Paul Hogan has been talking about the nostalgia he has for years.
The 83-year-old Australian actor has lived in the United States for more than two decades, and recently made headlines for his disdain for the Venice Beach neighborhood where he lives.
But now he has revealed why he hasn’t returned to Australia yet in a candid interview with The Daily Telegraph.
The Crocodile Dundee legend said that his 24-year-old son, Chance Hogan, who he shares with ex-wife, American actress Linda Kozlowski, was the only reason he still resides in the United States.
“I’ve been homesick for years,” she told the publication.
“I miss the people, the atmosphere, and there’s something you can’t quite put your finger on, but there’s something about Australia that’s friendlier and more relaxed.
“I would rather be there, but I have my last child [Chance] who is American: he has only me, while my tribe at home, they have all had among themselves.”
Hogan and Kozlowski, who played Hogan’s on-screen love interest Crocodile Dundee, moved to the United States in the 1990s, shortly before Kozlowski’s mother died of cancer. The couple divorced in 2014.
“So the years have gone by, and I’m kind of stuck here,” Hogan added.
“I have 10 grandchildren and they’re all grown up, but for Chance, the only family he has is me. All his friends, his band, fellow musicians, girlfriends, everything, they’re all American.
“So I’m hanging on a little longer, but I’ll be back eventually.”
Hogan previously spoke of having “longing” in one Sunrise interview in May of last year, saying he had barely left his $4.5 million home in Venice Beach amid the pandemic and an increase in homelessness and crime in the area.
The usually upbeat Aussie star appeared downcast during her interview with co-host David Koch, who pointed out that Hogan, a regular guest on the show, was the “most depressed” he’d ever seen her.
Hogan said he was unhappy in LA but refused to return to Australia while there was a strict hotel quarantine.
“Crime has arrived. I’m not going anywhere. The moment I can go home without being locked up in a hotel for two weeks, I’m back,” he said.
That same month, Hogan was seen writing a letter to the homeless that he reportedly placed outside his property.
According to the daily mail, Hogan’s note read, “THIS HOUSE IS MINE, NOT YOURS.”
Hogan later denied writing the message, although he was seen writing it with a red marker.
Months later, in November, Hogan said Today he was finally returning to his native country in time for Christmas.
“I have survived. I’m homesick but I’ll be back for Christmas… Looking forward to this stupid disease being over,” he said at the time.
But Hogan has previously said he enjoys the anonymity he gets in the US, which he said kept him in the tinsel town despite feeling “like a kangaroo in a Russian zoo”.
Hogan, affectionately called ‘Hoges’, rose to fame as the charming larrikin The Paul Hogan Show in the early 1970s, before becoming a global superstar, and a one-man arm of Australia’s tourism industry, with the hit film. Crocodile Dundee in 1986.