Sonia Kruger on her big (Brother) move
As Sonia Kruger jumps networks again to front a timely revamp of reality series Big Brother, she opens up about what to expect from the show, her path to motherhood – and the life lesson her late father taught her.
Stellar
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A small group of housemates in lockdown, stuck in self-isolation with no plans to venture outside. Nerves slowly start to fray, alliances form, misinformation spreads and civility dissolves.
Is it any wonder, Sonia Kruger asks Stellar, this year has ended up being the perfect time for a reality show like Big Brother to make a comeback?
Nearly two decades since it first aired on Australian television, new host Kruger believes the upcoming revival of the series will resonate with audiences more than ever, as the housemates’ predicament so closely reflects the country’s as a whole during the past two months.
“It makes it all very relatable,” she agrees with a laugh. “We’ve all been housemates in our own homes, we’ve had to form alliances, we’ve all had to try and not be evicted because relationships get tested when you’re at home and you have to try to find your own space and time.”
As for what she’d be like if she was one of the housemates, several weeks of confinement has given her a unique insight.
“I’d be the one tidying up,” she says with a sigh. “One hundred per cent, I’m the designated cleaner and cook. That seems to be my role in life.”
While it’s difficult to imagine the perennially glamorous and sparkly gowned Kruger wielding a mop or scrubbing a toilet, her observation is spot on.
Just as Gogglebox is a television show about people watching TV, Big Brother is poised to be a series about people in isolation watched by people in isolation. Although, as Kruger says, the housemates were never short of toilet paper.
“They were fully stocked,” she tells Stellar. “We were struggling behind the scenes a little bit, but they were fine.”
In fact, when the escalation of the coronavirus crisis prompted television executives to inform the 20 housemates about what was happening in the outside world, they couldn’t believe the stories of stockpiling.
“I was telling them about the brawl that happened over the toilet paper and they didn’t believe me,” reveals Kruger. “They thought it was a prank and I was kidding, but I was like, ‘No, guys, seriously, that actually happened.’”
In the six months since Kruger, 54, defected from the Nine Network and returned to her old stomping ground at Seven, the pandemic has decimated the television landscape. The Olympics, which she was lured to cover, has been postponed. Australia’s Got Talent, where she will be a judge, has also been delayed.
At the time of printing, Seven’s share price has plummeted and its staff have had their pay cut by 20 per cent. Kruger reveals she was no exception. She says, “I have no problem with that at all. We’re working in an industry that has been hit really hard and it’s something that had to happen. I understand why.”
That the seemingly ageless Kruger has jumped to and from networks, and defied the usual pigeonholing to work on both morning and evening shows, is evidence of both her versatility and her chutzpah.
“Most people are ‘lifers’ at each network,” she says. “So I feel kind of lucky that I got to work for both Seven and Nine because they’re different in their own ways, and two of the most powerful networks in the country.
“For me, it doesn’t come down to the money, it comes down to the role. I’ve always been of the opinion that you need to keep reinventing yourself.”
While she discussed the move with her agent, her mum and her partner, Seven Network’s Director of News and Public Affairs Craig McPherson, in the end she went with her gut.
“My dear dad, who isn’t with us anymore, always said to me, ‘No risk, no reward; no guts, no glory.’ I think you have to take a leap of faith every now and then.”
While it’s eight years since Kruger moved to Nine – where she hosted Today Extra, The Voice and an earlier incarnation of Big Brother – James Warburton, managing director and CEO of Seven West Media, still regards her as “the one that got away. There’s really nobody like her,” he tells Stellar.
“She’s great talent – quick-witted, extremely engaging and so much fun to be around, which transcends to the viewers at home. She adds glamour and genuine star power to the network, and we can’t wait to see her in action when Big Brother hits screens.”
With housemates aged between 19 and 61, new nomination challenges and tough Survivor-style evictions, the self-proclaimed “new house, new game, new rules” Big Brother has undergone a major evolution since its eight-season run on Network 10 and previous three-season revival on Nine.
Kruger says there’s more strategy and intrigue – but that’s not the only reason she’s thrilled to be back hosting a prime-time show on her own.
After years of sharing the screen with men whose first names begin with a D, flying solo at least reduces some of the confusion.
As she points out, Kruger worked with Daryl Somers on Dancing With The Stars before he was replaced by Daniel MacPherson; then she switched to Nine to host Mornings (which eventually became Today Extra) with David Campbell.
And before she hosted it by herself, she was side-by-side with Darren McMullen on The Voice. “Try remembering that in a live television context,” she says, laughing. “I thought, I’m totally going to mess this up – they all just became ‘Daz’.”
