As fans here and overseas unite to watch the new doco about New Zealand's greatest rugby legend Jonah Lomu, back home there still remains the deeply divided family he left behind. In an exclusive interview with TVNZ, Lomu’s mother Hepi reveals she hasn’t had contact with the late All Black's children Brayley and Dhyreille in years.
“I haven’t seen them," says Hepi Lomu of the two boys, now in their mid- to late teens. "Maybe a long time ago after Jonah died [his wife Nadene Lomu] bring the boys here, but that’s all. I pray God is going to touch those two and one day, we can meet."
LOMU, currently screening nationwide, premiered at Auckland's Civic Theatre last month. It was reported as an emotional event attended by hundreds but, Hepi says, her grandsons weren't present.
“They were invited to the premiere but I don’t know why they not come, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’m happy whether they watch or don’t watch. That’s their decision,” she says.
The film touches on Lomu’s three marriages, including his last to his widow Nadene, but did not disclose the strained relationship between Lomu’s family and Nadene.
Last year, Nadene, alongside her two sons, spoke to TVNZ on the tenth anniversary of Lomu’s death about her frustrations over the way she believes Lomu continues to be exploited and her longstanding battle for the rights to his name and image.
Hepi says that interview prompted her to finally speak out, after a decade of silence. “Although the discussion was about other things it felt as if she was putting us down and putting down the people who worked with Jonah," she says.
“Just let it be. She should have just left the children out and not exposed them. I don’t want this to become a matter of people trying to investigate who’s right or wrong.”
Nadene was involved in initial discussions with the documentary makers but chose not to be part of it and took legal action in 2023 in an attempt to block the film. The following year the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled against her claims, allowing Tongan-Kiwi filmmaker Vea Mafile'o and Irish filmmaker Gavin Fitzgerald to continue production – with the aid of an $800,000 grant from the Film Commission.
That ruling also affirmed the instructions Lomu had left in his will. He gave full control over his money, trademark and properties to his long-time lawyer Chris Darlow, for the benefit of his sons Brayley and Dhyreille.
'If there was no me, there would be no Jonah'
The film has done little to heal family rifts – in fact, quite the opposite. While Nadene told TVNZ last year that her late husband "was not public property", he was, says Hepi, her son. “What she needs to understand is – I’m the mother. I am his mother. Sometimes, she doesn’t want us to be involved in anything. Everything of Jonah is belong to them.
“But now he die, I said – if there was no me, there would be no Jonah and none of this would be happening today.”
Lomu is often described as rugby's first true global superstar and, at the height of his career, he was said to be worth millions. But there are no signs of that in the humble South Auckland home where he grew up and where Hepi still resides. A wall cabinet full of his trophies, awards and priceless memorabilia are all that remain of his legacy in the family’s home.
Among the treasures, hundreds of hours of never-before-seen home video footage some of which features in LOMU. Other exclusive clips are published for the first time in Hepi’s interview on TVNZ+ where she remembers how Lomu slept in her living room during some of his kidney dialysis treatment, and the last conversation she had with him before he died the next day.
“I didn't think there would ever be a time like this where we would show these tapes again," says Hepi of the rare home-video footage of Lomu as a young teen, which she had stored away since his death in 2015. "It is a long time [ago]. I can’t stop crying. I try to forget, I try to let go of it in my heart.
“Sometimes I can, but sometimes I cannot.”
Watch the full interview between Indira Stewart and Hepi Lomu on TVNZ+.
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