EXCLUSIVE
The latest love child from rock legend Jimmy Barnes’ ever-expanding family was working for a reformed armed robber turned TikTok star when she discovered her father’s identity.
Katy Lee Carroll was president of Russell Manser’s troubled company The Voice of Survivor for almost four years before reinventing herself as a real estate agent.
Manser, who had a long history of drug abuse and served 23 years in prison, was just 56 when he was found dead in his Sydney waterfront apartment on King Street Wharf in March.
Manser’s cause of death has not been made public, but there were no suspicious circumstances.
Manser had been raped repeatedly as a teenager in juvenile detention and again in an adult prison, and after his final release from prison he devoted himself to helping others.
He founded The Voice of a Survivor in 2017 to help victims of institutional child sexual abuse obtain compensation and amassed 134,000 followers on TikTok, where his posts include videos about life behind bars.
Barnes, who celebrated his 43rd wedding anniversary with his wife Jane in May, revealed on Monday that he was the biological father of 37-year-old Mrs Carroll, making her his eighth child.
The Cold Chisel frontman has four children with Jane, aged 35 to 42, and is father to 51-year-old Today Extra presenter David Campbell, who was born when Barnes was a teenager.
Katy Lee Carroll, the newest love child in rock legend Jimmy Barnes’ ever-expanding family, was working for an armed robber turned TikTok star when she discovered her father’s identity. Mrs. Carroll is pictured with Barnes
Eldest daughters Amanda Bennett and Megan Torzyn, who like Campbell are from Barnes’ hometown of Adelaide and are now in their early 50s, first met their father in 2010.
Ms. Carroll was born in 1987, six years after Barnes married Jane and that same year he released his first number one solo single, Too Much Ain’t Enough Love.
According to her LinkedIn account, she served as managing director of The Voice of a Survivor from May 2018 to January 2022.
In that role, Ms Carroll oversaw the day-to-day running of the business, supporting victims and working closely with the NSW and Queensland prison departments.
When The Voice of a Survivor went bankrupt last July, Manser blamed a wave of institutions seeking permanent residency in compensation cases in which the alleged perpetrator had died.
“The directors have decided to voluntarily liquidate the company as we do not have the same number of customers following the response to these claims,” Manser told Daily Mail Australia at the time.
“It’s just not feasible for us to continue.”
The company also owed about $1 million to the tax authorities and a former customer had filed a civil suit against it, seeking more than $800,000.
Katy Lee Carroll was president of Russell Manser’s troubled company The Voice of Survivor for almost four years before reinventing herself as a real estate agent. The photo shows Manser, who spent 23 years in prison
Barnes released a statement on Instagram on Monday afternoon, just hours after Daily Mail contacted his management about his secret offspring. The photo shows father and daughter
Manser, who co-owned the company with a partner, had previously denied allegations that his company had pressured vulnerable survivors to initiate compensation cases in return for kickbacks from law firms, and there is no suggestion otherwise.
“We don’t have to do that,” he told ABC’s Australian Story. “But you know, I wouldn’t say for a second that we didn’t make mistakes.”
At the time of his death, Manser owned a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio, a Mercedes worth approximately $160,000 and a Jeep Cherokee worth $80,000.
Ms. Carroll was not a director on The Voice of a Survivor and there is no suggestion that she did anything to contribute to the company’s demise.
After leaving Manser’s company, Ms. Carroll started a psychology degree from Southern Cross University and now works as a real estate agent in Coffs Harbor on the NSW north coast.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Ms Carroll on Monday after being told Barnes, 68, had privately acknowledged his paternity and welcomed her into his ever-expanding clan.
Ms Carroll asked for time to think about her position and asked questions of Barnes management before saying she had been ‘waiting for it a bit’. [call]’.
Barnes’ agent Rina Ferris did not return calls or texts, but hours later the rocker published a statement on Instagram revealing he was Ms. Carroll’s father.
Manser, who had a long history of drug abuse and served 23 years in prison, was just 56 when he was found dead in his Sydney waterfront apartment on King Street Wharf in March.
