Sue & Saroo Brierley - Heart Of A Lion
The Australian Women's Weekly|December 2020
The extraordinary life of Saroo Brierley captured hearts around the world in the movie Lion, but very little has been known about his mother, Sue, until now. Samantha Trenoweth meets the ‘lioness’ whose fierce courage and unconditional love were forged in her own traumatic childhood.
Samantha Trenoweth
Sue & Saroo Brierley - Heart Of A Lion

Sue Brierley is nervous. Today the final draft of her manuscript goes to the printer and the implications of baring heretofore very private details of her life are playing on her mind. Sue is the mother of Saroo Brierley, the Indian boy whose story travelled even more widely than he did, first as the bestselling memoir, A Long Way Home, and later as the 2017 motion picture, Lion. In fact it was Saroo who convinced his mother that she too should write a book.

“My son came up with this idea,” she explains. “I really wouldn’t have undertaken it otherwise … I’ve always kept my cards very close to my chest. So, until they read this book, a lot of people in my life will have had no idea about my story.”

Even people who know her well? “Yes,” Sue admits. “It’s going to be traumatic. I’ll feel deceitful in some ways, but it was too hard to talk about.”

Her son Saroo’s odyssey was heart-wrenching. At five years old, while out adventuring, he fell asleep on a train which travelled the breadth of India to the seething city of Kolkata. There, Saroo lived by his wits, sleeping under bridges and on railway platforms, until fate delivered him to an orphanage. Attempts were made to find his family but Saroo was young and could not pronounce the name of his village. His family was but a speck in a population of close to a billion people, so he was declared an orphan. Fortuitously, he was adopted by Sue (played by Nicole Kidman in the film Lion) and John Brierley (played by David Wenham) and grew up in their neat suburban home in Hobart, Tasmania, before tenacity and modern technology helped him to find his way home.

This story is from the December 2020 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the December 2020 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLYView All
Where to go in 2024
The Australian Women's Weekly

Where to go in 2024

Who doesn't love fantasising about their next trip? We've gone for lesser-known locations, and whether you're seeking bright lights, striking natural scenery, serenity or excitement, here's where you're sure to find it.

time-read
5 mins  |
January 2024
Money matters with Effie
The Australian Women's Weekly

Money matters with Effie

Didn’t reach your financial goals in 2023? While a new year won’t wipe away pressures like rising costs, there are  a few things you can do now to refresh your money mojo in 2024.

time-read
4 mins  |
January 2024
Bright stars in a rugged land
The Australian Women's Weekly

Bright stars in a rugged land

The hot, dusty opal fields around Lightning Ridge in outback NSW have traditionally been a man's world. Now The Weekly meets the women who have been struck by opal fever.

time-read
6 mins  |
January 2024
The gift of life
The Australian Women's Weekly

The gift of life

Maureen Elliott had just months to live when she went on St Vincent's Hospital's transplant list. Thirty years on she's one of the longest living heart-lung transplant recipients in the world.

time-read
9 mins  |
January 2024
An uncaged heart
The Australian Women's Weekly

An uncaged heart

After more than two years in Iranian jails, Kylie Moore-Gilbert has forged a new life that's brimming with love, and a determination to help others who have been wrongfully imprisoned.

time-read
10 mins  |
January 2024
The woman behind The King
The Australian Women's Weekly

The woman behind The King

As Sofia Coppola's biopic Priscilla readies to hit screens, we look back at the early life and great love of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley.

time-read
5 mins  |
January 2024
Say hello to the Cockatoo cake
The Australian Women's Weekly

Say hello to the Cockatoo cake

When we put a call-out to our readers for their best children's cakes we were inundated with recipes, and this clever cockatoo was ahead of the flock.

time-read
4 mins  |
January 2024
The French revolution
The Australian Women's Weekly

The French revolution

Dawn French quit her sketch show because she felt so ugly. Now the \"roly-poly comedian\" wants us all to stop fretting about our faults. She talks body image, surviving the 1980s and owning her mistakes.

time-read
10+ mins  |
January 2024
Trump's women
The Australian Women's Weekly

Trump's women

Will it be the jailhouse or the White House for Donald Trump this year? The women in his life could make all the difference.

time-read
9 mins  |
January 2024
Can you buy a good night's sleep?
The Australian Women's Weekly

Can you buy a good night's sleep?

Forty per cent of Australians have trouble sleeping, and the market has responded with a mind-boggling array of sleep aids. But do any of them actually work? The Weekly goes in search of slumber.

time-read
7 mins  |
January 2024