‘I feel like I’m a different person’: Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the ‘hardest part’ of her new life

Natalie Bassingthwaighte has revealed she struggled with her own ‘internalised homophobia’ prior to going public about finding love with a woman.

Multi-talented performer Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the power of reinvention, her “terrifying” new project and the romance that took Australia by surprise.

1. Having moved between musical theatre, television, pop music and now the one-woman play Shirley Valentine over a career of more than a quarter-century means that Bassingthwaighte knows a thing or two about reinvention.

“I’ve evolved so many times,” she tells Stellar. “I feel like I’m a different person now to three years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I look at that young girl and don’t recognise her. But commanding the stage alone for two hours as Valentine is, she admits, “terrifying. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, hands down”.

‘There have been a lot of shifts!’ Nat Bass has reflected on the big changes in her life – and the way they relate to her career choices, including her latest role. Picture: Stellar

“But it seems so far to be the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done – it’s so challenging, it’s like you’re standing on that cliff about to jump. You’re going to sink or swim, and everyone is watching.”

Listen to the full episode of Nat Bass on Something To Talk About now:

2. As the title character, Bassingthwaighte plays a woman at a midlife crossroads, grappling with who she has become – and where to go next.

“I don’t know if there’s a woman alive that doesn’t resonate with Shirley in one way or another,” she insists. To that end, and ahead of International Women’s Day this Saturday, she notes, “There have been a lot of shifts, especially in my lifetime. But there’s always a way to go, to stand up, be proud, have a voice and be heard”.

“Not just complain and be down, but celebrate what we’ve achieved. We’re not there yet. We’re going to keep going until … I don’t know. Why not keep going forever?”

‘I’d be hysterically crying!’ She has opened up about the reality of life as a co-parent. Picture: Stellar

3. Currently co-parenting her two children, Harper, 14 and Hendrix, 11, and in a “really good” place with her ex Cameron McGlinchey, from whom she split in 2022, Bassingthwaighte says the biggest hurdle in navigating their new family dynamic was the recent festive season.

“It was my first year without my kids, and the hardest Christmas I’ve ever experienced.

“My therapist is like, ‘You know what? It’s OK. Tell the kids it’s the month of Christmas and you’ll celebrate on different days.’ So I kept going, ‘It’s the month.’

“Then one day, I’d be hysterically crying. It was really hard. Harder than I thought it would be.”

4. Reflecting on the massive response to her last interview with Stellar in November 2023, in which she revealed that she had found love with a woman, Bassingthwaighte says: “It was quite astonishingly amazing. It did take me by surprise”.

Nat Bass is on the cover of Stellar. Picture: Stellar

“What I’ve learnt over this time is that I think I had internalised homophobia myself, so I was terrified about what people would say and think and feel.

“That’s just ingrained in growing up in a certain time when you weren’t allowed to be. It doesn’t mean I don’t get scared sometimes, but that debilitating fear has gone. And it’s beautiful. I feel heard, I feel safe, I feel connected.”

5. Bassingthwaighte describes her partner Pip Loth, a stage manager at the Queensland Theatre Company, as “an extraordinary human”.

“They’ve made me a better one and they get me more than I understand myself. It’s been the wildest time in my life and it’s beautiful.”

‘It did take me by surprise!’ Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the response to her 2023 interview with Stellar where she revealed she was in a new relationship. Picture: Stellar

As for how Loth navigated the intense interest when the pair went public as a couple last August, Bassingthwaighte says, “That whole time was incredibly tough. We got through it. We’re actually so fine now. There’s a line in Shirley Valentine, and I think of Pip every night. It says, ‘When you meet someone and they like you, they sort of approve of you, you start to grow again, you start to move in the right ways and say the right things at the right time.’ That’s exactly how they’ve made me feel – heard and loved. They’re the kindest human I’ve ever met.”

Listen to the full episode of Nat Bass on Something To Talk About now:

6. Looking ahead to her 50th birthday in September, the performer says the celebration will likely include a trip to a caravan park with her older sister, Melinda, and their 92-year-old grandmother.

“We used to travel around Australia with my nan in a caravan,” she says of her childhood. “That’s something I definitely want to do.” As for her feelings about the milestone?

“I’m excited. It’s surreal that I’m 50. When I was 18, 30 was so old – and now I’m nearly 50. But it’s such a joy.

“I’ve never felt so comfortable in my own skin and in my own space. I’m probably happier than I’ve ever been, which is wild.”

Natalie Bassingthwaighte, right, with partner Pip Loth. Picture: Supplied

Like mother, like daughter! Nat Bass with her daughter, Harper McGlinchey (left). Picture: News Corp Australia

7. Ever the chameleon, Bassingthwaighte is now turning her attention to the written word, revealing she is working on her memoir.

“I was asked a few years ago and I was like, ‘Hell no! I don’t want anyone knowing my deepest, darkest secrets. No way,’” she tells Stellar.

“And since all of this, and rediscovering myself, I went, ‘I think I’m ready.’ It’s been the wildest ride so far. I’m writing like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve had a full life.

“There’s probably more in there that people have no idea about. Life can be terrifying, life can be full of fear, life can shut you down. But it also can be beautiful and exciting.”

As for her literary inspirations, she says that authors Gina Chick, Glennon Doyle and Brené Brown are “empowering women that have inspired me to tell my story with vulnerability and strength. I’m ready for that.”

Shirley Valentine is on at the Canberra Theatre Centre March 19-23, and Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide April 1-6. For details, visit shirleyvalentine.com.au

For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here. See the full cover shoot and interview with Nat Bass in Stellar today – inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).

Originally published as ‘I feel like I’m a different person’: Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the ‘hardest part’ of her new life