Ms Carroll, who has children of her own, simultaneously issued her own statement for a story published on news.com.au.
That story said Barnes made his paternity public after Ms. Carroll was subjected to hundreds of phone calls from an anonymous person asking if he was her father.
Ferris told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that she was “representing the Barnes family, including Ms Carroll” and that none of them would respond to requests for comment.
“The family are all now on Christmas break and they/we will not be making any further comment or responding to media requests,” she said.
Barnes, who is in Thailand, said in his Instagram post that Mrs. Carroll was in his life for the past five years.
“Katy is an amazing woman and since discovering I was her biological father, our family and extended family have loved getting to know her,” he wrote.
‘It was heart-warming to see how the good relationship with her sisters and brothers grew.
“We have always respected her very strong wish to keep her family life private and will continue to support her.”
Katy Lee Carroll (far left) appears in a photo on Jimmy Barnes’ official Instagram account, next to Mahalia Barnes and across a table from Jimmy and Jane Barnes
Ms Carroll said she was hugged by the Barnes family and asked for privacy for herself and her children.
“While the details of my relationship with Jimmy and the Barnes family are private, I feel compelled to share my gratitude for the love and care they have shown me,” she said.
“It was an extraordinary gift to be welcomed into such a talented and kind family and I am grateful for their support every day.
“This discovery, while exciting, has been approached with great thoughtfulness, not only for me, but for my children and all our extended families.
“As we continue to nurture these relationships, I remain committed to protecting our privacy so that each of us can grow and heal in our own time.”
Ms Carroll has since closed her Instagram account, which featured photos of her with Barnes, his 65-year-old wife and other members of their family.
Barnes and Jane’s children are Mahalia, 42, Eliza-Jane, 40, Jackie, 38, and Elly-May, 35. Mrs. Carroll, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Torzyn and Campbell each have different mothers.
After confirming through DNA testing that Ms. Bennett and Ms. Torzyn were his daughters, Barnes spoke fondly of bringing them into the fold.
Ms. Carroll was born in 1987, six years after Barnes married Jane and that same year he released his first number one solo single, Too Much Ain’t Enough Love. She is pictured on the right with half-sister Elly-May Barnes
“My kids are all so wonderful that when I found out there were some left, I thought they would be good people and they would be sweet girls,” he told New Idea in September 2010.
‘My only regret is not knowing them when they were younger, but life is what it is, everything happens for a reason.
“Back then it was probably better for them not to know me because I was pretty wild.”
Jane, a 19-year-old university student when she met Barnes at a party in Canberra in 1979, told the same magazine that it was “really nice” to discover her husband had two other daughters.
“There is a proper procedure and then the rest was easy,” she said.
“Jimmy is the love of my life and if he has children that look like him and my children, then I think that’s really wonderful.”
All of Barnes’ children with Jane have their own children and he is a great-grandfather to at least one.
Mahalia, Eliza-Jane, Jackie and Elly-May, 35, formed children’s pop group The Tin Lids in the 1990s and are successful musicians who have shared the stage with their father.
Barnes and Campbell were named joint Fathers of the Year by advocacy group The Fathering Project in August
Campbell, who is also a platinum-selling singer, was raised by his maternal grandmother Joan, believing she was his mother.
He discovered that Kim Campbell, the woman he thought was his older sister, was his real mother and that Barnes was his father when he was in elementary school.
“I found out when I was ten,” Campbell has said. ‘It was very overwhelming.
‘I had anxiety and I didn’t know who to talk to, but this was the easier part of it because my sister was my mother [was hard].’
Barnes and Campbell were named joint Fathers of the Year by advocacy group The Fathering Project in August.
Cold Chisel, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 and sold more than seven million albums, performed a 50th anniversary tour this year.
In addition to the band’s six number one albums in Australia, fifteen of Glasgow-born Barnes’ solo records topped the charts.
His books include the award-winning memoirs Working Class Boy and Working Class Man, which have sold more than 500,000 copies.
Barnes’ latest collection of personal stories is Highways and Byways.