Jimmy Rees on every parent’s worst nightmare
In their first interview since suddenly withdrawing from Dancing With the Stars, Jimmy Rees and his wife open up about how close they came to losing their newborn son after a routine procedure turned life-threatening.
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The last time Stellar caught up with James Rees, aka Jimmy Giggle, he told a little lie — or two, as it turned out.
At the time, the TV star of Giggle And Hoot fame revealed the couple were trying to have a baby but were having trouble falling pregnant.
Yet less than nine months later, twins Mack and Vinny were born. “Yes, it was very early days,” admits Rees with a laugh of his most recent interview with Stellar last year.
“And we were like, ‘Ohh, do we tell them or not?’ We wanted to tell you, but it was too early.”
Rees, 31, and his wife Tori, 29, explain that while they withheld their good news, it was true that falling pregnant hadn’t been easy.
“We didn’t tell anyone for ages, to be honest,” he says. “It had been hard. Tori had a couple of miscarriages and we’d gone down the road of IVF.”
The couple was confused that they were having trouble, as they’d had no issues with their first child. “I think I blinked at Tori and she fell pregnant with Lenny,” says Rees with a cheeky wink.
“Then the second time it took forever so we thought maybe we needed to intervene. We did some IVF and it went well.”
Very well as it turned out. Mack and Vinny were born in February, right at the time the now dad-of-three was taking on another new challenge — as a contestant on Dancing With The Stars.
With new babies on the way, Rees knew he’d have a lot on his plate but says he didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Although he loves performing for kids, the presenter says he is eager to explore other avenues and he saw Dancing With The Stars as an opportunity to kickstart new ventures.
“They thought it was fun to make me sexy, to see another side of me. That was one of the reasons I did the show. A lot of people just see me as Jimmy Giggle, but obviously I’m not like Jimmy Giggle 24/7.”
The performer, whose fan base is spilt evenly between the preschool set and their mums, is aware and amused his older fans see him as a sex symbol.
It’s a label Rees and Tori both have a laugh about, and his appearance on Dancing With The Stars certainly fuelled that status with his risqué costumes and dance moves earning him the nickname “Jimmy Sizzle”.
“The program was like ‘Get your shirt off!’ and I’m like ‘No, I’m not getting my shirt off!’ and they were like ‘You know, let’s give him some sexy hip-thrusty moves,’” reveals Rees.
As the show headed into its eighth week, Rees says he had moved past any nervousness and felt he had gotten into the groove. “I was thoroughly enjoying myself and I was confident on the run into the finals. I felt I had I made it.”
But a phone call from Tori changed everything.
Based on the Central Coast, about an hour north of Sydney, Rees was on his way back from rehearsals when Tori was at a clinic with Mack for a routine tongue-tie procedure.
“I had three different professional opinions and they said his feeding will be so much better if we get it done, so we did it,” Tori tells Stellar.
“A tongue-tie procedure is meant to be no big deal whatsoever. It might bleed the tiniest bit, then you feed them and that’s really it. But in our case, it was just done wrong.”
Rees noticed he had several missed calls from Tori and when he called her back Mack’s condition had gone from mild to critical.
Mack was taken by ambulance to Gosford Hospital, where they were met by a team of more than 20 doctors and nurses who took the baby straight through to emergency theatre.
“This is something they rarely see — that age and that amount of blood loss,” says Rees. “His heart rate had dipped below a threshold so they actually started administering CPR to him. [The surgeon] got him in and managed to put the stitch in and stabilise him. [He] had to have a blood transfusion.”
The first response from the hospital staff was that Mack would need to be airlifted to Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, but they quickly realised there wasn’t enough time.
“You know when you hear ‘We have to fly him to the Children’s Hospital because that’s where the best facilities are’ — you think ‘That’s not a good thing,’” says Rees through tears, the memory still fresh in his mind.
“I was still at home. Tori was thinking the worst. When we debriefed weeks later, we both just burst into tears and said, ‘I thought he was gone.’”
He pauses, overwhelmed by emotion before collecting himself. “It was a surreal position to be in, just thinking he wasn’t going to come home.”
The couple understands mistakes can happen but says it was the delayed response from the medical professionals that led to Mack being in a life-threatening situation.
“There were some errors of judgement and that’s for [the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission] to figure out, and they are,” says Rees.
“These things happen but it was the reaction, the handling of it which wasn’t right. We know accidents happen, everyone’s human. It was unfortunate it was Mack. But the events that happened after were not right.”
Two months on, Mack’s recovery has been steady and he’s feeding well. Tori explains further monitoring is required to make sure his speech is not affected.
“We have still got a bit of a road to go; we’ve seen the [ear, nose and throat specialist] and now we’ve been referred to speech pathologists to make sure his tongue is moving appropriately as he now won’t take a dummy.”
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Rees emphasises that he did not take pulling out of Dancing With The Stars lightly and it weighed on him that he’d made a commitment to the series.
“I did have to think about it,” he admits. “I was committed to a prime-time TV show and there were a bunch of other people that I felt like I was letting down.”
Would Rees have won Dancing With The Stars if he had the opportunity to be in the final? “Of course I would have won! Absolutely!” he declares with faux conviction.
“Well, I like to think I’d have made the final and I certainly would’ve given it a red-hot go from there.”
But despite the missed opportunity, Rees does not regret his decision to withdraw from the show.
“In the end, family came first and I’m a family man and a dad. The decision was the correct decision. The little fella needed us and we have two other kids to worry about.”
While preschool fans will be thrilled to see Rees is back with Giggle And Hoot, now in its 10th year, adult fans of Jimmy Sizzle may not need to wait too long to see him in something a little more grown-up.
“There are a few irons in the fire, which I can’t talk about — but it’s exciting,” says Rees.
While staying tight-lipped on upcoming opportunities, he is eager to talk about his dream job. “I’d love to host my own show one day. That is the reason I wanted to get into television really.
“I watched Rove when I was in high school. That was the biggest show around and there’s nothing like that now. Hopefully I will get there and achieve that goal of having my own show.”
For now, it’s back to work for Rees who is set to appear in the Jack And The Beanstalk pantomime at the State Theatre in Sydney next month.
Not keen to be apart from his wife and children after their recent ordeal, the family man is bringing Tori and the boys to the city from their home for the duration of the show.
“We have arranged a two-bedroom apartment. The thought of being away for weeks is a no; I would rather be [with my family] and getting a couple of hours less sleep.”
Jack And The Beanstalk runs at Sydney’s State Theatre from July 12; ticketmaster.com.au.
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