Seven bombshell moments in Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles

It wasn’t all pointing fingers and doing the twist to the top for The Wiggles. Here are seven of the most memorable – and emotional – moments from their new doco.

From the fresh-faced four at kids’ birthday parties to one of Australia’s biggest music exports, soaring to the top of Australia’s rich list, Yellow Wiggle Greg Page, Blue Wiggle Anthony Field, Red Wiggle Murray Cook and Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt have opened up on their journey in their first feature-length documentary.

Here’s seven of the standout – and most emotional – moments from Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles:

Anthony Field, Jeff Fatt, Greg Page and Murray Cook in Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles. Picture: Prime Video

The full Wiggles cast gathered in Sydney to mark the occasion

Paul Field’s baby death

The awful moment former general manager Paul Field learnt his 10-month-old baby daughter Bernadette had passed away from SIDS – “I heard this scream from a room that I haven’t heard before, it was a guttural scream, and I thought what has happened,” Anthony shares, with tears. “(His brother) Paul had rung home and found that Bernadette had passed away.”

Paul and Pauline Field with daughter Bernadette who died from SIDS in 1998. Picture: Supplied

Paul added: My world kind of came to an end in some ways – I’m now 61 and it happened in 1988.” He pauses, breaking down in tears, before explaining how it’s a double-edged sword because that moment is also one of the reasons The Wiggles exist, with The Cockroaches ending and Anthony heading off to uni to study early childhood teaching where he met Murray.

Hi Sam, Bye Sam … one of the few times The Wiggles faced criticism. Picture: Supplied

Bye Greg, Hi Sam, Bye Sam, Hi Greg

It was the kids’ version of The Beatles breaking up when Sam Moran took over from Greg in 2006 after his health battles proved too much. While that was seamless, his return five years later was absolutely botched, compounded by an awkward moment by Anthony on The Today show, flustered answering questions about Sam’s departure. “It was a really rough time,” Greg shares. “I was coming back, because Sam wasn’t going to be continuing on, but it was not portrayed that way in the media. It became Greg wanted back and pushed Sam out.” There’s an air of dejection air around Sam who says “I feel a sense of sadness about how it all ended for me …” he says, with a lengthy pause, before adding: “I’ve … yeah, it’s kind of all that needs to be said really.”

The Wiggles on tour in the UK. Picture: Supplied

Feeling very blue

Anthony opening up on how he never wanted to be the spokesman for clinical depression. The group noticed Anthony was starting to get more upset than usual on their first tour in England. “I was bursting in tears backstage,” he says. “Talking to one of my brothers, I told him I felt sad all the time and he said ‘what have you got to be sad about? You’re successful, you have got all the comforts – what’s wrong with you?” Murray concedes the band didn’t know what depression looked like. “People didn’t really talk about mental health back in the ’90s.” Paul encouraged Anthony to go on TV and share his battles, while his dad took him to see a psychologist. And he’s been seeing someone for the ensuing 35 years.

CLASHES … Anthony Field and Greg Page. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone)

Not always great mates

It wasn’t all joyously pointing their fingers and doing the twist – touring week, after week, month after month saw frayed tempers. Anthony sharing how one time after a show, he was still playing the drums and tin whistle when Greg told him the audience could hear him.

The Wiggles have opened up on their journey in their first feature-length documentary.

“I said ‘OK, Greg – do you want to see a drum roll?’ and then I picked up the drum kit and I threw it at him.” While Greg’s still upset about the time he found his yellow skivvy with a big wet patch just before he was due to step on stage in front of 80,000 people. Convinced it was Anthony, he had a huge go at him as the curtains opened, as they linked arms and had to sing “Christmas memories”. “If you see Greg tell him, I didn’t do the water,” Anthony says to the interviewer.

Anthony Field and his daughter Lucia. Picture: Supplied

The toll on their real-life families

Anthony says if he had his time again, he’d probably have sent a stand-in for their first tour, just six weeks after his daughter Lucia – who’s now a member of the extended Wiggles troupe – was born. “It was so much – there was no balance in life.” While Murray recalls the heart-wrenching moment his son Hamish said “I don’t like music because that’s what takes Daddy away.” Greg, who separated from his first wife Michelle two years after he left The Wiggles, muses on the irony of being adored by kids across the globe, while letting down your own kids: “ … it undoubtedly had an effect on relationships, and in some people’s minds (it was like) perhaps we were making other people’s children happy instead of being there for your own family.”

Wiggle Jeff Fatt after his serious heart scare.

Trio of hearts

While much has been written about Greg’s heart problems – in fact three of the OG’s have had heart surgery. Greg was diagnosed with orthostatic intolerance after he started fainting mid-shows. “It made the front page of the New York Times,” Paul said. “Don’t know how many Australian Prime Ministers have got on the front page … unless they drowned. It just shows how mammoth they were.” Jeff also had a pacemaker inserted after blacking out while he was driving, running into a tree. “Luckily it was without any great velocity,” Jeff recounts. While Murray had open heart surgery in December 2021 to replace a faulty aortic valve.

Retiring Wiggles Greg Page, Jeff Fatt and Murray Cook at their studios in Sydney.

Leaving The Wiggles

Even though it was their decision to hang up their skivvies in 2012, leaving the supergroup took its toll on Murray and Jeff. Particularly on Murray: “To go from that to nothing, was kind of a shock, so much of my identity from 20 years was ‘you’re the guy from The Wiggles. The whole thing did affect my mental health. It was such a bad time”.

Jeff jokes: “I like to think that the kids didn’t like wake up Lachie (his purple Wiggle replacement Lachlan Gillespie) quite as much me.

Greg Page recovering in hospital bed after his cardiac arrest during a bushfire concert.

Greg’s on stage heart attack

While it was obviously harrowing on Greg and his family, his shock heart attack on stage when the OG Wiggles re-formed for a special run of shows in January 2020 scarred his long-time friends. Anthony had a panic attack, Murray was distraught: “First I thought he’d just overdone it, but then his eyes starting rolling back in his head. And then first aid people were saying he’d stopped breathing. I thought he was dead. It was horrible to see your mate …” Murray says, tears falling as he recalls that moment – the first time he’d been around someone so close to death. “It was pretty distressing … for us his other family.”

Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles, Tuesday, Prime Video