Brendan Watkins is an Australian author. After a varied career in the entertainment and not-for-profit sectors, Brendan took 12 months off to explore and document his complex ancestry. Five years later, in 2023, his best-selling memoir ‘Tell No One’ was published. The book garnered significant media attention and prompted calls for a federal government investigation into his findings.
‘Tell No One’ was longlisted for the 2023 Walkley ‘Longform Journalism’ Book Award. An ABC TV feature on Brendan's story has since accumulated over 2.5 million views. He has recently begun developing a new non-fiction work. He swims, a lot.
'After decades of searching, I discovered that my birth parents were a Catholic priest and a nun.
'Tell No One' explores the questions, anxieties and reflections arising from this hidden past.'
'When I was eight years old, my parents told me I was adopted. In my late twenties, I found out the identity of my birth mother – but she wanted nothing to do with me.
For thirty years there was only limited communication with my birth mother, and I knew nothing about my birth father. In 2018, a DNA test led me to the truth: I'm the son of a missionary priest. He had studied in a Trappist monastery in Ireland, had a career as a house builder, was a Bondi Lifesaver, a trophy-winning ballroom dancer, was a landscape painter, met Mother Teresa and toured the world.
An astounding story of scandal, deception and coercion had been uncovered, a truth that must be told.'
Brendan Watkins
'I read 'Tell No One' in one sitting. I could not put it down. Everyone needs to know where they come from. Brendan's persistence against secrecy and lies was a powerful reminder that many end their lives without knowing.
I so wanted a fairytale ending and then I remembered how cruel institutionalised religious power is to children and women. Read it and weep and then get strategic - it has to end.’
Wendy McCarthy AO
