Paul Hogan became a global superstar playing a rough-edged Australian outback hero, but the man behind the smile acknowledges that fame came at a personal cost he still feels today. At 86, the actor has spoken openly about loss, regret, and the two marriages that shaped his life, admitting that one of the women he loved was the love of his life—a statement that carries decades of complicated history. Born on October 8, 1939, Hogan grew up in Western Sydney, though he long claimed Lightning Ridge as his birthplace because it sounded more interesting. He left school without academic distinction and worked as a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, also taking a job as a lifeguard at a Granville swimming pool to make ends meet.
It was at that pool in 1958 that he met Noeline Edwards. She was 18, he was 19. Hogan has described their courtship simply: he was a flirt, she liked him, and they married. The couple wed on June 24, 1958, and had three sons before Hogan turned 22, building a modest life on bridge work and pool wages while Noeline kept the household together.
In 1971, Hogan walked onto the set of the talent show New Faces as a heckler, mocking the judges who made a practice of humiliating contestants. The stunt launched an unexpected television career, including The Paul Hogan Show, which ran for 60 episodes between 1973 and 1984. Hogan has called the transition from bridge worker to television personality the hardest thing he ever did, recalling that he was “poor and famous,” a combination he found deeply uncomfortable. The pressures of his growing fame contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage.
Hogan and Noeline divorced in 1981 after 23 years, then remarried less than a year later in 1982. The reconciliation did not last. In 1985, Hogan went to the Australian Outback to film Crocodile Dundee, a movie he had co-written and staked everything on. On location, he met Linda Kozlowski, a Juilliard-trained actress from Fairfield, Connecticut, who had a Broadway credit and a supporting role in a 1985 film adaptation of Death of a Salesman, where she worked with Dustin Hoffman.
Hoffman reportedly put in a call on her behalf during the Dundee casting process, but those close to the production said she won the role on her own merits. The film’s director, Peter Faiman, observed a connection developing between Hogan and Kozlowski as production went on. Hogan’s close friend Delvene Delaney said Linda was worried because she knew Paul was married with five children, but the attraction was “unstoppable. ”
Crocodile Dundee premiered in 1986 and became one of the most successful comedies in cinema history, grossing around $300 million worldwide on a modest budget.
Hogan became a global phenomenon overnight, and Kozlowski earned a Golden Globe nomination. The film also effectively ended Hogan’s second marriage to Noeline, and this time the split was not quiet. Australian media described the divorce as one of the ugliest celebrity separations the country had seen, playing out in newspapers and on talk shows as fans took sides. Noeline’s public comment on the end of her marriage was striking: “I had the best years of his life.
” Hogan reportedly did not speak to her for 17 years after the divorce. Noeline remarried in 2000 to Reg Stratton in Sydney, and the couple shared 17 quiet years until his death in 2017. Hogan married Kozlowski on May 5, 1990, in Sydney. He was 51, she was 32.
Publicly, the marriage appeared to be a fairy tale. Hogan told Woman’s Day that she was “absolutely gorgeous” and that she “knocks my socks off. ” The couple made Crocodile Dundee II together, which earned $239 million worldwide, but subsequent projects fared less well. Hogan’s 1990 film Almost an Angel, in which he played a thief who believes he has become an angel, was a commercial disappointment.
Behind the scenes, Kozlowski’s career was suffering. She later said she turned down numerous roles after the first Dundee film, most of which cast her as “the girlfriend of some funny man. ” She described the direct-to-video films she accepted during the 1990s as “schlocky” and said they were giving her an ulcer because she was the only one on set who cared. She eventually stopped acting entirely, telling reporters that it was no longer fun and not why she had studied.
Their son, Chance, was born in 1998, and for a time Kozlowski said she was happy and content. But friends later said she felt imprisoned in the marriage, that she had stopped existing as herself and had become only Mrs. Hogan. In October 2013, Kozlowski filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.
Their son was 15. She told New Idea that she had lived in Paul’s shadow for many years and that it was nice to feel her own light. Hogan told The Daily Telegraph that they were opposites in everything, from food to music to clothing, but that it had worked anyway. Kozlowski later traveled to Morocco, met a tour guide named Moulay Hafid Baba, and described an immediate connection, as though they had known each other for a thousand years.
They married in 2017. Hogan’s manager issued a statement saying the actor was genuinely delighted, but a source told New Idea that Hogan was devastated and would be incredibly lonely after Kozlowski sold her home and moved abroad. Hogan’s later years have brought legal and health challenges. In 2003, the Australian Taxation Office launched an investigation into allegations that he had funneled millions from his films into offshore accounts.
The probe, known as Operation Wickenby, stretched for seven years. When Hogan returned to Australia in 2010 for his mother’s funeral, he was served with a departure prohibition order and barred from leaving the country until an alleged tax debt of 37. 5 million Australian dollars was resolved. Charges were eventually dropped, and a confidential settlement was reached in 2012.
By his 80s, Hogan faced muscle atrophy and chronic pain that eroded the rugged presence that made him a star. He has spoken about his struggles without complaint, but he has acknowledged a deeper sense of loss. “I once had it all—fame, fortune, and a wonderful wife—but in the end, I still feel like I lost something most important,” he said. In December 2024, Hogan and Kozlowski reunited publicly for the first time since their divorce for Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut, a digitally restored 4K version of the original film with a new documentary.
Hogan, frail at 85, stood beside Kozlowski for the cameras, watching restored footage of themselves in 1986. He deflected the moment with his trademark humor, saying the restoration made even him look better. In May 2026, police were called to Hogan’s Venice Beach house after his son Chance, then 27, was taken into custody for domestic battery. Hogan spoke with officers while his son was located a few blocks away.
He had previously described Chance with a mixture of love and exasperation, calling him a “terrible person” for posting provocative content on social media before softening, saying “he knows they’re watching him and he puts on something for them. ”
Today, Hogan lives alone in Venice Beach. Noeline is in Sydney, where she has found peace. Kozlowski is in Marrakech with her husband.
Hogan has said she was the love of his life, and he likely means Linda. But those who know his history recognize that Noeline was also the love of his life, in a quieter, deeper way—the kind of love that existed before he was famous and that remains after everything else has faded.