It’s been nearly 30 years since Kruger got her break as Tina Sparkle in the Baz Luhrmann-directed Strictly Ballroom, but fans of both her TV work and her dance workout and nutrition program Strictly You will attest she’s hardly changed.
Even pregnancy and new motherhood – her daughter Maggie is now five – haven’t slowed her down, but as she approaches her 55th birthday in late August, she is grateful not having to be camera-ready first thing in the morning.
“That’s why I like to work in prime time,” she quips. “By the time we get to the night, my face is actually ready to go on. The fluid has drained out of my eye bags!”
If her risqué – and, at times, polarising – comments have made Kruger watchable, the candour she has displayed around her personal life over the past few years has seen her elevated from glitzy (and perhaps sometimes ditzy) variety host to a public figure of substance.
When she fell pregnant at 48, Kruger was honest about the fact Maggie was conceived with an egg donated by a friend after she and McPherson had undergone unsuccessful IVF treatment. Just a few months ago, in an interview with her fertility specialist, she reiterated her very real initial concerns that she wasn’t going to love her baby because it wasn’t biologically hers.
“That’s the beautiful thing about having a child in your life whether you’ve adopted them or had them by surrogate, or it’s a foster child,” she says. “You grow to love them and, in my case, it was pretty instantaneous. She grew in my tummy so she’s a part of me and I look at her and can’t imagine loving her any more than I do.”
At the time of Maggie’s birth, Kruger received a groundswell of gratitude for her transparency. She tells Stellar her heart went out to women who were in the throes of IVF when it was recently suspended due to the pandemic, and recalls being touched by a recent encounter with a woman with a little girl who approached her in the park.
“She told me, ‘The reason I have her is because of you,’ and that just blew me away. She thanked me for being honest.”
Having witnessed older Hollywood mums and their “miracle babies”, Kruger had held out hope. It was only when she began speaking to experts she realised many were but a myth.
As she says, “I had no choice but to be 100 per cent honest about it because I didn’t want anyone to be misled about me or my situation.”
She’s enjoying spending more time with Maggie, a keen dancer who will start school next year. “She’s started saying things like, ‘Well, actually, Mum, that’s interesting...’ and I wonder, where did my baby go? Next year when she puts on that school uniform, there are going to be tears – not hers, they’ll be mine.”
Coronavirus forced a production rush on Big Brother, which is prerecorded, and Kruger admits that since entering lockdown she has failed to adopt a new hobby.
She’d thought she might learn Spanish or take up a musical instrument, but to date she’s only managed to renew her car registration and deal with assorted life-administration tasks. That may, in part, be due to the distraction of a new housemate.
She’s succumbed to an “iso” dog, a cavoodle called Teddy. She didn’t think she would have another pet after the death of her beloved Staffordshire bull terrier Fergie, but Teddy Kruger – yes, she laughs, it sounds suspiciously like Freddy Krueger – has won all their hearts.
That said, she’s the one tasked with house-training the new intruder. “Oh, it’s great at the beginning of winter to be standing outside at 5am, coaching a little puppy to do its business,” she sighs in mock exasperation.
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Although she’s currently holding the reins on the home front while McPherson masterminds Seven’s news content, he steps up when she’s busy, as was the case when she reported from the Oscars red carpet earlier this year.
As Seven had the broadcast rights, she was in pole position to interview the stars; the highlight being a cosy chat with Brad Pitt.
“What was weird was that I’d interviewed him a couple of times before and I don’t know if there was a flicker of recognition or not, but he’d go to leave, then come back,” she recounts. “He ignored [Access Hollywood reporter] Mario Lopez and I don’t think Mario was too happy about it, but it made our day.” Asked to share how Pitt looks up-close, she replies, “Brad’s like a fine wine. He gets better with age.”
Kruger could be talking about herself. As a TV personality, she happily waltzes between genres and networks – and it helps that she still has a dancer’s physique and can squeeze into white cigarette pants or a metallic burgundy jumpsuit without blinking.
While she credits “good lighting” and an excellent hair and make-up team for her youthfulness, it’s her edge-of-the-seat humour that helps ensure her ongoing relevance.
“I’m a bit immature,” she explains. “My dad was always young at heart and I definitely want to enjoy everything going forward. I definitely don’t want to think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that or wear that because of my age.’”
Certainly, she doesn’t feel like someone in her sixth decade. “You know how they say age is just a number? It really is – I know that’s a cliché, but don’t you find it the weirdest thing in the world?
“Sometimes I forget how old I am and think they’ve got the numbers around the wrong way and I’ve become dyslexic. I’m 45, not 54! It is kind of irrelevant – I prefer even numbers, but anything at this point in time is a bonus.”
Big Brother will premiere in June on the Seven Network.