Jordan Ablett, the wife of AFL legend Gary, has shared details of their six-year-old son Levi’s rare and degenerative condition for the first time.
The mother-of-three occasionally documents Levi’s life, previously revealing he has a short life expectancy and would never speak, but has largely maintained his and their privacy.
As she prepares for the launch of her memoir, Jordan said she now felt ready to speak about her firstborn’s diagnosis of Menkes.
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Menkes is a condition that hinders a child’s copper metabolism, affecting their growth and leaving them at risk of further illnesses.
“It was shocking ... of course it was hard to first accept,’’ Jordan told News Corp.
“I always knew deep down that I would eventually be open and transparent about it ... I don’t know what good can possibly come from not being that.
“I didn’t want people to misinterpret me holding onto that information as being ashamed of Levi.
“It was purely a matter of me just trying and needing to process it all first myself. I knew that once I could do that, I’d be in a position where I could then offer encouragement and hope to others through our journey.”
Levi was diagnosed in 2020 just months before Jordan’s mother Trudy died from lung cancer.
He has had multiple stints in hospital, including to deal with respiratory illnesses — a significant risk factor for children with Menkes.
In 2021, Jordan opened up on The Significant Others podcast about the heartbreaking moment doctors delivered the news about Levi’s prognosis.
“I just remember sitting with Gaz in that meeting and when they said it, I just remember absolutely breaking down,” she said.
“It’s one thing to receive a diagnosis which just confirms that Levi has a rare and degenerative disease.
“However, it’s another thing to understand that it is life-threatening and that’s like a whole other ball game and a whole other situation in itself, because that stuff you just can’t prepare for.
“There is a very short life expectancy, which is why I constantly say to people when they ask about Levi that we are literally just taking it day by day, because we have no idea what the future holds.”
The Abletts have welcomed two more children, daughter Grace and son Ezra, since Levi’s diagnosis.
Answering fan questions on Instagram this week, Jordan said Levi is “full of joy”.
“Grace is a big 3.5-year-old who’s loving her first year at kinder. Ezzy is almost two and is absolutely the cyclone in the family,” she wrote.
“They all get along beautifully.”
Jordan also revealed Gary anticipated never playing another AFL game when he took leave from Geelong’s Queensland hub during the COVID-affected 2020 season after Levi fell ill in Victoria.
Trudy then died in August.
Gary, Jordan and Levi rejoined the hub and he played in the Cats’ run to the grand final, suffering a shoulder injury in the defeat to Richmond in the premiership decider.
“I felt for Gary, who had given everything to his career for 19 years, to have to juggle so much,” Jordan wrote on Instagram this week.
“But he was and always has been so family focused. His only concern was for Levi.
“When he returned from the AFL hub to locked-down Melbourne, he was confident he had played his game but was content with that.
“It just so happened to be that, at a later date and after being there for mum in her final days, there was a way back into the game.”
Levi made a special appearance when Geelong won the 2022 grand final.
Gary handed his son over to Cats captain and close mate Joel Selwood before the match, with the smiling boy carried through the banner.
“It meant so much to us as a family,” Ablett said on Channel 7’s The Front Bar in 2023.
“I can still remember getting the call from Joel Selwood during the week and him asking if he could run through the banner with Levi.
“I said ‘no’ to him.
“I felt like playing in a grand final, being a captain, I didn’t want him to have to focus on anything else.
“But he said to me, ‘No, I really want to do this. It would mean a lot to me’. And when I told Jordie about it, she was in tears.”
