Dr Chris Brown: ‘The right girl will be there at the right time’

As he marks a new era in his professional life, Dr Chris Brown addresses the speculation about his personal life – and reveals why he is taking his ‘sweet time’.

Calling in for his cover interview with Stellar, Dr Chris Brown has been focused on discussing Dream Home, his new renovation series, a competition in which six pairs of ordinary Australians transform their dreary suburban houses room by room.

And we have obliged: for 23 minutes, as the Zoom recording indicates. But Brown knows that any interview about his work will eventually segue into more intimate enquiries. Dream homes are audience catnip, but so too is a window into Brown’s private world.

To his credit, he doesn’t sigh. Not even when reminded of something he revealed to Stellar in a previous cover story five years ago, not long after he turned 40: “If you’d told me at 20 I’d be unmarried and without kids [at 40], I probably would’ve been horrified. But it’s my doing. I’ve probably prioritised work more than I potentially should have over the past 10 years – to the detriment of my personal life.”

Brown laughs. “Can you just change the number?” he asks good-naturedly, indicating that now, aged 45, the same quote applies.

“I would still like to have kids – I still feel that’s very much a priority,” he says. “Would I like to have done something about that in the last five years? Probably. But it hasn’t worked out that way.

“If it hasn’t happened naturally and I’m not a dad yet, then I’m OK with that. I’m not worried. I feel like it will happen when it happens. The last thing I want to do is force it and end up in a situation where I feel like I’ve rushed it. But, yeah, I’m taking my sweet time.”

‘I’ve always been attracted to the part that makes someone special.’ Dr Chris Brown. Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar

Since officially joining the Seven Network last July, Brown has spent his daylight hours shooting a wide range of projects. With the box-fresh Dream Home, animal adventure program Once In A Lifetime and Dancing With The Stars, he will have fronted three primetime shows by year’s end, a schedule that puts him on par with the equally prolific (and Gold Logie- winning) Sonia Kruger.

“I’m lucky that my work is so exciting and stimulating, and so I have to stand by those decisions to prioritise work for that period of time,” he says.

“In a perfect world I’d have liked to have had kids, but it’s just not the way it’s worked out. I feel that the right girl will be there at the right time.”

At least, you might argue, he’s not governed by the ticking biological clock that impacts women.

“Yes and no,” Brown interjects. “Maybe my biological clock is ticking harder. I don’t know that. It’s loosely true for a lot of people, but who knows if it’s true for me.”

Nonetheless, he insists his criteria for a partner has never wavered. “I’m so driven by personality and being intellectually stimulated by your partner; finding someone who is interesting, entertaining in their own way but challenges you,” he says.

“I’ve always been attracted to the part that makes someone special and makes you miss them. You want to be a team, you want to complement each other and feel like you’re on that crazy adventure together.”

In any case, Brown reckons he’d have made a poor boyfriend of late. The still-practising veterinarian – who broke out of the TV pack with Bondi Vet in 2009 before becoming a superstar co-host with Julia Morris on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! – has been crisscrossing the country in his new role as host of Dream Home, his first foray into a home renovation franchise.

Brown leapt at the opportunity, because the series is as much about people as it is about bricks and mortar. Along the way, he’s become fluent at reno-speak.

“When I first had discussions about this show, what really excited me was the fact it’s a renovation show that has heart, it has humour, but it also has solid renovation bones about it,” Brown says.

“I think that’s a really interesting place to play, especially when you consider the reality of Australia at the moment with property prices, interest rates and the cost of living.”

Dream Home will appeal to viewers, Brown says, not just because it provides jaw-dropping reveals – an integral component of the genre – but because owning a home is a legitimate and often unattainable dream for many.

“We’ve spent so long finding the right people to be part of this show and they’re all deserving in their own way,” he says. “But they also bring this hit of heart and warmth and relatability that I think people will really connect to. You get to know them in a very different way to what you’ve probably seen in a reality renovation show before.”

Dr Chris Brown has a number of upcoming television projects. Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar

Yet any concerns that Brown – animal expert, skilled photographer, former part-time panellist on The Project – might lack the necessary tradie skills are quickly confirmed.

