The Crocodile Dundee star, 81, appeared downbeat and emotional during an interview with Sunrise hosts Natalie Barr and David Koch during Tuesday’s program, speaking to the pair from his $4.5 million Venice Beach mansion. “I am desperately homesick. You’re living in a country right now, alongside New Zealand, that’s the light of the world,” he told the Sydney-based hosts. “I’m living in LA county which has 10 million people, and about half of ’em got COVID. So am I homesick? You bet your life.”Los Angeles has been one of the hardest hit areas in the US, registering more than 1.2 million COVID cases and 24,000 deaths since the pandemic began. RELATED: Six vaccinated travellers test positive in hotel quarantineKoch noted that Hogan, a regular guest on Sunrise, was the “most down” they’d ever seen him. Hogan said he was trying to stay in good spirits, despite taking steroids for a kidney issue that had caused his face to bloat. But he said he barely left his house in Venice Beach, California, which has seen a huge rise in homelessness and crime since the pandemic struck last year. “The crime’s up. I don’t go anywhere. The minute I can come home without being locked in a hotel for two weeks, I’m back,” he said.Koch pointed out that many celebrities visiting or returning to Australia had made arrangements that saw them skip hotel quarantine and instead isolate at private homes. Mark Wahlberg, Nicole Kidman and Matt Damon are among the stars who saw out their two-week Australian quarantine in luxurious mansions rather than cramped hotel rooms. But Hogan, who moved to Los Angeles more than a decade ago to be closer to his youngest son Chance, dismissed the idea, insisting he and the 23-year-old would have to complete hotel quarantine together. “No. My son would have to be with me, (and) we’d strangle each other,” he said.RELATED: Paul Hogan opens up on love and luckBut many Sunrise viewers didn’t have much sympathy for the Aussie star’s predicament, questioning how “desperate” he could be if he refused to undergo two weeks of hotel quarantine.“Quarantine like everyone else … or stay in America,” tweeted one viewer.“Wants to come back but won’t do hotel quarantine; he’s not that desperate then if he won’t follow the rules,” wrote another. “Desperately homesick … won’t quarantine for two weeks to get back. Must be reeeeal bad,” tweeted another.Do you sympathise with ‘desperately homesick’ Paul Hogan? Viewers on the Sunrise Facebook page echoed those sentiments. Here’s a sample of the comments:“He can’t be that desperate if he won’t quarantine for two weeks.”“These Aussie celebrities living abroad always seem to miss home when it suits them.”“He said it! Bored and sick of being locked down! That’s the only reason he wants to come to Australia. If COVID wasn’t there you would not wanna come here.”“He made his home over they so he can stay there, he made his choice.”However, one viewer stuck up for Hogan, writing: “Lot of mean people here. He is an elderly 81-year-old fella obviously homesick. A bit of compassion wouldn’t hurt.”Father-of-six Hogan, who split from second wife and Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski in 2014 following 24 years of marriage, had previously expressed his desire to return home to Australia in an October 2020 interview with the Courier Mail.“I’m like a kangaroo in a Russian zoo – I don’t belong here,” he said of his adopted LA home.“Once this thing is over, and (Chance is) settled, I’m out of here in a flash.”NED-3294-NCA-App-Banner
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