In 2008, Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia kidnapped him and Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout.
In 2013, Brennan competed in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, and spoke after the end of the Atlantic leg about his abduction and its psychological aftermath.
[5] On 23 August 2008, three days after having arrived in Mogadishu, Nigel Brennan and Amanda Lindhout went to interviews at an IDP camp.
Australian Greens parliamentary leader Senator Bob Brown and businessman Dick Smith lent money to secure their release.
In 2011, Brennan released the memoir The Price of Life: A True Story of Kidnap & Ransom, which detailed his psychological journey, from the first weeks to the end - as well as the family's perspective.