It’s the first time in around three years that boxing legend Shane Cameron and his three children have all been together in one place.
“They’re scattered all over the country now,” he laughs.
“So it’s really special to have them all here.”
All three kids are at different stages of their lives. His daughter Georgia, now 21, lives in Palmerston North.
“My little girl is all grown up!” says Shane, 48.
“Mind-blowing to think my firstborn is a woman now, wears makeup, drives and works full-time.”
Following in Dad’s footsteps
Son Shane Junior, now 12, lives in Tauranga with his mum Tara, and has inherited his father’s love of sport and plenty of his athletic ability. Rugby, rugby league and basketball keep him busy, although his dad hasn’t managed to get him near a boxing ring yet.
That leaves it to the youngest, five-year-old Kōwhai, to put on the gloves and continue the family tradition.
“She’s always like, ‘Papa, I want to do boxing,’” Shane says.
“She’s such a bossy boots. I have to tell her, ‘Okay, I’m the coach and you listen to me – don’t try to tell me what to do.’ But she throws some punches and then says, ‘Give me the pads now, Papa, I’ll train you!’”
“Have you noticed she’s started shadow boxing around the house now?” says Casey Potatau, Shane’s wife and Kōwhai’s mum.
“This morning, she punched the microwave door closed.”
One big whānau
While the older two kids are “cool, calm and collected”, Kōwhai is the “firecracker” of the family.
“Little kids can be very challenging, but they’re amazing with her, just so patient,” says Casey, 44.
“Even though they live in different cities, they have this really beautiful connection.”
It’s not just the kids who have stayed close. Shane has a good relationship with both his former wife Tara and Georgia’s mum Bobby – close enough that Casey invited Bobby along to the family photoshoot.
“I knew she’d be able to whip things into shape if I was busy or needed help,” says Casey.
“Behind every strong man, there’s an even stronger woman. And Shane’s lucky enough to have three of those.”
A proud family moment
All three were at the launch last week of Shane’s autobiography, Shane Cameron Mountain Warrior, held at their gym on Auckland’s North Shore, which Casey runs. Behemoth Breweries brewed a low-carb lager in Shane’s honour for the occasion and his two butcher brothers crafted a Mountain Warrior sausage to match.
Having his whānau together means more to Shane now than it once did.
“The kids are at an age now where they understand Dad has done some stuff in his life,” he says.
The hidden battle
In a 48-fight amateur career, Shane won Commonwealth Games bronze in 2002, before amassing 29 wins from 34 professional bouts and a tilt at the world cruiserweight title. He also became a reality TV star, on Celebrity Treasure Island and Dancing with the Stars, and a fitness entrepreneur.
But 17 years in the boxing ring came at a cost. These days, Shane grapples with memory loss and mood swings. He fears he has degenerative brain disorder CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy – from frequent blows to the head, although he knows it’s something that can only be confirmed after he dies.
For those closest to him, like Casey, it’s an emotional rollercoaster.
“On any given day, we don’t know which Shane we’re going to get,” she says.
“It’s hard for Shane, but just as challenging for the people surrounding him, who love him and can maybe see what he doesn’t.”
Searching for answers
Getting help for Shane has been a frustrating journey.
“He’s seen multiple psychiatrists and psychologists, but no one has really moved the needle,” says Casey.
“There doesn’t seem to be a linear pathway for boxers who have suffered this kind of trauma.”
He recently saw a neuropsychologist who advised him to continue “keeping fit, healthy and not drinking too much”, he says.
But Shane wants to see the progression of his condition since he finished boxing 12 years ago.
“The numbers won’t lie,” he says.
“I want to see if I’ve gone backwards. Some days, I’m optimistic that I’ll be right, but other days, it scares me. I’ll be like, ‘Far out, I’ve forgotten that and I was just there!’”
Finding a new purpose
Coaching young boxers, he can forget punching combinations, so writes them on a whiteboard. Yet in his teenage years working as a shepherd in rural Gisborne, Shane had no problem keeping huge numbers of sheep and cattle in his head.
