What did that teach you?It taught me to live with less. Id fallen in love with another person [Kee began a relationship in 1990 with the late sculptor Danton Hughes after the disintegration of her 21-year marriage to artist Michael Ramsden] who had one pair of jeans and one pair of dirty old boots; he was also a carpenter and builder. I went from a very glamorous life to a very simple one with him.

Loading

How did you recover financially after that?I had the most fabulous person working with me, my manager Louise. She cut up all my credit cards and put me on $100 at a time. [Laughs] It saved me from going bankrupt. From then on, my life radically changed and the simplicity started. We moved to a rundown property up in Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, that was just so beautiful. The house was falling apart, but it had exquisite views and was shrouded in pine trees. We got rid of the pines and all the tree ferns came back. Now Im living with ancient tree ferns and looking at a view thats 350 million years old. To me, thats being rich.

Did you grow up with religion?I grew up going to Sunday School Church of England in Bondi. I loved it.

What did you love about it?I loved Jesus! I just thought Jesus was a great, wonderful being. But this was before I became a teenager and discovered ... well

What did you discover, Jenny?Sex!

Loading

Sex and Jesus werent compatible?I wouldnt say they were incompatible but there was another high that was coming. [Laughs] I became a very wild child and other beings became more glamorous than Jesus, like John Lennon. And this was beyond the night we had together [Kee and Lennon had a brief liaison in Sydney during the 1964 Beatles tour]. I didnt worship John Lennon but I loved what he stood for; his beautiful energy.

At what point did Buddhism come into your life?Surviving the 1977 Granville rail disaster [when a Sydney commuter train derailed, running into the supports of a road bridge that collapsed onto two of the carriages, leading to 83 deaths] led me on a great search. My daughter Grace and I were in the carriage that brought the bridge down. When a train splits in two, and you fall to the side with your 22-month-old child, and youre scrambling to get out of that wreck, and people are lying dead all around you you question life and death. In 1983, I visited a yoga ashram. Later, in Thailand, I met a Buddhist monk, who sat in this extraordinary cave, with a limestone formation of Buddhas body. I thoroughly surrendered to his understanding of Buddhism: that we are all connected.

Do you doubt what you believe in? Or yourself?I doubt myself a lot, which leads to me doubting everything. But the thing is, my practices are so strong. I do a purifying practice every day, a 100-syllable mantra that gives me a great sense of peace.

You lost your partner, Danton, to suicide in 2001. Does losing someone to suicide make grieving and recovery different?When my father, Billy, was dying in 1988, I felt really good about him going. He said, I want to go, Jen. Do you think its okay? I said, Dad, do what you need to do. The darling man looked like a beautiful little golden Chinese prince when he died. With Danton, it was shocking. Youre with a partner you love. He was suffering from depression but never in my heart did I ever think he was going to go. To find him was the greatest shock. His death propelled me into the deepest, deepest, deepest grieving and depression. People feared I would go. But the thing is, I didnt go. I am a survivor. Ive come back.

Ideally, how would you like to leave the planet?Doing my mantra, with my family and my dharma [Buddhist] friends around me. Im completely fine with dying. [Pauses] Well, I think I am. Do another interview with me when Im on my deathbed and well see!

Is there an outfit that youd like to be buried in?Yes, wrapped in beautiful waratah fabric. [Laughs] Buried beneath my waratahs, in my waratah fabric. Thatd do me.

Writer, author of The Family Law and Gaysia.

More here:

Jenny Kee: 'My life radically changed and the simplicity started' - Sydney Morning Herald