Former rugby league player and popular TV host Matty Johns, who is currently selling his Sydney home, has one very surprising hobby.

His wife Trish let slip this week that the former footy player turned TV host is an avid book buyer and reader and loves nothing better than to sit on his back veranda with a weighty tome on his lap. And not a page-turning crime novel either. The former Newcastle Knights five-eigth likes to get stuck into a heavy volume on world affairs.

“Matt loves books, all nonfiction,” Trish said.

“He reads religion, geography and history. He’s read the Koran twice,” she said.

“He loves books and is very well-read. He doesn’t play golf, his hobby is reading,” she added.

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