“I have up and down days through the week now. I never had OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] before and now it’s chronic – if things aren’t in place, it makes me angry.”
But with Casey’s encouragement, keeping active in the gym and running has been beneficial for Shane, who oversees four classes at their gym each week.
“Setting little goals in training helps me get out of bed and has a flow-on effect into my business,” he explains.
He has thrown himself into new challenges – training for HYROX events, getting his Counterpunch Boxing range in to Rebel Sport and more recently, his entry-level boxing gear, Champ, into The Warehouse, and now working on a spice range because he loves barbecuing.
“I usually have four things on the go at a time,” says Shane, recently diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.
“I’ve switched from being a dreamer to actually doing things. It’s not about the idea – it’s about the execution.”
Back to his roots
He’d been learning te reo Māori alongside Casey and Kōwhai, who has just started at kura kaupapa – a milestone Casey says is incredibly special for their whānau. Shane went to night classes, but found it difficult retaining the language on top of his short-term memory issues.
“I gave it everything, but it was stressing me out how I couldn’t remember things, and that was affecting my every day,” admits Shane.
In the book he has written with journalist Steve Kilgallon, Shane describes his early life growing up in the village of Tiniroto, an hour inland from Gisborne, where he learned to be self-reliant, hard-working and resilient.
On a farm with mum Polly (Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) and his dad Graham (Scottish), Shane had a free-range, adventure-filled childhood, swimming in rivers, riding horses, and hunting pigs and goats. By eight, he was riding bulls, at nine, he was driving the family’s Ford Falcon into town and at 12, working full-time as a shepherd.
“Me and my brothers are lucky we’re still alive,” he shares.
“We didn’t have any supervision when we were doing those things. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. “Kōwhai wants to do all the things I used to do, but I’m worried she’d get hurt.”
Family comes first
She has already been introduced to the annual Tiniroto Easter game hunt, where she won a prize with a dead possum.
Shane owns a small block of land in Tiniroto and will move a house onto it later this year.
“I can visualise living there down the track, having breakfast on a big deck overlooking the lake.”
After years of “selfishly” focusing on a storied boxing career, Shane is now driven to do more for his family.
“I don’t really care about me – I don’t need much. As long as the kids are good and happy, then I’m happy.”
Fatherhood changed him
Shane was a different person when he first became a father to Georgia, worried it might hinder his professional boxing career.
“I wasn’t a cuddly father – more a tough farmer,” he says.
“You give your kids a handshake and a whack on the back.”
But he adores the kids, who he hugs without hesitation.
“We always say we love each other in person or over the phone, but I never really heard that as a kid growing up. It was a different era.”
Shane sees himself in Georgia and Shane Junior.
“I was always quiet as a kid,” he says.
“I was so shy and I thought I was a dumb kid, so I just kept my mouth shut. I tried to prove myself by putting my head down and working hard. And even through my boxing career, I was always like, ‘I’ll show you what I can do.’”
A second chance at love
Shane admits he wasn’t the best boyfriend when he first met Casey almost two decades ago. They were together for three years before going their separate ways, but later rekindled their romance and eloped with a private beach ceremony on the Gold Coast on New Year’s Eve in 2024.
“All relationships are a journey,” Casey says.
“You just have to deal with what’s in front of you each day. I’m really good at finding the positives and being grateful for every day I have on this earth. In saying that, I do call him HM – short for High Maintenance. He’s just a lot – he’s charming and strong-willed, he’s impulsive and driven, he’s unpredictable and demanding, yet caring and generous… A very layered human.”
Casey thinks the book projects her husband in a new light.
“Under all the bravado and accolades, there’s a boy from Tiniroto with a relentless drive to succeed, but who still questions himself every now and then,” she says.
Shane adds, “Yeah, I do. “Every day.”
Mountain Warrior by Shane Cameron and Steve Kilgallon (Bateman Books, rrp $39.99)
