Rock legend Jimmy Barnes has been enjoying an Italian Christmas holiday with wife Jane while his long-lost daughter says she is homeless and sleeping in her car.
Katy Lee Carroll was revealed as the Cold Chisel frontman’s lovechild a year ago when Barnes introduced the mother-of-three to his fans in an Instagram post.
Ms Carroll is Barnes’s second-youngest offspring – he has four children with his wife, two other once-unknown daughters, and is the father of Today Extra host David Campbell.
This week, Ms Carroll exclusively confirmed to the Daily Mail she was left homeless in August and after spending months couch-surfing with family and friends was now sleeping in her car in bushland.
The 38-year-old, from Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid-north coast, has been unable to secure emergency accommodation from housing support services.
Three sources close to Ms Carroll told the Daily Mail that Barnes was aware of her circumstances, which was put to the Cold Chisel’s frontman’s personal publicist.
‘We will not be making any comment on this story,’ she replied.
Barnes, 69, and his wife, 67, spent Christmas in Rome and have posted pictures of themselves at the city’s Trevi Fountain and on a side-trip to Naples.
Rock legend Jimmy Barnes (left) has been enjoying an Italian Christmas vacation with wife Jane while his long-lost daughter Katy Lee Carroll (right) says she is homeless and sleeping in her car
Barnes, 69, and his wife, 67, spent Christmas in Rome and have posted pictures of themselves at the city’s Trevi Fountain and on a side-trip to Naples (above)
On Tuesday, Barnes shared a clip of himself singing the Beatles classic With a Little Help from My Friends, accompanied by Jane on guitar.
Ms Carroll’s children are being cared for by her rugby player-turned-coach husband AJ Gilbert, who is the subject of an interim apprehended violence order taken out to protect his wife.
That order has not been heard in court and there is no suggestion of any wrong-doing by Gilbert, whose professional sporting career included playing two games for the Waratahs.
Barnes publicly welcomed Ms Carroll into his family two days before Christmas in 2024, several hours after the Daily Mail contacted his management about their relationship.
‘Christmas is all about family and we would like to introduce my daughter Katy Lee, who has been in our lives for the past five years,’ Barnes wrote in an Instagram post.
‘Katy is a wonderful woman and since discovering that I was her biological father, our family and extended family have loved getting to know her.’
Ms Carroll is currently the subject of a two-year apprehended violence order to protect Gilbert made at Coffs Harbour Local Court in July 2024.
She told the Daily Mail the couple’s children were staying with her estranged husband until she could find secure accommodation for herself.
Katy Lee Carroll (pictured with Barnes) was revealed as the Cold Chisel frontman’s lovechild a year ago when Barnes introduced the mother-of-three to his fans in an Instagram post
Barnes has four children with his wife Jane, two other once-unknown daughters, and is the father of Today Extra host David Campbell. He is pictured with Jane at the Trevi Fountain
Ms Carroll was forced to step away from her job in real estate following the death of her 32-year-old sister Samantha in February 2025.
She had been working as a sales associate at Stone Real Estate in Coffs Harbour and was described by the agency as a ‘compassionate, supportive and patient’ agent.
In a post on social media, Ms Carroll described her sister’s death as a pain that was ‘permanently etched’ into her heart.
‘Not a single day in the past six months has gone by without tears, memories of your last moments, and regrets for every angry thought I held. My heart aches in ways I never thought possible,’ she wrote.
‘The pain doesn’t get easier, we just learn to carry it with us.’
It is believed Ms Carroll has been able to stay at her mother’s home, which is around an hour’s drive away from where she was living, but does not like being far from her children.
As recently as October, Ms Carroll posted a series of pictures and videos to her social media, which appeared to celebrate a new chapter in her life.
Two months earlier, Ms Carroll posted a video compilation of images of her family as she celebrated ‘settlement day’ after selling their home.
Barnes publicly welcomed Ms Carroll (above) into his family two days before Christmas in 2024, several hours after the Daily Mail contacted his management about their relationship
Ms Carroll (far left) appears in a picture on Barnes’s Instagram, sitting next to Mahalia Barnes and across a table from Jimmy and Jane. Behind Jimmy is Ms Carroll’s husband AJ Gilbert
‘Here’s to new beginnings, memories, hard work, closing chapters, and a fresh start and the biggest thank you to my parents who helped us along the way. I love you so much,’ she posted.
Ms Carroll was born in 1987, six years after Barnes married Jane and the same year he released his first number-one solo single, Too Much Ain’t Enough Love.
Barnes first met Ms Carroll in February 2020 at Kingscliff, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, the day before Cold Chisel opened at A Day on the Green festival in Mount Cotton.
When news of Ms Carroll and Barnes’s relationship broke last year, she said she was grateful for the love and care her new family had shown her.
‘It has been an extraordinary gift to be welcomed into such a talented and kind family and I am thankful every day for their support,’ she said.
‘This discovery, though exciting, has been approached with great thoughtfulness, not only for me, but also for my children and all of our extended families.’
Ms Carroll had spent the first 15 years of her life wrongly believing her mother’s husband was her father, only to discover after their divorce that he wasn’t.
She later hired a private investigator and was told by her mother on her 32nd birthday in September 2019 that she believed Barnes might be her father.
Ms Carroll’s children are being cared for by her rugby player-turned-coach husband AJ Gilbert, who played two games for the Waratahs. The former couple is pictured
Ms Carroll then wrote a deeply personal letter to Barnes and Jane, which she gave to the couple during their first meeting.
She was particularly concerned about Bangkok-born Jane’s feelings, as she had been conceived during the multilingual musician’s marriage to Barnes.
The letter expressed her fears of never really belonging anywhere and an ambition for her own children to grow up with more stability than she ever had.
Barnes’s children with Jane are Mahalia, 43, Eliza-Jane, 41, Jackie, 39 and Elly-May, 36. All have their own kids and Barnes is a great-grandfather.
Daughters Amanda Bennett and Megan Torzyn, both from Barnes’s hometown of Adelaide and now aged in their 50s, met their father for the first time in 2010.
Barnes confirmed he was Ms Bennett and Ms Torzyn’s father through DNA tests and welcomed them into the clan.
Ms Carroll, Ms Bennett, Ms Torzyn and 52-year-old Campbell have different mothers.
Campbell, who is also a platinum-selling singer, was raised by his maternal grandmother Joan, believing her to be his mother.
He learnt Kim Campbell, the woman he thought was his older sister, was his real mother and that Barnes was his father when he was in primary school.
Barnes and Campbell were named as joint Fathers of the Year August 2024 by advocacy organisation The Fathering Project.
