14 Facts About Hazel Hawke

Hazel Susan Hawke was the first wife of Bob Hawke, the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia.

Hazel Hawke married him in 1956, and supported him throughout his prime ministership ; they divorced in 1994.

Hazel Hawke worked in social policy areas, and was an amateur pianist and a patron of the arts.

Hazel Hawke met her future husband Bob Hawke at a church fellowship in Perth.

From 1980 to 1982 d'Alpuget worked closely with Hazel Hawke in preparing his 1982 biography.

Bob Hazel Hawke formally apologised for the toll the divorce and subsequent remarriage took on the family.

Hazel Hawke acted as a prominent pro-choice advocate in Australia, often drawing on her personal experience of having an illegal abortion in 1952 so that her future husband Bob Hazel Hawke could further his education at the University of Oxford.

Hazel Hawke wrote books, such as My Own Life: An Autobiography and A Little Bit of Magic: Thoughts For Women.

Hazel Hawke was the inaugural Patron of the Kendall National Violin Competition, and later the Patron Emeritus.

Hazel Hawke was elected as a republican delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention.

On 3 November 2003, the ABC aired an episode of Australian Story in which Hazel Hawke publicly revealed that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Hazel Hawke's family had noticed significant short-term memory loss, leading to the diagnosis in 2001.

At the book launch on 1 November 2004, Pieters-Hazel Hawke revealed that her mother had reached the mid-stages of the disease and was now suffering from quite severe short-term memory loss.

Hazel Hawke's family had been by her side in her last days.