Eric Bana - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1995, while working on the television series Full Frontal, Bana began dating Rebecca Gleeson, a publicist with the Seven Network and daughter of then Chief Justice of New South Wales, and later Chief Justice of Australia, Murray Gleeson. They married in 1997, after Bana proposed to her on a trip to the United States, which he won from Cleo Magazine after being named their "Bachelor of the Year" in 1996. Bana and Gleeson have two children, a son, Klaus (born August 1999), and a daughter, Sophia (born April 2002). They live in Melbourne. On the official identity documents he still has his birth surname, Banadinović.

Bana is a motor racing enthusiast, and participates in various motor racing competitions in Australia. At the age of fourteen, Bana wanted to leave school to focus full-time on becoming a motor mechanic, but his father convinced him to complete school, advising him to avoid making his hobby a job. Bana purchased his first car, a 1974 XB Ford Falcon coupé, at the age of fifteen for A$1100 and driving it, made his motor sport racing debut in 1996's Targa Tasmania, a week-long race around the island state of Tasmania. (Bana has had this car for more than a quarter century. In 2009 he released a documentary named Love The Beast. The film details the central role that racing and fixing this same car has played in his life and the lives of his friends.) In 2004, Bana purchased a Porsche 944 to compete in Australia's Porsche Challenge. Competing throughout 2004, he often finished in the top ten and in November, finished fourth at the Sandown 500, a personal best. On 21 April 2007 Bana crashed his 1974 XB Falcon Coupe in the Targa Tasmania rally. Neither he nor his co-driver were injured. Bana appeared on the British motoring show Top Gear on 15 November 2009 as a guest for its "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment. Bana completed a lap of the Top Gear test track in 1 minute and 47.5 seconds on a wet track, the fastest wet lap ever recorded at that time.

Bana is a prominent fan of Australian rules football. His love of the sport began at a young age when his godfather took him to games to see the St Kilda Football Club, his favourite team in the Australian Football League. Bana can often be seen at AFL games when he is back in Australia. Bana's love for St Kilda FC resulted in the club being featured in the film Funny People and in Bana's promotion of the film in 2009, notably on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In 2010, Bana was named the "Saints Number One Ticket Holder".