Missy Higgins reveals how COVID affected her dad and which royal she thinks is charming

Missy Higgins reveals how COVID really affected her scrutinised father and which royal family member she developed a crush on in a candid interview.

Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins has expressed her satisfaction over the resignation of the minister who “threw her dad under a bus” after he was one of the first Australians to be diagnosed with coronavirus.

“Good riddance, she’s been fired,” she said on Brisbane’s B105 breakfast radio show this morning.

In March, Chris Higgins, who is in his 70s, had only recently returned from a trip to the US when he came down with what he described as a “mild cold” in early March.

As it had resolved over the weekend, Dr Higgins decided to return to work at the Toorak Clinic in Melbourne, where he treated more than 70 patients.

Dr Higgins said at the time that he did not initially get tested for the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, because he did not fit the criteria for testing.

He later wrote on Facebook that he decided to have a test on Thursday for the sake of “completeness” but did not expect it would turn out to be positive.

Then-Victorian Health Minister, Jenny Mikakos, publicly criticised him at the time, saying she was “absolutely flabbergasted that a doctor who has experienced flu-like symptoms had presented to work.”

Signer songwriter Missy Higgins with her dad, Dr Chris Higgins. Picture: Instagram

Speaking to the BI05 radio breakfast hosts, Stav Davidson, Abby Coleman and Matt Acton, Ms Higgins, 37, who also spoke to the trio about meeting Meghan Markle, said her father had mild symptoms and did not end up passing the virus on to anyone.

“He’s fine. He must have had a really low version of it because he didn’t give it to anyone,” she said.

“It was really stupid. He had a sniffly nose for two days on the weekend that went away, so he went back to work. … So he didn’t even have any symptoms when he went to work.

“I think the health minister that threw him under the bus was just trying to make an example of him, which I think was really mean and cruel.”

The mum-of-two said her father – who had identified himself as the Victorian GP the Ms Mikakos had criticised – did not pass COVID-19 on to any of his patients or family.

Members of medical groups, fellow doctors and other healthcare workers soon rallied around Dr Higgins with thousands signing a petition asking her to apologise and offering Dr Higgins’ their support.

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Ms Higgins said the criticism by the Ms Mikakos had turned into a positive for her father.

“It ended up actually being a really lovely experience for him, ironically, because he got so much support from the medical industry,” she said.

“He was inundated with letters of support, people saying ‘this is ridiculous, we would all go to work as well if we were in the same situation’, people reaching out to him saying how great a doctor he is.

“He was like ‘Missy I never knew I had so many friends.’”

She said the whole experience had been strange.

“This whole thing’s been strange because no one has really known how to handle the situation,” she said.

“I feel like everybody’s just been scrambling to keep up with how to deal with this virus, including (Ms Mikakos) and I think that was kind of one of those moments (but) good riddance she’s been fired.”

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex talks to Australian Singer Missy Higgins, with her 9-week-old daughter, Luna at a reception hosted by the Governor-General and Lady Cosgrove in Sydney on the first day of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s tour of Australia in 2018. Picture: Andrew Parsons/Pool/Getty Images.

Ms Mikakos resigned in September following criticism over her role in the botched hotel quarantine program that resulted in Victoria’s second wave of coronavirus infections.

In a more upbeat segment during the interview, Miss Higgins told Stav, Abby and Matt she developed an “instant crush” on Prince Harry when she and her husband, Dan Lee, met him and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, during their Australian tour in 2018.

The musician was holding the couple’s then- 9-week-old daughter, Luna, while talking to Ms Markle.

“Meghan was super lovely, but she seemed very like a little rabbit in the spotlight,” she said.

“She was super shy, very polite, and very well mannered.

“It was like she’d just gone through some seriously heavy training on how to be a royal.”

Ms Higgins said Ms Markle had only announced her pregnancy earlier that day.

Prince Harry was more relaxed, she said.

“Oh my God, he was adorable. I had a bit of a crush on him after meeting him,” she told the radio hosts.

“He is s so charming, he really was. He just kind of swanned up to us, not in a sleazy way, just in a really open friendly way, and made little jokes about Luna and her chubby little legs or something.

“I thought wow this guy seems really at ease socially and very confident, but in a very kind of humble way. Just a really likeable guy. I liked him immediately.”

Ms Higgins and Mr Lee also have a 5-year-old son, Samuel.