Delta Goodrem reveals mortifying A-list celebrity encounter

There’s one celebrity Delta Goodrem can’t help but embarrass herself in front of – and she confesses she’s gone out of her way to avoid him.

Delta Goodrem might be one of Australia’s most famous entertainers, but even she still gets starstruck sometimes.

In an episode of the new ABC show The Assembly, streaming now on iview, the Aussie singer-songwriter reveals there’s one celebrity in particular who always leaves her feeling flustered, confessing she’s even avoided run-ins with him to prevent embarrassment.

Goodrem is one of several high-profile Australians featured on The Assembly, which airs Tuesdays 8.30pm on ABC TV, with all episodes now streaming.

The show sees host Leigh Sales mentor a group of Autistic students before they interview a different prominent figure each week, in a candid session where no topic is off limits.

And Goodrem was game for any question, including curly queries about her love life, how she feels about turning 40 and even how long she wants to live.

One student’s question about whether Goodrem ever gets starstruck elicited an interesting response.

Delta Goodrem on The Assembly.

Goodrem says she avoids Chris Martin for her own good. Picture: AFP

“Let me tell you some of my embarrassing stories,” she said with a sigh.

“You’ve heard of Coldplay? For some reason, Chris Martin unhinges me, with my ability to speak.”

She said that while they’d met a few times over the years, she’d always “get really awkward” around the super-famous Coldplay frontman.

And she revealed that one Martin close encounter came when she was having dinner with late Aussie music legend Olivia Newton-John at an exclusive Los Angeles restaurant. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Martin enter the celeb hotspot, and immediately felt nervous.

“I was like, ‘Oh no. Please don’t notice that we’re here,’” she recalled.

Goodrem studiously avoiding make eye contact with Martin throughout dinner, and was in the carpark with Newton-John afterwards when he suddenly approached, greeting her warmly – and wanting to know why she hadn’t said hello inside the restaurant.

“I was [thinking], ‘Because I embarrass myself every single time!’ I’ve said really weird things to him, every time.”

Goodrem sometimes copped viewer backlash when she was a coach on The Voice.

Elsewhere in the episode, Goodrem was asked about whether she’d dealt with bullying in her career, and reflected on her time as a coach on TV talent show The Voice – a role that occasionally brought intense public scrutiny.

“When I’d been under attack on The Voice, there was quite a target on me and it didn’t feel justified,” she said.

“That was a rough moment, but I look at it like: I’ll never give up, I’ll wait until the storm passes. I’ve just learned to cut it out. I don’t google anything, I just stay true to myself.”

Elsewhere in this season of The Assembly, comedian and TV presenter Hamish Blake told the students about an interesting celebrity encounter of his own, revealing that billionaire Richard Branson once gave him an answer to a question that changed the way he thinks about life to this day.

And in the season premiere, acting legend Sam Neill caught himself by surprise when he momentarily broke down over a question about his parents.

The Assembly airs 8.30pm Tuesdays on ABC TV and the season can be streamed in full on ABC iview now.

Originally published as Delta Goodrem reveals mortifying A-list celebrity encounter