Personal Life
Read married Australian Taxation Office employee Mary-Ann Hodge in 1995 while imprisoned in Risdon Prison in Tasmania for the shooting of Sidney Collins. The couple had one child, Charlie, and divorced in 2001. On 19 January 2003, he married long-time friend Margaret Cassar. They have one son, Roy Brandon.
Read contracted Hepatitis C during his time in prison through allegedly using a blood-stained shaver. In March 2008 he revealed he only has two to five years to live and requires a liver transplant. However, he has refused to countenance this, stating, "A transplant would save me, but why would anybody give 53-year-old Chopper Read a liver over and above an 11-year-old girl with liver cancer? They wouldn't – and I wouldn't ask. I need a transplant, but I don't want a transplant." He discussed this again in August 2009, when he was interviewed on ABC Local Radio and was quoted as saying "I haven't had a drop of alcohol for 18 months, I have cirrhosis of the liver... there's no cure for that".
In April 2012, Read announced that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer, and doctors gave him from six weeks to six months to live. During the same month he said that he is taking dexamphetamine, which is prescribed to him for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Read underwent surgery in July 2012 to remove tumours from his liver and claims he is now "as good as gold" but concedes he hasn't asked his doctor for an updated prognosis.
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