League Star and Gay Partner Tell of 'True Love'
(staff writer, Brisbane Courier Mail, 10 October 1995)
Sydney salesman Shane Goodwin says he would like to adopt children with his lover, Australian rugby league star lan Roberts.
Test front-rower Roberts, 30, and Goodwin, 22, started living together a month after meeting at a Sydney nightclub three years ago.
In the latest edition of New Weekly magazine, Goodwin, a former interstate basketballer and referee, said he expected to be with Roberts forever.
He said a family was on the cards, but not yet.
Ian loves kids, but we'll work all that out in the future," Goodwin said. I truly love him."
Roberts said: "From the beginning, I always knew it was special with Shane.
"From the outset I was very, very keen. Still am. The way I feel, I wouldn't swap Shane for anyone."
New Weekly editor Juliet Ashworth yesterday would not reveal if Roberts and Goodwin had been paid for the Interview, the first in which they have discussed their relationship.
"That's confidential," she said.
Ms Ashworth said the interview was negotiated through Roberts's manager, Nick Karadonis.
"I'm sure every magazine would love to have the story," she said. Goodwin was interviewed from London, where he is holidaying. Roberts, who has since joined his partner overseas, spoke to journalist Jacqui Lang in Sydney.
Roberts's homosexuality has been an open secret in rugby league circles for years but speculation about his lifestyle increased in the wider community this year when he posed for sexy photographs in the gay magazine (not only) blue.
Roberts said he had had long-term relationships with two other men. He is Goodwin's first gay lover.
"Before I started seeing Ian I'd been seeing a girl for a couple of vears." Goodwin said. "After meeting Ian I had no doubts about anything anymore."
He said he had been well accepted by other footballers at the Manly-Warringah club where Roberts plays.
Goodwin is the first of Roberts's gay partners to be introduced to the football world. The others would go to matches to watch him piay but were never invited to parties with other players and their spouses.
Roberts's parents, Ray and Jean, admitted they were shocked when he told them he was gay but said they had learned to accept his partner and homosexual lifestyle.
"He's our son. He'll always be our son," Jean said. "We love him and that's it."
Roberts said telling his parents he was gay was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.
He said the second-hardest experience was being on the losing side in last month's grand flnal against the Sydney Bulldogs.
"He couldn't stop crying when we went to a club after the game - I just didn't know how to comfort him," Goodwin said.
"He just kept telling me he loved me and asking me not to leave hls side. I didn't."