When he put in a car space at his last home, he admits the whole house nearly collapsed into it, and even trying to mend a hole in the wall where the TV once hung proved challenging.

“I was like, ‘It doesn’t get any simpler than a patch kit,’” he recalls telling a Bunnings shop assistant with confidence.

“It had five steps detailed, and I thought it was the perfect weekend project for me: I can show how much I’ve learnt. But when I put the patch on and then went to plaster over it, the plaster didn’t stick... and the whole thing just dripped onto the floor.”

Brown called Barry Du Bois, his mate, design expert and fellow former co-host on Network 10’s The Living Room, to come and check where he’d gone wrong.

“He just looked at me and shook his head,” Brown recalls. “He’s like, ‘You’ve put the patch on backwards.’ The backing plastic was facing outwards so the plaster wouldn’t stick to it. I learnt a good lesson to stay in my lane.”

Fortunately for Brown, when it comes to Dream Home, he has Three Birds Renovations co-founder and director Lana Taylor, interior designer and Selling In The City veteran Rosie Morley and Luxe Listings Sydney buyer’s agent Simon Cohen to guide and critique the contestants, while he brings the empathy and shared understanding when things go wrong.

But lest we forget Brown’s area of expertise, he will get to see his ultimate dream job come to life – one he pitched to Seven Network early in his negotiations with his new television home – in the form of Once In A Lifetime.

Weaving together his passion for animals and travel, he will take a well-known Australian to a country where they will not only have a unique animal encounter, but try to make a difference in the lives of some of the world’s most iconic species.

While viewers will see captivating scenery, the personalities themselves will step out of their comfort zone and work as Brown’s veterinary assistant.

The show, he says, “was a big part of me coming to Seven. It’s an idea I developed with a mate of mine, because wherever I go, I get asked animal questions. People are curious about animals, whether it’s their pets or why zebras have stripes or why polar bears are white. At a time when people are often detached from awe and wonder, we wanted to bring this curiosity we have with the natural world to life.”

At the same time, Brown will satisfy the audience’s curiosity about his co-stars. While each episode’s guest learns about a dangerous or fascinating animal (and tries not to get killed), we also learn more about the person. But that information will be up to the celebrity to reveal; the animal facts are Brown’s domain.

To that point, he apologises for the redness in his eyes: the night before this chat with Stellar he was up late on the phone to hippopotamus researchers in Africa.

So let’s set the record straight. As well as hosting Dream Home and taking over from Daryl Somers as Kruger’s co-host on Dancing With The Stars later in the year, he’s about to turn into Australia’s own Sir David Attenborough?

“I’d rock a safari suit, that’s for sure,” Brown says. “This is a different way of doing what Attenborough does. We’re essentially taking a fascinating, layered Australian identity and dumping them into the middle of an Attenborough documentary, where they will be face-to- face with those animals. People who say ‘no’ to everything are saying ‘yes’ to this. These are really big names you’ve never seen do anything like this before.”

Dr Chris Brown is this Sunday’s Stellar cover star. Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar

Fronting two new primetime shows as well as taking over a third speaks volumes about the network’s faith in its new signing.

But if Brown’s life looks professionally satisfying – he is also a regular columnist for Stellar – it is not without its personal his hands are full with his cat Cricket and dog Buzz, who he describes as being so needy for attention that they practically sound like stage four clingers. Thinking about losing either brings him to tears.

From caring for his own pets to treating animals in the wild, and from spending time with his family to sitting at the top of his professional game, Brown is grabbing the experiences that round out a life.

So what makes him the happiest?

“When you experience pure emotion,” he replies. “Whether that’s the wonder of a hike somewhere spectacular, or love, or taking on a new challenge and feeling you’ve done it to the best of your ability, there’s a deep satisfaction and happiness and relief in that: to feel this is a moment no-one can take away from you.”

Dream Home is coming soon to Channel 7 and 7plus.

Read the full interview with Dr Chris Brown inside Stellar. And for more from Stellar, listen to the podcast, Something To Talk About, below: