The Veronicas still want answers from Qantas and tell how their lovers and family reacted to their new MTV show
The Veronicas continue their beef with Qantas as they reveal what fans will see – and what they won’t – on their Blood Is For Life reality series.
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Exclusive: The Veronicas aren’t giving up their quest to get Qantas to “clarify” why they were offloaded from a domestic flight in September.
As Lisa and Jess Origliasso prep for the launch of their MTV reality series Blood Is For Life next week, the sisters claim the airline has “ignored or declined” six attempts to meet in person to “gain clarification on the matter, show them our video footage and passenger testimonials.”
They are continuing to receive legal advice on the matter.
The twin pop stars were booted from QF516 on September 22 for allegedly not complying with crew instructions relating to how their bags were stowed in the overhead bins.
A verbal stoush escalated when they asked a Qantas crew member for assistance in moving the bags, were advised of company policy prohibiting staff handling passenger bags, and asked for the names of crew involved in the incident.
When they began filming the interactions, the captain was advised and informed the flight there was a security risk on board and Australian Federal Police were attending.
Lisa Origliasso insisted the situation remains the most intimidating and bizarre experience of their career.
“Yeah it was intimidating and we were very confused, we weren’t getting any answers and it did feel quite scary. No one was communicating with us,” she said.
“We got approached once (by Qantas staff) and then sat there for 15 or 20 minutes while they kept making overhead announcements saying there was a security risk on the flight and they had called the AFP. And we’re thinking ‘What?’
“Jess started filming as it was going on. I thought they needed a reason to kick us off, it was really confusing.”
The sisters said the confusion continued when the three AFP officers arrived and asked them to accompany them off the plane.
Lisa said it was clear from the police officers’ reaction they did not know it was The Veronicas they had been called to offload nor what they had done.
“Yeah, I think they felt bad. What I found out was when they were called they didn’t know what kind of situation they were walking into,” Lisa said.
“It could have been full-on drunk men or worse … in the video you see them walking up and a look going across their faces when they see these two tiny girls sitting their seats looking a little scared.
“They said ‘Hi girls, how are you? Are you alright? Can you tell us what happened?’ They were really lovely.
“We were asking them why and they said to their knowledge, they didn’t know, they just have to get us off the flight because Qantas refused to fly us and we would have to get the answers from Qantas. They said … it all had to do with them carrying out Qantas’ wishes.
“This is really bizarre.”
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The sisters said their confusion was compounded when they were booked on the next Qantas flight to Brisbane half an hour later.
“The next flight they sat us next to a [Qantas] pilot who had just flown in from Hong Kong and was on the way home. We were having a good old chit chat and we told him we had just got kicked off a Qantas flight. He didn’t believe it,” Lisa said.
“We went from being a security risk and being marched off a flight by AFP officers in bulletproof vests to half an hour later sitting next to a pilot taking selfies. It was one of the most ridiculous things ever to happen.”
The AFP confirmed they “attended and spoke with staff and two female passengers who were having a verbal dispute on-board an aircraft due to depart for Brisbane.”
“AFP officers asked the two female passengers to depart the plane, to which they agreed to with no further issues,” a spokesman stated.
The sisters have subsequently posted their satisfaction with Virgin Airlines who they have travelled within over the last month.
No doubt the stoush will form a significant chapter of their reality series which also gives a behind-the-scenes look at their private lives including Lisa navigating married life with actor husband Logan Huffman and the engagement of Jess and partner Kai Carlton, which was announced this week.
WHY THE VERONICAS ARE DOING REALITY TV
There’s The Veronicas. And there’s Lisa and Jessica Origliasso.
The Australian pop stars have been a celebrity curiosity for 15 years for their music and the personal dramas which have played out online and in the media.
Now they would like to introduce you to Jess and Lisa, their unique lifestyle and the often bizarre world of identical twins.
And they have chosen the medium of reality television, partnering with MTV, the channel which pioneered the genre with The Osbournes, for a six-part series called Blood Is For Life.
