Hall said he has found peace regarding his “dysfunctional” relationship with his dad, Ray, who he described as a “f***ing piece of s***” in a podcast released last month. He has now told A Current Affair in an emotional interview the notorious on-field issues he had with aggression and violence during his football career were the result of his childhood. He confirmed he has “cut ties” with his dad and the pair no longer speak.Watch Boxing Live & On-Demand on Kayo. Selected international fights, classic bouts and more. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >“He wasn’t a loving, emotional, supportive dad, I was always looking for his approval,’ he said.“Like any young kid all I wanted to do was impress dad and dad wasn’t into footy, he was into boxing.“The thing I would do is go and have a fight at school and go home and brag about it, because I knew he’d be happy about that. He was rapt about it; you could see the smirk on his face.“It’s mind-boggling now that I sit here as a father to think that was ok, that I thought that was a reasonable way of receiving approval from him. It’s bizarre.”Hall has made several revelations about his private battles ahead of his boxing fight with Sonny Bill Williams at Aware Super Theatre in Sydney on March 23.Hall also said during his appearance on hit reality TV show SAS: Australiahe now looks back at the person he was during his football career and says “I wasn’t a very nice person”.“I’ve messed up a lot but I’ve sort of learnt from it,” he said.When asked what is “biggest f*** up” was, Hall referred to the infamous incident where he knocked West Coast defender Brent Staker out cold with one punch during the 2008 AFL season. He was suspended for seven games and was sacked by the Swans in 2009.“I was a little bit violent on the football field,” he said.“I was throwing fists and I knocked a guy out and it was my f*** up.”Hall is promising to be a very different parent for his own kids.The 45-year-old and Hi-5 performer wife Lauren Brant in November welcomed their third child, baby boy Samson Andy Hall. The couple also have four-year-old Miller and two-year-old Houston.Hall and Brant met on the reality show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! in 2015.The lesson Hall takes away from his troubled past is that he will support his children in everything they do — even choosing ballet or chess over football.He was in tears during the filming of SAS: Australia when asked about the impact wife Brant has had on his character development.“Lauren is an amazing mum, amazing wife — has helped me so much,” Hall said, wiping away tears.“We’re all pretty lucky.”Hall says he only got into boxing as a teenager to impress his dad — and explained why it is the reason they have not been on speaking terms throughout his entire professional career.The lesson he takes away from his troubled past is that he will support his children in everything they do — even choosing ballet or chess over football.“My first love was football. I absolutely loved it,” he said. “I used to train a bit, we had a boxing gym in our garage and like any young bloke growing up I just wanted to impress dad. So I started to hit the bag a bit. Dad used to teach me a few things. I just said to him one day, ‘I want to fight’. And to be perfectly honest, looking back now, I didn’t really want to fight, I just wanted to impress him cos that’s what young kids do.”After six amateur wins, including a Victorian state title, Hall says his first defeat — at the age of 16 — was the ticket he needed to escape.He says the judges did not score the fight properly and robbed him of a victory.“I actually saw it as an excuse to get out of boxing,” he said.“I didn’t know how to tell my old man I didn’t want to do it any more. So the weak as p*** way for me to do it — because I was quite intimidated by my old man and I was scared of him — was to say, ‘Look, I’ve trained too hard for this. I’ve been starving myself. I don’t want to be ripped off like this. I need a break from boxing’. “My old man took it pretty hard.“He thought I was making a mistake. And my old man is a pretty ruthless character. Since that day our relationship just hasn’t been the same. At the age of 16 he just didn’t speak to me at all. Not a word. We would be sitting at the dinner table and he didn’t speak to me.“He’s never been to a game of footy. He never watches it. We don’t get along at all. And I don’t talk to him. He’s a f***ing piece of s***. That’s just how it is.”He told A Current Affair he feels “sorry” for his dad.“You don’t realise you’re in something until you’re out of it, once I got out of it and cut ties, no longer have a relationship I actually feel sorry for him,” he said. “Actually I felt sorry for him until I had my own children.“I’m here for my boys, I’m fighting for my family, and it can really do great things for us.“I probably give too much love to my boys — me and Lauren do. They’ve got so much love in this household and that’s how it should be.”
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