Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opens up about how mother considered putting him up for adoption as child

Anthony Albanese has revealed his mother had initially planned on giving him up for adoption after she gave birth to him out of wedlock. Speaking candidly about his late mother, Maryanne Ellery, the Prime Minister revealed his mum had originally wanted to put him up for adoption, due to the social stigma of the 1960s. However she was stopped by a nun shortly after she gave birth. “She adopted my father’s name, and all of the neighbourhood in what was a close knit neighbourhood were told, as I was that my father had died, and the plan at St Margaret’s Darlinghurst was for me to be adopted out, which was very much a part of what occurred a lot at that time,” he told Australian businessman Mark Bouris on podcast Straight Talk. “Now, there was a nun there at the hospital, who brought me, a young baby, in to her, and she knew that my mum wasn’t the sort of person who would want to give up her child, regardless of the circumstances that were difficult. “A lot of pressure was placed on people … in those days, in the early 60s.” He acknowledged the intense pressure which would have been placed on her at the time, and said he is driven by the sacrifices she made for him. “And my mum chose to keep me and to give me, we didn’t have a lot of money, but we had everything else something that’s more important, which is that unconditional love and support. And it’s remarkable that she was able to do that,” he said. “Even though she didn’t have much formal education herself, she encouraged me to stay on and go to year 12.” Mr Albanese credited his mum with his work ethic, which included paper runs, and jobs at McDonalds and Grace Brothers (now known as Myer) during his high school years, and starting work at Commonwealth Bank “the day after I did my last HSC exam”. “She sacrificed a lot for me. And one of the things that drives me is repaying that,” he told Bouris. “I’ve got a responsibility, given the position I’m in, to work every day. And one of the things that, whatever my critics might say about me, you won’t find anyone who says that I don’t work my a** off.” Mr Albanese has often spoken about the close bond he shared with his mother who raised him as a single mother on the disability pension due to her struggles with crippling rheumatoid arthritis. He’s previously shared that his mum had told him his father, Carlo Albanese had died shortly after they married, and had met on a European cruise. At the age of 14, the then-teen was told that after his mum had revealed she was pregnant to his dad, she was told he was married to a woman in his hometown in Italy. Speaking to Bouris, Mr Albanese said she made the “difficult decision” to “have a child out of wedlock,” and kept the truth from himself and their community. Mr Albanese later tracked down his father about five years after the death of his mother in 2007, and they met for the first time in 2009. His father died in 2014 from cancer, however Mr Albanese was able to visit him during his last days in hospital. “He died in January of 2014 and I was very pleased that I was able to have that final engagement with him. He was lucid and he told me — the last conversation we had was that he was glad that we had found each other,” he told ABC’s 7.30 in 2016. Describing his first time meeting Carlo, he said he had a “physical need in my gut” to be reunited with his father and travelled to Barletta, Italy to do so after a meeting was organised through his professional and embassy contacts. He described the meeting as “extraordinary”. “The bell rung … and the door opened, he walked in and opened his arms to me and we embraced,” he said. “He immediately said that, yes, he knew my mother and understood the circumstances. “So, given that he … he married the woman, as his wife, as he had told my mother he would, and had been with her ever since, it was remarkable, I think, the generosity with which he responded.”