page_title: Wally Lewis
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Wally Lewis / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: Wally Lewis
context_page_description: Walter James Lewis AM is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. He became a commentator for television coverage of the sport. A highly decorated Australian national captain, Lewis is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever players of rugby league. His time as a player and coach was followed by a career as a sports presenter for the Nine Network.
  Nicknamed The King and also The Emperor of Lang Park, Lewis represented Queensland in thirty-one State of Origin games from 1980 to 1991, and was captain for thirty of them. He also represented Australia in thirty-three international matches from 1981 to 1991 and was national team captain from 1984 to 1989. Lewis is perhaps best known for his State of Origin performances, spearheading Queensland's dominance in that competition throughout the 1980s. He captained at State of Origin level 30 times, winning a record 8 man of the match awards.
  Lewis has since been inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and in 1999 he became the sixth member of 'The Immortals'.
context_section_description: Lewis has been married to Jacqueline since 1984, and together they have three children - two sons - Mitchell, Lincoln and a daughter, Jamie-Lee. Jackie began watching rugby league at the age of 5 when her grandparents would take her to see her uncle play for the Cannon Hill Stars, which was the first club the young Wally Lewis played for, though the couple didn't meet until years later when both were adults.
  Wally's son, Lincoln, was a full-time actor on the Seven Network television drama, Home and Away, winning a TV Week Logie Award for best male new talent. His other son, Mitchell is a presenter on the Nova FM radio station, Nova 106.9 in Brisbane as the station's sports reporter and assistant producer on the Ash, Kip, Luttsy & Susie breakfast show. His daughter Jamie-Lee was born profoundly deaf. The family got confirmation of this on the day of the final State of Origin game of the 1991 series, prompting Wally's decision to retire from Origin football following the game. Jamie-Lee is a water polo player who is currently on a scholarship to the Queensland Academy of Sport who has represented Australia, and is the first deaf person in the world to ever represent her country's national hearing team.
  In May 2010, Lewis was rushed to hospital and had his gallbladder removed.
  Wally Lewis completed his autobiography, Out of the Shadows: A Champion's Return to the Spotlight, in 2009.
  Lewis is well known as a big fan of The Phantom comic series.
  Following his retirement from the sport, Lewis became a television sports presenter, first on Seven Nightly News Brisbane, before moving to the higher-rating Nine News Queensland where he remains today.
caption: Wally Lewis "The King" in 2004
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