Paul Hogan ‘falling apart’, desperately wants to come home to Australia

Paul Hogan says he is desperate to spend his final years in Australia after a debilitating condition destroyed his health and left him too weak to perform basic tasks on his own.

The 83-year-old actor – famous for his gritty performances in the hit Crocodile Dundee movie franchise – struggled with muscle wasting and dramatic weight loss after being diagnosed with retroperitoneal fibrosis, a condition in which inflammation and extensive scar tissue occurs in the abdominal cavity.

Discussing the condition during an interview with A current matter presenter Tracy Grimshaw – her last before leaving Nine’s flagship program after 17 years – Hogan revealed that the benign growth has wrapped around the abdominal aorta, pressing on his kidney.

And he admits the devastating impact to his health has left him wanting to leave the $3.5 million Venice Beach home he shares with son Chance, 24, and return to the relative tranquility of his homeland.

Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan (pictured) has shared his debilitating health problems, admitting he is desperate to spend his final years at home in Australia

He said: ‘[I’ve] have been better. I had a problem with the aorta in the kidney and the treatment resolved it, but it made me smaller.

“I just… I’ve lost all my body fat and the muscles have shrunk and the strength has come back because it made me weak. I get Chance to open jars for me.’

He added: “A lot of my dieting friends hate me for it because I try to eat everything fat and fatty you can think of. Everything they shouldn’t have. I can’t gain an ounce.’

The actor was prescribed corticosteroids to reduce growth, but must now regain his strength after health anxiety has drastically altered his physique.

“I just… I’ve lost all my body fat and the muscles have shrunk and the strength has come back because it made me weak. I get the chance to open jars for me,’ he said

Hogan said the steroid treatment was worse than the disease.

‘They shrink your muscles and’ [they’re] would make you fat, but I got thinner and thinner and thinner,” Hogan revealed.

“I’m trying to gain some fat now… because you’re too cold if you don’t have body fat.”

The actor and comedian, 83, sat down for an interview with A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw (right) – her last before leaving Nine’s flagship program after 17 years

Hogan has now had a pacemaker fitted and is “held together by a string.”

The Golden Globe winner said he always kept fit until he was 79 and admits he is lucky to have been healthy for so long.

‘I was still fit. I would still knock out most 40-year-olds,” he said.

“And then I turned 80 and it’s wonderful to say that ‘Being 80 is not for the faint of heart’ because things are starting to fall apart.”

Hogan desperately wants to return to Australia as his health is deteriorating, but he says he can’t leave his son Chance alone in California.

Hogan wants to return to Australia as his health deteriorates, but says he can’t leave his son Chance (left) alone in California

Crocodile Dundee remains Australia’s most commercially successful film of all time

He shares Chance with ex-wife Linda Kozlowski, his Crocodile Dundee counterpart.

“I’m not where I’m supposed to be, but I can’t complain about anything,” he continued.

“I’ve had such a gifted life. I’ve been through so many wonderful things that I didn’t deserve so I shouldn’t complain, but hey, ideally I’d rather be back in Sydney because I miss the rest of my family there.”

Hogan is pictured with his second wife Linda Kozlowski in Beverly Hills, California, in the year 2000. The couple divorced in 2014 after 25 years together

Hogan revealed last month that he had “been homesick for years.”

“I miss the people, the atmosphere and there’s something you can’t put your finger on, but there’s something about Australia that’s friendlier and more relaxed,” he said. The Daily Telegraph.

“It never takes itself seriously – there is no arrogance like in other places.”

Hogan is best known for playing heartbreaking adventurer Mick Dundee in the 1986 romantic adventure Crocodile Dundee, alongside his future wife Linda Kozlowski.