Richard Reid: ‘Nothing is off limits with me’

Entertainment reporter Richard Reid was days away from returning to LA and ditching Australia. But a heartwarming realisation made him stay.

Early last year, as the word “coronavirus” was only just beginning to enter the lexicon, entertainment journalist Richard Reid was making plans to return to his home in Los Angeles.

“I had my bags packed,” he tells Stellar On Friday.

“I was ready to go. But for the three days before, I kept asking people if I should go – even strangers in the supermarket.”

Ultimately, Reid made the decision not to get on that plane. And even if it has meant not being able to see friends and family for well over 18 months, the American-born entertainment reporter says it was the right choice.

“I still think it was the best decision. There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be.”

“Americans can sometimes be up themselves. And be snowflakes.” (Picture: Supplied)

In fact, from the moment Reid started working for Today in 2008, doing entertainment crosses from Hollywood, he has felt a special affinity with his second home.

“Ever since I was screaming my way into people’s lounge rooms on Today, I felt that Australians got my sense of humour because I got theirs,” he says.

“Americans can sometimes be up themselves. And be snowflakes. Me, I’m a muddy pond. Nothing is off limits.”

Reid, who harboured dreams to be an actor on a soap opera, parted ways with the breakfast show in 2015, and says even then, when he should have returned stateside, he kept being drawn back to Australia, where he now resides.

“I don’t miss America at all. I’ve done the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood red carpets,” he says, adding that Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts were two of his favourite interview subjects. As for the worst?

“Everyone knows that I found Ellen DeGeneres was no picnic. So when all the reports came out this year about her, I did have a little moment of ‘I told you so...’”

The 56-year-old reveals that the moment he truly felt acceptance as an honorary Australian was winning the 2019 season of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

“When everything is stripped off you, and you let your freak flag fly and the public vote for you as the winner, you really stop caring about what anyone says mabout you. It helped me arrive at a good place,” he says.

Find more exclusives in this Sunday’s Stellar.

Since then, he’s been working on a game-show format and a Jackie Collins-esque fiction novel that’s centred around breakfast TV. Despite leaving Today more than six years ago, he says he still pays close attention to its daily audience numbers.

“It’s fascinating how much attention is given to morning-show ratings,” he says.

“It’s now a three-way race between Sunrise, Today and the ABC. These days, I watch Sunrise – I feel it’s less personality driven.”

Reid is also set to appear on SBS’s Celebrity Mastermind. The topic he decided to tackle? Anything and everything to do with Brad Pitt. He jokes, “Originally I thought I’d do Princess Diana, because I’m a big queen and she’s a princess. But then I thought, let’s do Brad Pitt.”

With trademark naughty wit, he expands on that reasoning: “He’s really someone I’d like to explore.”