Sophie Monk reveals surprising wedding plans

TV star Sophie Monk opens up about life in lockdown with her fiancé Josh Gross as they plan their intimate wedding.

Sophie Monk is a homebody. Which is a good thing considering that her home on the NSW Central Coast, which she shares with fiancé Joshua Gross, is currently in lockdown.

“[Josh and I] are both quite antisocial. We don’t really go out. So, lockdown has been OK for us. And not having kids or homeschooling makes it a lot easier as well,” Monk tells Stellar.

“It’s just our food intake that’s increased. We’ve been bingeing on Red Rooster and Hungry Jack’s. Because if I do something, I’m going to do it properly.”

The 41-year-old TV star applied the same “all or nothing” approach to collaborating with Stellar on her cover shoot. Inspired by her 2004 Vogue Australia cover, which holds court on the wall of her lounge room, the Australian entertainer was only too happy to recreate the look, with added accessories giving a cheeky nod to lockdown and her enjoyment of this time spent on the couch with Gross.

“I’ve been told, ‘You have to lose weight.’ And then they go, ‘Now you’re too skinny.’ I can’t win.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

“I think in this climate, we’re all sick of negativity.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

Monk loves her home so much that earlier in the year, when NSW was open, the couple threw a huge engagement party there. And now she’s planning to wed Gross – the neurosurgical robotics consultant she famously met on a long-haul flight from San Francisco to Australia in 2018 – on the property, too. Although this time, the guest list will be a lot smaller.

“We’re going to do it ourselves, just the two of us, sometime before the end of the year. Get a really nice dress and try to get some really nice photos,” Monk says.

“It’s more intimate that way. Because I naturally try to entertain everyone and be funny. So, it will be nice to focus just on him because everything’s normally all about me.”

Monk jokes that an at-home wedding also solves the problem of trying to find a venue, and says the money they’d otherwise spend renting out a space could be used to fix up the house. But on a serious note, the singer, actor and television host says, “You feel safe in your home.”

Sophie Monk announcing her engagement to Joshua Gross on Instagram in January. (Picture: Instagram)

Ironically, though, her work has been keeping her away from her safe place. Despite the pandemic pressing pause on so many television and music projects across the country, Monk has been busy. She hosted the recent hit reboot of Beauty And The Geek and will soon begin work on season three of the reality series Love Island (premiering on the Nine Network on October 4).

“I’m very lucky – especially in this industry, where everything goes up and down all the time – to be working. I’m very grateful for it,” she says.

Not to mention that in this turbulent time, the shows she’s been working on have been ratings successes while others, including The Bachelor, have failed to find a strong audience. Monk appeared on The Bachelorette in 2017, which was the last time the show was a huge ratings hit – so does she know what the secret is? “You just can’t really predict anything. What people want is changing all the time,” she says.

“But I think in this climate, we’re all sick of negativity. [Beauty And The Geek] was just such a lovely show. It was lovely escapism.”

To add to her busy schedule, Monk has also released new music for the first time in 18 years. Her jazz-inspired single ‘Nice To Meet You’ came out two weeks ago and has already been trending online.

Sophie Monk hosting Beauty And The Geek in July, with the show’s eventual winner Lachlan Mansell. (Picture: Supplied)

While Monk rose to fame as a member of girl group Bardot in 2000, many of her fans hadn’t heard her sing until her appearance as Dragonfly on The Masked Singer last year. “The majority of people on TikTok were just born when I was singing,” she jokes.

“But it’s always been a hobby of mine. It’s what I came from. And I don’t have a massive ego in general, so it’s not like I want to get up on stage or anything like that. I just love doing it. And I’ve been doing it since I was eight.”

Monk worked on the song with Gary Pinto, who was the vocal coach on The Masked Singer and has worked with the likes of Guy Sebastian.

“I just thought, why not? If people don’t like it, I’ll be like, ‘There you go, I told you I was crap!’” she says. “But we would like to release more [music] if it works.”

Monk channelled her sultry side for the music video, which she says was inspired by Jessica Rabbit, the animated bombshell from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. However, she reveals that embracing her physique is something that’s only happened recently, after years of being forced to change her appearance to suit the industry.

“Over the years, I’d have meetings where they’d go, ‘You have to lose weight.’ And then they’d go, ‘Now you’re too skinny.’ Like, I can’t win,” she says. “And it’s not just the music industry, because I’ve modelled and acted. When it’s your job, you’re always thinking about it. And it’s horrible because you feel as if you’re coming unprepared. So those pressures were really hard on my self-esteem.”

Sophie Monk stars on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar.

Monk, who is an ambassador for healthy snack brand Slim Secrets, adds that growing older, combined with the change in cultural standards, means that she’s never been more comfortable with her appearance.

“I’m fine now. It’s best to just embrace whatever you’ve got. It’s so much easier than trying to change something that’s not achievable,” she says.

“It’s why I’ve partnered with Slim Secrets. I’m always eating late at night, but this for me is a better alternative than eating all the chocolate bars I usually would.”

While 2021 is proving to be a surprisingly busy year both professionally and personally for Monk, she says she doesn’t have any indication of what her future holds.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think that’s the way I could deal with what’s going on in the world right now,” she explains.

“We plan to get married and take some time to just enjoy each other. That’s all we can do!”

Originally published as Sophie Monk reveals surprising wedding plans