Australian Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has retracted a previous statement attributing her name change from Susan to Sussan to numerology. In a recent radio interview, she clarified that the change was made during her teenage years as part of a punk phase, dismissing earlier claims linking it to a numerology-based prediction of a more exciting life.
This contradicts a 2015 interview in the Weekend Australian Magazine where Ley herself linked the name change to numerology. Journalist Kate Legge, who conducted the 2015 interview, questions Ley's current explanation, highlighting the thorough fact-checking process involved in the magazine article and wondering why Ley waited so long to correct the record.
Speculation surrounds Ley's motivation for the initial numerology explanation. Possible reasons include attempting to project a more colorful image or a need to adjust her backstory to suit her current political position as opposition leader.
Australia’s most famous numerologist is no more.
It may have taken Sussan Ley a decade to correct the record, but the opposition leader has declared the mystical practice was not responsible for her decision to add an “s” to her name – or presumably for the excitement and success she has enjoyed since.
“It was a flippant remark I made to a journalist,” Ley told 3AW radio host Tom Elliott on Friday morning.
“It’s actually not the reason. It was something I did in my rebel teenage years. I went through a punk phase in those years and added the extra ‘s’. People have been fascinated by the numerology angle, but it is actually not correct.”
It certainly sounded correct in 2015, when a profile in the Weekend Australian Magazine quoted Ley describing how she had gone from Susan to Sussan amidst a life far more interesting (she’s been a pilot, a punk and a rouseabout cook) than most politicians experience.
“I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality,” Ley told the magazine. “I worked out that if you added an ‘s’ I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring. It’s that simple. And once I’d added the ‘s’ it was really hard to take it away.”
We tracked down Kate Legge, the journalist and author who wrote the piece, who says she can’t see why Ley would have given a false or flippant answer in a serious political profile.
“She would have been trying to present her best self and I would have been seeking to present the most accurate picture of her as possible,” Legge says. “Why would she have misrepresented such a simple thing? Was she trying to sound more colourful? And why wait so long to correct the record?
“This was a magazine story and we had plenty of time to correct and massage any mistakes and misunderstandings. I’m surprised by her retrospective admission, but she’s now opposition leader, and congratulations to her, which probably requires cleaning up her backstory.
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