Christian Wilkins on haters, his famous dad and his one big red carpet regret

CHRISTIAN Wilkins — the son of Aussie TV royalty — frequently turns heads on the red carpet in wild outfits. But he only has one big regret.

CHRISTIAN Wilkins knows you probably won’t like his outfit — and he doesn’t care because he has no regrets.

Well, maybe one.

“One time I went to the ARIAs and wore a lime green suit. I do wish someone had perhaps stepped in then,” Wilkins, the son of Channel Nine’s Richard Wilkins, told news.com.au.

The 22-year-old knows how to illicit a strong reaction — particularly on the red carpet. Just last month he made headlines and was the target of online trolls for wearing a skirt to the David Jones Spring Summer collections launch.

He clarifies it wasn’t a skirt (“it was a skort with a little apron thing”) and says he rather likes the outrage it causes.

Instead, it’s his dad who’s more concerned with what people say.

“At no point is he like, ‘You shouldn’t wear that’. In fact, I think he quite likes it,” he says. “He likes the fact I’m so comfortable in my own skin. But especially the next day when a few things were written, he just came up to me and said, ‘Are you OK? Just don’t read it.’”

Christian and Richard Wilkins at the David Jones Spring Summer 2017 collection launch.

One regret: the green ARIAs suit.

Wilkins at Derby Day Races.

So what is Richard Wilkins — the long-serving entertainment reporter for Nine’s Today show — like as a dad?

“He’s very protective,” he says. “But both my parents are very free and they’re very liberal in their thinking and they’ve never made me question who I was.”

His parents split when Wilkins — who has four half-siblings — was 18-months-old but remain close. While Wilkins lived with his mum at her Willoughby home, near the Channel Nine studios, until grade 11, he now lives with his dad in Cremorne. His relationship with both of them is extremely close.

“They’ve always just allowed me to be whatever I wanted to be and it was never an issue,” he continues. “But considering he has been in the industry for so long and knowing it’s something I want to get into ... he does get worried. He just wants to make sure I’m fine. And if he knows something’s going to have a reaction, he just wants to make sure none of those comments affect me.”

Christian Wilkins and Richard Wilkins at the Sydney premiere of Kinky Boots.

While Wilkins is trying to break into the entertainment business as either an actor or a presenter, he works five days a week in Channel Nine’s marketing department.

“I’ve actually got a serious job that I’m there for and not just stuffing around,” he says. And while he tries to remain separate from his dad’s Today show territory, he says he’s known the team since he was little — and has a close bond with Karl Stefanovic, who he met when he was six and now calls “Uncle Karlos”.

Wilkins calls Stefanovic “every second day just to have a chat” and has been regularly snapped holidaying and partying with the host and his new girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough since his high profile split from Cassandra Thorburn.

“I think it’s always difficult when you see someone you love so much getting bashed online,” he says of the headlines that followed Stefanovic’s messy separation. “Especially when things are untrue.”

Originally published as Christian Wilkins on haters, his famous dad and his one big red carpet regret