”I think it’s hard sometimes for people to grasp the concept the Veronicas are a creative outlet and personas we have created for ourselves when we step on stage,” Jess tells Watch.
“Lisa and Jessica, in our personal time, deal with a very different lifestyle than we do with The Veronicas.”
Those lifestyles intersect when the personal becomes public as it has with the confusing Qantas incident where they were offloaded from a September flight in Brisbane over the handling of their luggage in an overhead bin.
Or the social media war between Jess and her ex, Batwoman star Ruby Rose, as she started a new relationship with American singer songwriter Kai Carlton.
There is a long pause as Jess seeks to explain how the show will tackle the ghost of Rose, as she has made it clear she has difficulty talking about it.
The experience of doing so for the show was both triggering and cathartic.
“There was a big question mark over what happened during that time and the series picks it up from that point,” she says.
“We chose to start the show giving some context to those lost years. Then we move on. What I share is more my process in having to work through such a difficult time in my life.”
As Lisa enjoys newlywed bliss with her actor partner Logan Huffman and Jess ended one relationship and started another, the sisters have bought a home together on the outskirts of Brisbane — borne out of a need to be close to their mum Colleen, who suffers dementia.
Now ambassadors for Dementia Australia, the sisters sought their mother’s consent to share their family’s experience of living with the insidious disease.
“We have been very protective of mummy,” Lisa says.
“We feel very passionately about sharing her story and ourselves as a family with what she is going through because we feel the visibility of that could help those going through similar things, to not feel alone and feel supported.
“It was something we could discuss with her. She’s our biggest fan and she was aware and excited to be around the cameras. She was on the road with us for so long so she is comfortable with cameras, but we didn’t give a lot of access to her, everything was done entirely with her being comfortable about it.“
Jess insisted early in the shoot she would film herself and Kai behind the scenes until they reached a point where they felt secure enough to reveal more of their relationship.
“The whole show was shot on our terms so the viewers are introduced to our relationship through footage I took,” Jess says.
“It was important for me to keep the newness of our relationship somewhat sacred while we were getting to know each other and as time has gone on, we definitely shared more with the cameras.”
For Lisa and her husband, the decision to let MTV film their fledgling marriage threw up hurdles but as an actor, Huffman was up for it. Even the “intimate moments.”
“We have been very private with our relationship so that was confronting, something I hold so pure and scared would be on TV for the world to see,” Lisa says.
”Those intimate moments, they have to keep rolling because you have to get used to the fact there is a camera there to the point you don’t care any more.
“Logan is a triplet so he has a unique understanding of our sisterhood and that it is definitely a two for one deal.”
The series also captures the pair’s legendary fights. You could probably fill an entire hour with a montage of “shut ups” and worse.
“Anyone who has been around a Veronicas fight knows ‘shut up’ is one of the nicer things we say,” Lisa says.
“But that sistership, that relationship to family, it’s like the Osbournes. They fight hard, they love hard and they are over it within two seconds.
“At the end of the day, family is all that matters, it’s everything.”
That unique twin bond should prove fascinating viewing too.
Jess has been deep diving into research about identical twins, as well seeing a “twin counsellor” to develop her own understanding of this peculiar human phenomenon.
“It’s nature and nurture that shapes the twin dynamic; they are essentially treated as one identity, not individuals, within the family dynamic and society,” she says.
“But from the beginning of our career as The Veronicas, that was the start of being exposed to a media fascination with pitting us against each other.
“You would get asked: ‘Who’s the better singer? Who gets the most boyfriends?’ We have such a close bond and grew up never feeling like we were in competition with each other because it was always together.
“So people will get to see how wild it is to live so closely with a twin.”
The series, which was shot over seven months in Australia and the US, will precede the much-delayed fourth album from The Veronicas, their first in six years.
“Yes, you will get some insight into the new album. Timing is everything and this recording has been such a long, long labour. But it’s all aligning the way we hoped.”
* The Veronicas: Blood Is For Life, 6pm, Sunday November 10 on Foxtel, mtv.com.au and Fetch.
Originally published as The Veronicas still want answers from Qantas and tell how their lovers and family reacted to their new MTV show