Boothby frontrunner Louise Miller-Frost is a real triple threat

Ahead of Mother’s Day, Labor’s Boothby candidate has shared her personal story of grief, heartbreak and the joy of raising triplets.

When Louise Miller-Frost’s triplets were born 22 years ago, she told the whole Karoonda community, letting her neighbours know there had been a sudden boost to the area’s population.

The Murray Mallee town’s population of 300 shot up by 1 per cent in just a day.

“We actually letterboxed the town to let people know they’d been born,” Ms Miller-Frost said.

“It was quite weird, but there was lots of local community support as a result.”

Ahead of Mother’s Day, Labor’s candidate for the marginal federal seat of Boothby opened up on the challenges of raising triplet boys – and to also becoming a stepmother to three other children.

Ms Miller-Frost also revealed her personal grief that brought her closer with her own mum, and the complications of splitting with the triplets’ father when they were young teenagers.

Louise Miller-Frost and her triplet sons Hamish, Riordan and Jacques, all 22 and husband Kim Cheater at their home in Cumberland Park. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

On Sunday, she and her now-adult sons – Hamish, Riordan and Jacques – will make a special phone call to their 72-year-old grandmother, Marie Miller, who lives in Port Lincoln.

Ms Miller-Frost’s father, David, died from testicular cancer when she was just 13, forcing a closer bond with her mother.

“My grandparents moved into the house because Mum was just devastated by my father’s death,” she said.

“But then she brought my brother and I up as a single mother.

“She had a strong focus on women’s education … and has been a bit of an inspiration in that way.”

Raising triplets was a mixed bag – on one occasion Ms Miller-Frost was so tired that she fell asleep standing up, but at other times there was simplicity.

“When they were toddlers, it had an element of ease, because they all did the same thing at the same time,” she said.

Labor Boothby candidate Louise Miller-Frost and her triplet sons Riordan, Hamish and Jacques, all 22 with husband Kim Cheater and dog Tim at their home in Cumberland Park. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

When the triplets were 13, Ms Miller-Frost split with their father, but she praised their three sons for their resilience through the separation.

“I think every separation is a challenge – it’s not what you plan when you start having families,” she said.

“You think it’s going to be ‘happy family and together forever’, but unfortunately that’s often not the way it works out, and it’s not what any child wants, either.”

She is now married to South Australian Museum chairman Kim Cheater, with whom her sons share a close relationship. She is also the stepmother of Mr Cheater’s son, and she keeps in regular contact with her first husband’s two sons.

Ms Miller-Frost was previously the chief executive of domestic violence shelter Catherine House before becoming boss of SA’s St Vincent de Paul charity.