Before being booted out of the jungle recently, Ian 'Dicko' Dickson had some pretty powerful things to say about fatherhood.
Dicko told his fellow camp mates on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! that becoming a dad had made him reflect on his relationship with his own father – who he described as "not a great dad".
Growing up had been a challenging time for the music exec.
"My dad was a brute, he spent five years in the SAS in Malaysia in the 1950s. He became an alcoholic, and he never really stopped being a user," Dicko explained.
He said that his dad had come from "a s**t background", adding his upbringing likely had a role in shaping him into the father he was.
Dicko also said he had memories of his dad being "pretty violent" growing up.
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While in camp, Dicko recalled his dad telling him he had been stabbed by a family member.
"Even his mum, my nan, was hardcore. He's got a stab wound in his back that I assumed was from the army and he told me later in life it was from his mum," Dicko said.
"All through my youth I've seen him destroy one, two, three blokes in a fight. He's a little bloke, and he used to box for the SAS as well, and he was a weapon. He was fairly brutal.
"I was never really close with my father – he was absent a lot so I never got to forge the sort of relationship with my dad that I did with my mum," he continued.
Dicko credited his mum for being his major source of support, adding, "She was ever-present in my life growing up and was very much my angel and my inspiration."
As Dicko became an adult, the distance between himself and his father grew. And when it came time for Dicko himself to become a parent, he was left feeling very reflective.
"No matter how much you try and grow up and evolve into the sort of man your dad wasn't, I find myself behaving in a way where I'm like, 'Oh my god, that's just like my father.' You have to accept everyone's got good points, and my dad was a fabulous entertainer so if I've inherited any of those things from him I guess I have to accept them with good grace as well," he said.
Dicko has two daughters, Esme and Edie, with his wife Melanie Bell.
As he said to Now To Love about raising two daughters, "When things have gotten tough it's fantastic having two kids there. I can't bear the thought of breaking the family up. I love our family. I think the girls are great."
Despite the years that have passed, Dicko said a rift remains between himself and his dad. And when asked by fellow campmate Peter Helliar whether they had patched things up in recent years, Dicko said they had not.
"Not really. He moved to Italy when I was in university. I figured, I've got kids now and maybe they should know their granddad, so I paid for his [airline] ticket and invited him back, but he behaved really badly," Dicko said.
"I did that a couple more times and every time I paid for him to come back, he just behaved worse and worse. When I moved to Australia, I just thought, 'Actually I don't need him in my life'. So I just cut him off."
Dicko has reflected before on his own parenting and the lessons he's learned.
"I was so into my career and very much an absent father," he said on the Direct Advice For Dads podcast.
"And there's nothing I can do about that, but it is a regret. I should have had a bit more balance. But we're like mates now [my daughters and I]. They're the best."
If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.
Feature Image: Channel 10.
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