Elyse Knowles on life after moving to Byron Bay, baby Sunny and Covid
Model Elyse Knowles has a very public life but is drawing the line at exposing her young son to the judgment of others.
Lifestyle
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Elyse Knowles has made a household name for herself as a model and an influencer sharing candid moments and glamour shots of her life to more than 870,000 followers.
So it might seem incongruous that she has made the decision not to proudly reveal every detail of what she regards as her greatest achievement to date – her five-month-old son Sunny.
But the 2017 winner of reality series The Block, with fiance Josh Barker, fiercely defend their right to protect their son’s privacy.
“I just want to keep him to ourselves, he’s too special,” she says.
“It’s huge how many people are watching every step and I just thought he was a bit young to be exposed to that many people that are judgmental.”
Knowles says the pressure from paparazzi photographers camped outside her front door daily reinforced the couple’s decision.
“I had paps at the front of my house from day dot and I just feel like they’re using him for their own benefit and I didn’t want that. He’s not for their use, he’s Josh and mine and he’s our little precious soul and I don’t feel like them taking photos of him, for their own benefit, is right at all,” she says.
“I actually try and build a relationship with these people because if you become negative or nasty towards these people with the camera, then it becomes a vicious cycle. So I let them take a photo of me if they want that moment, go for it, but leave him out.”
She admits that she has struggled with the decision at times when she captures her own precious pictures of her beautiful boy.
“Pretty much every single day, I’m like ‘dammit’, I would love to show everyone this photo but then I’m happy enough keeping it to ourselves, and family and friends.”
Knowles says Sunny was the fourth name on their list prior to his birth and it took three days for them to name him.
“I think as soon as he came out he actually was a really smiley, happy little bubba and I wanted a positive happy name that I could say a million times a day, and Sunny was the name. I think it’s very bright and happy and positive and that’s what he is.”
‘I DID ACTUALLY REALLY STRUGGLE’
While much of her life looks picture-perfect on social media, she admits she was incredibly self-conscious prior to becoming a mother and in the early days after giving birth.
“I did actually really struggle at the first part to, you know, go down the street for the first time or go to the coffee shop, something so simple that I used to do all the time,” she says.
“I would juggle a million things and then this whole new element came, and I felt like I had to do everything correctly and I didn’t know what I was doing, because I’d never done it before, and literally everything that you do is for the first time.”
“So the first time walking out the door, the first time having your change bag on you, having the child on you, pushing the pram, getting the car seat out of the pram. I pretty much nearly left the pram in the car park one day because I was so frustrated because I couldn’t put it down and everyone was bloody in the car park watching me.”
She says having a public profile made the anxiety worse.
“There’s an extra stress involved, for sure. You don’t know who’s around watching you and what they’re going to think and you have to think about everything twice. But I’ve got that out of my head right now.”
“I’m kind of over it now, I don’t really care what anyone says. I know that Sunny and I are happy and that’s all that matters,” she says.
‘THIS IS ME AND YOU CAN’T TAKE THE STUPID OUT’
“I used to be very cautious of what I did or what I said … you know, don’t be too silly or things like that, but this is me. I’m Elyse, I’m Knowlesy, I’m whatever, and you can’t take the stupid out. I mean, now I’m a mum I really don’t care what I look like, what I do or things like that. I’m just confident in myself. And I’ll just do anything to keep Sunny happy and the family happy, they come first.”
The glamour couple moved to Byron Bay from Melbourne in 2019, and while they have made firm friends and loving the lifestyle, Knowles admits she’s struggled not having her family nearby or able to easily visit since the arrival of Sunny in February.
“Yeah, it has been hard. I feel so sorry for everyone still in lockdown, it’s happening for such a long time. I do FaceTime family every single day because they just want to see Sunny in person. My sister said yesterday, my only wish for my birthday is to be with Sunny. That kills me. It really does,” she says.
“My family has been lucky to jump up (to Byron Bay) between lockdowns, and I’ve gone down, and we saw the family but it’s still not enough. We moved up here with the view that we were going to do multiple trips so family could always see us and now you can’t, so it has made it harder but it’s not as hard as everyone living through lockdown.”
But she has created a family of sorts in the new friends she has made in the uber trendy seaside town, that Hollywood superstars Liam Hemsworth, Matt Damon and Zac Efron also call home.
‘MELBOURNE IS STILL A BIG PART OF MY LIFE’
“There’s lots of people moving here. I moved here for the same reason, to really enjoy the beautiful Australian landscapes and beaches, being active outdoors, and that’s what Byron Bay provides. It’s a beautiful lifestyle that you can live outside, and families that are very like-minded,” Knowles says.
“I’ve created a whole new friend base up here that’s very welcoming and loving, so I understand completely why everyone else wants to move here too.”
The couple recently sold their South Melbourne property and are focused on their building and renovation business on the northern NSW coast.
“We were going to build in Melbourne, we had a home there and an investment, but we decided that because we’re here and Josh has his building company it’s beneficial for us to do it up here,” she says.
“It’s good for Josh’s company and basically having quality control of everything and we can be there on site. It was a bit hard with lockdowns and everything, we just didn’t know when we could get down there.”
“Melbourne is a big part of my life, family is there, the family home and friends, and that will never change. But it’s just the journey that we’ve gone on and we decided to take that step and I don’t think it will be Byron forever, it might be surrounding (areas) or we might go north or south, who knows.
“There are so many different beautiful places in Australia to explore and knowing Josh and I, we tend to change our mind every two seconds and move houses all the time.”
Family has always been important to the couple, even more so now, and Barker has his sights set on growing theirs substantially.
‘JOSH WANTS FIVE KIDS, BUT DON'T COUNT ME IN ON THAT’
“Josh seems to think that we’re going to have five kids. I don’t know that’s going to happen, so don’t count me in on that,” Knowles jokes.
With an impressive client list that includes Myer, Land Rover, Tag Heuer and more recently Fisher Price, she returned to work only months after giving birth, but it has been very much on her own terms.
“While every day is very special with him it’s also nice to switch my brain onto something else and keep active in that space and I adore my job. I thrive off being creative and working with creatives.
“Putting together a shoot, and shooting something really fun, is not work for me, it’s actually very joyful and Sunny gets to come along with me, so we spend the whole day with each other anyway. He pretty much gets handed around to whoever is on set, and they all get cuddles and smiles and giggles and he has a great day.
“Everyone’s very understanding, which I’m very thankful for. If they want me to work, this is the new way. I have Sunny with me now and I’ll have to stop and feed him every now and then and give him cuddles and that’s the way it is and everyone is totally accepting of it. I think that’s the way it should be.”
She’s excited to join forces with baby toy brand Fisher Price, creating a capsule range of baby gear products.
“I’ve designed the custom range with Fisher Price which is very exciting. It happened pretty organically really because I have a Fisher Price chair, and Sunny has been in it since he was born and everyone noticed that I was actually loving it,” she says.
“With the custom range of designs, they’re in my style with natural tones and really embracing the colours of the Australian landscape and textures and the things that I love.”
Knowles and Barker were already on a journey of self discovery and enrichment, but she says Covid has added a whole other element.
“A lot of things have changed since Covid in the way I think. But for myself, I think mental health is a really big issue at the moment and I’m constantly thinking about it and thinking about my friends and family that are not doing so well,” she says.
“You constantly hear stories from people now saying, ‘Yeah, I just really wasn’t good, but I was really shy to say something’ and I feel like it’s horrible and there is probably more deaths and bloody suicide than Covid and something has to happen. It’s just not right, we’re not even talking about mental health at all and I think that is a big worry.”
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