‘Every day is a gift’: The diagnosis that forced Mark Holden to rethink everything
With his cancer battles and time as a barrister behind him, the former Australian Idol judge has returned to his real passion
After 13 years as a barrister in the family violence court, Mark Holden decided it was time to bow out in 2023.
“It’s an honourable profession and it was an enormous privilege to be a member of the Victorian Bar. But it’s a very stressful job and has trauma attached to pretty much every case that you do,” he says.
Music man
Before landing in the courtroom, Mark had delivered his own verdicts as one of Australian Idol’s original judges from 2003 to 2008 after a long career in the music biz as a singer-songwriter and music exec which started back in the ’70s.
And the star says the pull to music never went away. Now he’s back with a new album, Now And Then And Shirley MacLaine, which he was inspired to make after his 31-year-old daughter Katie’s wedding in California in May 2025.
“It was such a beautiful event and I just started writing,” Mark tells Woman’s Day from his Melbourne home.
One of his favourite tracks on the album, Last Dance, is an ode to his wife, Anna.
“We’ve been together for 43 years,” he says. “I was really afraid she wouldn’t like it but she was happy with it so I’m very relieved,” he laughs.
On another track, Shirley MacLaine, Welcome Home, Mark reunites with a friend from his Idol days, Anthony Callea, 43.
“It’s a song I wrote for some of my oldest friends who lost a son. That was an extremely painful experience but they played it for him before he died. I hope it brought some comfort. Anthony loved it and he’s done the most amazing, incredible vocal,” says Mark, who admits his own sound has changed after he battled thyroid cancer in 2010.
“It’s not the voice I had as a young man. They had to cut into my vocal cords and they saved my life. I have no regrets but it took me many years to work out a new way to sing,” says Mark, who joined choirs to help find his voice again.
Mark looks back fondly on his Idol experience, which he says he “loved”.
But he concedes his reality TV days are behind him. “Just going in and out of airports, I’m not in any hurry to do that. I do feel 72,” laughs the star, who admits battling cancer put things into perspective.
The next chapter
“Every day is a gift! I lift weights and I walk and I’m going to do my best to stay upright as long as I can.”
Especially as he hopes to be chasing grandkids around one day!
“My daughter’s on a schedule and she’s got her husband on a schedule,” he jokes. “So I’m hoping that’s going to be very soon.”
