Matty Johns has spent three decades entertaining rugby league fans. But the most compelling story he’s ever told isn’t about football. It’s about the family that keeps him grounded.
The Johns name is royalty in Australian sport. Andrew Johns is an Immortal. Matty Johns is one of the game’s sharpest media minds. But the family behind the famous surname is far more layered than premierships and Origin glory. From a wife who quietly runs the operation to two sons carving their own paths, the Johns family has become a genuine multimedia dynasty, and their story is still unfolding.
Trish Johns: The Wife Who Makes It All Work
Matty Johns doesn’t use a computer. He doesn’t do social media. He writes everything by hand. And that’s where Trish comes in.
The couple met when Trish was working at a restaurant in Newcastle in her early twenties. They’ve now been together for 28 years. In that time, she’s become far more than a spouse. She’s the engine room behind Matty’s media career.
“I’m hopeless at everything, and a lot of the time it’s a little chat in my brain,” Matty admitted in a 2024 interview. “When me and Trish used to argue, she would hold it against me. She would say, ‘Oh well, how about I don’t type your article this week’.”
His reliance on her became glaringly obvious when Fox Sports sent him to Paris for the 2024 Olympics. Producers were reportedly stunned by how little he used computers or social media.
But Trish’s toughness runs deeper than typing. In 2013, she was diagnosed with breast cancer at just 42. She’d found a lump but had let her regular scans lapse after changing doctors and moving house. When she finally saw a GP, he dismissed it as “nothing.” She insisted on an ultrasound anyway. That decision may have saved her life.
“I decided to take my health into my own hands,” she said. “I did it to tick a box, but I’m thankful I did.”
Thankfully, the cancer was caught early. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation followed. She made a full recovery and now urges women everywhere to stop procrastinating and get checked.
Jack and Cooper Johns: The Sons Writing Their Own Story
Matty and Trish raised two sons, both of whom inherited the rugby league gene, though neither reached the heights of their famous father or uncle.
Jack Johns, 28, played 16 NRL games across stints with South Sydney and Newcastle. He made his debut for the Rabbitohs in 2020, with Wayne Bennett praising his “commitment to his training.” But Jack’s impact on the family goes far beyond his playing career.
When Matty and Andrew Johns fell into a bitter, months-long feud over comments Matty made about Queensland coach Billy Slater, it was Jack who engineered the reconciliation. He tricked his father into a drive across Sydney, pulled up outside Andrew’s house, and told him: “Get up there.”
“I went, OK, I got the lift up, and he knocked on the door, and opened it up, and I gave Joey a big cuddle,” Matty recalled. “And he did that.”
Cooper Johns, 26, played 19 NRL games for Melbourne and Manly before transitioning fully into media. He now co-hosts Backstage with Cooper & Matty Johns and works on Kyle and Jackie O’s breakfast show. He’s also been tagged as a “perfect fit” for a proposed TV concept aimed at selling rugby league to American audiences.
The brothers famously faced off against each other for the first and only time in 2023, when Manly played Newcastle. The game ended in a 32-32 draw. They swapped jerseys afterward.
The Johns Family Podcast: A Household Brand
In 2025, Matty moved his entire podcast suite to NOVA Entertainment. The deal included The Johns Family Podcast, recorded straight from the family’s home studio and featuring Matty, Trish, Jack, and Cooper.
The podcast promises “an unfiltered glimpse into the lives of the Johns family.” No topic off-limits, no conversation too awkward. It’s a format that works because the family’s chemistry is genuine, not manufactured. The banter, the arguments, the laughter. It’s all real.
Andrew Johns: The Brother Who Came Back
No story about the Johns family is complete without Andrew. The eighth Immortal and Matty’s younger brother has been both his closest ally and his fiercest rival.
They won a premiership together at Newcastle in 1997. They’ve also come to blows, literally. Matty once joked that punching Andrew outside The Cricketers Arms pub in Newcastle was his “greatest victory.”
Their most recent falling out lasted nine months. Andrew took exception to Matty praising Queensland’s Billy Slater while Andrew was on NSW’s coaching staff. “Put your Maroon jersey on,” Andrew fired back on air. Matty was later barred from Andrew’s 52nd birthday.
The rift was healed in December 2025, when the brothers reunited for a Christmas karaoke session, belting out Oasis songs in bucket hats. Cooper captured the moment on Instagram and captioned it: “Christmas Miracles.”
The Next Chapter: Titans Owners and Expanding Horizons
In late 2025, Matty and Trish made their boldest move yet: buying a minority stake in the Gold Coast Titans. They view it as a long-term investment, with Matty describing the club as a “sleeping giant.”
It’s a fitting next chapter for a family that has already built something far bigger than football. From a restaurant in Newcastle to a home studio in Sydney to an NRL boardroom, the Johns family has turned loyalty, humour, and resilience into a genuine empire.
And at the centre of it all is Trish, the woman who types the words, manages the chaos, and keeps the whole thing running.
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