him in the form of the Ray Martin Award for Most Popular News or Public Affairs Reporter.

Ray himself won the prestigious Gold Logie a whopping five times. He’s one of the most-awarded star of Australian TV and at the age of 80 he’s still going strong.

But just who is the man behind the legend?
Ray Martin has won a Logie five times and now has one named after him. (Credit: Getty)

Where did Ray Martin grow up?

Ray’s journey to becoming a household name and current affairs veteran isn’t a star-spangled one. Before he reached high school, the boy born Raymond George Grace had lived in 13 different places in three different states.

His father, George, was a violent drinker who would beat his wife and children. In his autobiography Ray: Stories of My Life, Ray recalled a particularly harrowing occasion when George, who died in 1984, pulled out a gun.

The family was in Tamut, NSW, when George came home late and drunk, causing Ray’s mother to confront him. George then hit her in the face, cutting her lip, Ray recalled.

“When mum snatched a bread knife from the bench, the old man peeled off, saying he was going to get his shotgun,” Ray wrote. “That’s when we headed for the hills.”

Ray recalled hearing his father “slam the back door, shout a few expletives in our direction and then fire the shotgun”.
Ray Martin has a distinguished broadcast career. (Credit: Getty)

Why did Ray Martin change his name?

Ray’s mother would later pull off a “great escape” from her marriage when Ray was aged 11 – taking him and his three sisters to Adelaide while George was away at work. She changed her name to Martin so George couldn’t find them, later formalising it by deed poll.

Ray would use the surname as his family name for the rest of his life.

He later told the Daily Telegraph that he never saw his father again, but that George had once tried to see him in 1979 when Ray launched current affairs show 60 Minutes with George Negus and Ian Leslie.

“He came to the (Channel Nine) gatehouse and left a number,” Ray revealed. “I never called. It would have been a slap in the face for Mum, who was well and truly alive at the time.” Ray’s mother died in the late 1990s.

Indeed, the role Ray’s mother played in shaping his resilient personality cannot be underestimated, and her influence shaped Ray’s bond with his own children, Jenna and Luke.

When Jenna was born in 1984, Ray quit his job as a roving reporter on 60 Minutes so that he could spend time with her and his beloved wife Dianne.
Ray Martin credits his grandchildren for giving him “20 more years of life”. (Credit: Instagram/raymondgmartin)
“The real learning experience, having had two kids of our own, is to see what Mum did,” Ray later told Woman’s Day.  “She got us through pretty impossible odds. Even my kids when they read the book [Ray’s autobiography] were like, ‘I can’t believe what you went through’. But my memory of it was just total love, and I can only put that down to my mother.”

Rays own experienced shaped him as a father.

“There was no hesitation when Jenna was born. I said, ‘I’m leaving 60 Minutes and I am not going anywhere’,” Ray explained. “That started with her and continued with Luke. And it’s been overwhelming. In some ways, I’ve got to watch that I don’t cocoon the kids too much because of my experience.

“I guess domestic violence is the one thing that sort of strikes me,” he added. “And I found myself with Luke, early on, drilling into him that there’s just not ever a reason for violence against women…”
Ray and wife Dianne have been together more than 50 years. (Credit: Supplied)

Is Ray Martin still married to Dianne?

Today, Ray and Dianne have been together more than 50 years, with Ray attributing the success of their marriage in some ways to the time they spent apart!

“Filming [60 Minutes] we’d be away for 12 weeks at a time and we’d joke 60 Minutes would keep marriages together because we’d be away from each other so often,” he joked to Woman’s Day in 2022.

“I’ve got an amazing wife – Dianne is very independent, and she likes her own time, so during COVID when we were locked down for four months and we don’t often spend so much time together… the amount of times she looked at her watch and said, ‘Isn’t it time you went somewhere?!’ I’m surprised we survived.”

In the same interview, Ray also credited his role as a grandfather for him “20 more years of life” – although he did experience a shocking health scare while shooting one of the final scenes for his 2024 SBS series Ray Martin: The Last Goodbye.
Ray Martin faced the very real prospect of death after falling ill while filming The Last Goodbye. (Credit: SBS)
The series was an investigative deep dive into one of Australia’s last taboos – death. And ironically, Ray began feeling very unwell in scenes where he attended his own wake.

“I was feeling fairly ordinary the night before but I went ahead with filming the next day,” the star recalled in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

“I was hanging on for grim death, feeling really crook, so the second I got home I went up to bed. I’m never sick so my daughter suggested we go to the doctor.”

In fact, Ray found himself in intensive care, where he was told he had a blood clot in his heart which was caused by a bad chest infection.

“It’s the only time in my life, because I was so drugged, that I thought, ‘This could be the end’,” he told the publication.

“I’m 79, I’ve never been in hospital in my life and I was thinking, ‘I can’t afford to die now’.”

Is Ray Martin still working?

Thankfully, the broadcaster pulled through, and these days he doesn’t like to waste time. He returns for a second season of The Last Goodbye which is slated for release later this year.

“I don’t want to die,” Ray admits on the first season. “The idea of not being around to see the experiences of my grandchildren or my daughter or my son or my wife, that’s very sad. I don’t know how people accept death. I’d prefer to be alive.”

And for Ray, that means spending as much time with his precious family as he can.

“If I was going to have a gravestone, I hope it would say, ‘He had a go’,” he told Australian Women’s Weekly in 2024.

“Every day I do something I don’t really want to do is a day I can’t spend with my grandkids or my dog.

“Let’s say I live for another 10 years, that’s only 3000 days. I can’t afford to waste one of those days. I’m never going to retire but I easily say no to things now.

“Without being maudlin, it’s reminded me that all our lives are finite. Certainly if you reach my age, it’s getting pretty finite.”