Media darling Lauren Phillips has a glittering career and also some very famous Byron Bay friends

Lauren Phillips has a circle of Byron Bay friends most people could only dream of but she says learning to share her private life on air has been confronting.

Lauren Phillips with friend and famous Hollywood director Taika Waititi at Derby Day. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It took a decade of “pestering” for Lauren Phillips to become an instant radio success.

The experienced TV presenter landed one of top gigs in Melbourne as co-host of KIIS FM breakfast in August last year after long harbouring a wish to give radio a crack.

But the role involved a leap of faith. Owing to the Covid lockdown, she and her co-host Jase Hawkins had only met twice before they were let loose on air as Phillips had spent most of the previous 12 months living in Bryon Bay.

Now, 15 months into the gig, Phillips says it has been a steep learning curve.

“I think I am a very different person on air to what I was at the start, I was like a deer in the headlights,” Phillips said.

Lauren Phillips was ‘like a deer in the headlights’ when she started on air but is now loving the job. Picture: Rebecca Michael

“Getting to that milestone of a year was like, I could take a deep breath. It has been a huge transition. I think I was probably a bit naive coming into this job not realising how different the two mediums of television and radio are.

“For the first six months I worked seven days a week, radio five days a week and then Today on the weekend, which was difficult, but I was determined to do it.

“Jase and I, until our first show, had met maybe twice and that was it because I was stuck across the border.

“We had not spent a lot of time together and you put your faith in the company to bring two people together who they think are going to work really well with each other. You kind of have to close your eyes and hope for the best and I have been really lucky. I couldn’t name another person that I would rather be sitting next to every morning.”

Phillips and Hawkins have enjoyed a year of audience and ratings growth.

The Jase and Lauren Show had a 7.3 per cent share of the breakfast audience in the most recent radio ratings survey putting it on par with Smooth FM and just 0.1 per cent behind Fox FM breakfast.

The show churns out talkable moments and headlines and Phillips has brought great tales to the breakfast table, thanks to her circle of friends, which includes Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky and Taika Waititi, and her former Byron next door neighbours, Matt and Luciana Damon.

“We did family dinner with them three nights a week,” she said.

Phillips dined with her Byron neighbours Matt and Luciana Damon three times a week at one stage.

But she admits having to share so much of her private life was confronting.

“Had I been given this opportunity three or four years ago I don’t think I would have been ready for it, I don’t think I would have been in the right part of my life to be able to share so much,” she said.

“With TV, the cameras are rolling and you park whatever is going on in your life and you put on a show, whereas this is the complete opposite,” she said.

“It was a real shift for me to move from that to being so open and raw and it is probably something I did not appreciate before I started, as in how much of yourself you have to give to this job.

“It has been nice to find the line between what I am willing to give and what I need to keep for me and for my family, for my relationship and my friendships.”

Her partner, aviation businessman Paul O’Brien, is often referred to on the show.

“He chimes in when he needs to,” Phillips said.

“He is busy, he has his own life and his own job. We are still very private.”

Lauren Phillips and Jase Hawkins have enjoyed a year of audience and ratings growth.

Phillips did not stumble into radio by chance — she had been quietly building her skills and knocking on doors for years.

“I have always dreamt of having a job in radio,” she said.

“Years and years ago I filled in on the Matt and Jo Show (on Fox FM) when Jo (Stanley) took a week off and I thought ‘this is fun.’

“I have not just popped up in this job. It has taken years and years and years behind the scenes of doing demos and doing bits and pieces and filling in for people to get here. I got offered a summer breakfast role (in December 2020) after probably pestering our content boss here every year for about 10 years. I was really lucky.”

The luck looks like continuing for Phillips as KIIS breakfast continues to grow.

“People in Melbourne are smart, switched on and you can’t take them for a ride. They will invest in you if you invest in them,” Phillips said.

“We have spent a lot of time really focusing the show, putting it through a Melbourne filter, asking what are people talking about, what are people waking up and needing to know?

“Life is great, I am more settled than I have ever been and I feel more like myself in this role on air and in this role off air than I have felt in a really long time, which is really nice.”