Amanda Keller gets emotional on air as she marks 35-year marriage amid husband's diagnosis: ‘It's hard'
Amanda Keller got emotional on air this morning as she marked her 35th wedding anniversary with husband Harley Oliver.
Speaking on JAM Nation with Jonesy & Amanda, the radio host reflected on the three decades they've spent side-by-side through all the highs and lows – and how their vows 'in sickness and in health' have rung true in recent years following Oliver's Parkinson's disease diagnosis.
'I don't want to get emotional. It's my wedding anniversary today. And in the old days, Harley and I would have been going out to dinner tonight. But he's not well enough to do that,' she cried on-air to co-host Brendan 'Jonesy' Jones.
'When you stand there on your wedding day and you say forever, what does that even mean? You don't even know,' she reflected.
'I think all you can say is, I kind of feel the weight of potential that we can go somewhere here. And when you say the words, for better or worse, you know, what do they mean when you're in your 20s?'
Oliver, who has been married to Keller since 1989, was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2017 but the radio host only made his diagnosis public in 2023 during an episode of her Double A Chattery podcast.
At the time, Keller had noticed something wasn't right with her husband often dragging his leg and his hands started to shake. Soon after Oliver received news the couple had feared: he was diagnosed with Parkinson's – an incurable brain disorder that causes uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and co-ordination, with symptoms gradually worsening over time.
'In sickness and in health. And yet that's where we are. And no concept of what that means until you're living it,' Keller said this morning. 'I kind of fluctuate between taking great pride in the fight that we are alongside each other, and the strength that it takes to get up every day and still fight it and still live it.'
'But I don't think you can get to 35 years without the sands shifting between you beneath your feet. If you're living life, you don't get to cherry pick life. You engage with it as you find it. And Harley's very stoic, but it's hard. You know, I'm grateful today that here we are, 35 years and we're still in it together. But it's hard.'
Keller says she doesn't dwell on the 'what ifs' and accepts their circumstances as they are but she'd be lying if she said she didn't sometimes have the 'absolute sh*ts' with what they have to deal with.
'We've lived a rich and wonderful life together, and we still do,' she added. 'But it's not the same as the old days where we'd be going out to dinner tonight. But the boys are coming over for dinner. And I'm grateful that we still have each other. But I wasn't going to get emotional. Anyway, happy anniversary, Harley.'
Keller than said that everyone goes into marriage with no knowledge of what lies ahead in their journey, but that's all part of life – and she's grateful for it all.
'On your wedding day where you think no one knows what ride you're in for? None of us do. As Harley himself says, we all have an asteroid coming at us. We don't know what it is,' she said.
'We all think that we'll get to 90 and die in our sleep. I think the human condition is you can't afford to think otherwise, or you wouldn't get up in the morning. But people face stuff every day. And that's the meat of life. That's the meat of a long-term relationship. So, I'm grateful to have that.'
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