NRL great Andrew Johns was forced to cut short his recent surfing trip to Indonesia for bizarre reasons, as his nephew explained on the Johns family podcast.
Matty Johns, his wife Trish and sons Cooper and Jack all contribute to a podcast called Backstage with Cooper and Matty Johns.
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Earlier this month, Immortal Joey Johns was on holiday at renowned surfing spot G-Land in Java and while he was there, he posted a photo to Instagram from his 2024 wedding to Kate Kendall.
“Blessed to be married to this beautiful human,” Johns wrote to his 95,000 followers.
“We have a wonderful little girl together, our life together couldn’t be more perfect.
“Love you to G Land and back. Sending all my love from deep in the jungles of Java.”
The romantic post had almost 12,000 likes and over 100 comments, including some from Anthony Mundine, Mat Rogers, Braith Anasta and Danny Green.
It appears things took a major turn for the worst from that point on for the Newcastle legend, however, according to nephew and former Knights second-rower Jack.
It began when Joey remembered to FaceTime his nephew for his birthday, with Jack turning 28 on October 15, in what seemed like an endearing family moment.
But by this stage, Joey had begun having interactions with some unwanted guests during his holiday, as Jack explained on the podcast.
“Speaking of people camping at the moment, Uncle Joe rang me for my birthday this morning,” Jack began.
“So he’s in G-Land at the moment, so that’s like Java in Indonesia. So he had to fly in and then beach it across.
“He’s staying in this village and he looks like it is driving him mad.
“He wished me happy birthday and I could tell, just by looking at him, he was a bit off.
“He reckons he has to walk around with a stick because the monkeys have just got it out for him.
“That’s right, the 51-year-old NSW great was convinced monkeys on the tropical island were conspiring against him.
“He reckons they’ve just turned on him,” Jack continued.
“So he was saying that his village is secluded because apparently there’s rumours of like ghosts.
“Although he’s not very spiritual, I think it’s starting to turn him.
“It’s like a ghost-infested village while they’re surfing over there and I think it’s driving him pretty mad.”
Asked how long it would be until Johns would be coming home, Jack replied: “He’s getting an early flight back now, so he’s coming back a day early because he reckons, he honestly reckons the monkeys are teaming up on him in groups of three.
“Where one will distract him and the other two will try to circle around him to try to steal stuff from his room.”
Matty Johns appears to have had a similar experience, as he nodded along throughout the story and made comments like “it happens mate” and “they do”.
The family then debated the outrageous story, with Cooper asking: “How self-absorbed does Joey have to be to think that the monkeys are only targeting him though?”
Mum Trish fired back: “No, no, he would realise it’s happening to everyone else, but he’s telling you about his experience.
“I think you’re being a little unfair.”
Somehow, Jack was far from finished with this wild tale.
“He just sent me a vision of like him on his patio outside his room,” Jack said.
“And there’s a monkey – I’m going to add (the vision) in to the poddy this week – it’s a monkey just staring at him from the roof and in fairness it does look like this monkey has it out for him.”
Remarkably, a posse of monkeys wasn’t the only obstacle Johns and his unnamed travel companion had to face on this trip.
It turns out their accommodation was also infested with bed bugs, as Matty had great delight telling their listeners.
“Hey Jack the other thing you’ve got to post for people, Trish’s worst nightmare, the guy that Joey’s over there with, their beds have got bed bugs,” he said.
“You should see, his feet are just covered with bed bug bites.”
A photo is then posted of a pair of feet absolutely covered in bites.
“He must be going mad over there because he sent me a photo of his mate’s feet from the bed bugs and it is honestly horrendous,” Jack said.
“I think Joey’s all right, but you can imagine if it’s the room next to you, you’d be getting paranoid I reckon.”
Trish later commented on Instagram about the stories: “I’ll take monkeys over bed bugs.”
What a story.
And famous surfing break or not, we suspect Joey might just look elsewhere for his next surfing adventure.
Originally published as Rogue monkeys ‘team up’ to ruin Joey Johns’ surfing holiday