Since 1992, Sonia Kruger has been a fixture on our screens, from her role as Tina Sparkle in Baz Luhrmann’s cult film Strictly Ballroom to working as a television presenter on morning TV and hosting some of Australia’s most successful reality shows - including, of course, Dancing With The Stars which is back on our screens this week.
But when it comes to her private life, Sonia likes to keep it private. But today we get a little more personal. We discuss how she was instrumental in bringing Dancing With The Stars to screen, what life as the mother of a nine-year-old girl is really like, how THAT Gold Logies speech led her to therapy and what it was like when her partner Craig was recently the one in the headlines.
Dancing With The Stars premieres Sunday July 7 on Channel 7 and 7plus.
Find more from Stellar via Instagram @stellarmag or pick up a copy inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA)
Hello, and welcome to Something to Talk About the Stella Podcast. I'm Sarah Lamarquin, your host and Stella's editor in chief.
Every week I sit down.
With some of the biggest names in the country, because when Australia's celebrities are ready to talk, they come to Something to talk About. Since nineteen ninety two, Sonya Krueger has been a fixture on our screens, from her role as Tina Sparkle in bas Lehman's cult film Strictly Ballroom, to working as a television presenter on Morning TV and hosting some of Australia's most successful reality shows, including of course, Dancing with the Stars, the unexpected hit that forever changed the course of her career when it first went to air twenty years ago. But her private life, well, she likes to keep that, including her relationship with her partner Craig, the father of her nine year old daughter Maggie, just that private. But on today's episode, Sonia joins me in the studio to get a little more personal. We discussed how she was instrumental in bringing Dancing with the Stars to the screen. What life is the mother of a nine year old girl is really like? How that Gold Logi speech led her to therapy.
And how she felt when her partner Craig.
Was recently the one in the headlines instead of her. Sonya Krueger, welcome to Stella and something to talk about.
Thank you for having me, Sarah La marquand.
Dancing with the Stars new season starting next week. So, Sonya, it was twenty years ago this year, can you believe it? With the Stars launch two thousand and four. It was after the Olympics, an Olympic year again this year, and it was I believe October.
Very short season.
Let's be honest, no one really thought it was going to be a hit. When they talk about an unexpected hit. That first season of Dancing with the Stars was it and it was absolute water cooler. Everyone was watching it. We're talking figures of a couple of million people. Such a hit that then they quickly put together a new series and you were back on air again in February.
Yes, we did two series a year for a couple of years there. I'd go backwards and forwards to Melbourne and we'd do this one live show. It was always at Tuesday night and the numbers were extraordinary and I don't think anybody could quite believe that people were tuning in to watch this show that was all about ballroom dancing.
You know, it was kind of not that cool.
But the casting, I think is really what made those series work and make any series work, because if you get the right group of people and you get some really interesting characters in there, then they become so engaging for the audience. I think like last year, Isa Schultz, he was one of those characters that the audience just loved to see on the dance floor because we know him on the chase, we know him as this incredible mind. He was so out of his comfort zone. Even if you go back to those very early series.
With Pauline Hanson, who you know, Pauline was not the greatest dancer by a long shot, but she made it all the way to the end because the audience kept her there. So it's one of those things people really love to get involved with the competitors on the show and the personalities. And you also have seen over the years people really come into their own and blossom, which all sounds very trite, but there were moments over the years when you were talking about Pauline Hanson, I was thinking Chris Bath was in one of those first few series as well. Oh she was the runner up. But you had this television anchor, news presenter, very you know, sort of buttoned up.
We never see we never see their legs, right, we never see a news present it's legs because they were always pretty much under a desk. And Barthy, yes, just bloomed on the dance floor and it was such a joy to watch that happen. And we became very close because we were both together.
Fly down to Melbourne for the show, and.
As she progressed through it, she just loved it more and more and more until she got all the way to the final. And she was in that final with Aida Nicodemu and they were both extraordinary dancers, you know, and they look I just remember Barthy's grand finale and it was ac DC I think she chose and she was on top of the news desk, rocking out with a good time.
Crazy stuff but so much fun.
It was something that showed a whole other side of her and everyone could get behind that person.
So is there something primal or unique?
What is it about dancing that you think perhaps seemed to any of us?
But the celebrities that are featured on the show and.
Makes them reveal this side of themselves, not only to everyone watching, but to themselves.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. It's primal.
When you look at children and babies and you put music on, what happens They start to dance. They've never been taught, they've never been shown. They just start to move to the music, don't they. And then as they get older, generally we become more self conscious, and so we tend to unless we're professional dances, unless we're people who go and do dance class, we tend to stop dancing unless we're at a nightclub with a bunch of friends and we've had, you know, a couple of Margarita's and we put our handbag down, and then we lose our inhibitions.
So I think Dancing.
With the Stars gives people the license to lose those inhibitions on the dance floor.
In fact, it's.
Required, you have to set all of that aside in order to get through a performance. And then once people do it and they have that breakthrough, I think they find they love it more than they expected to, you know. So it's it's giving people that license to have fun. And that's why I've always loved this show, because it really is like even the promo that's running at the moment, you know, I don't know if you've seen it, it almost looks like an episode of the Muppets.
And I say that.
I say that with love because I love the Muppets. But it's just there's feathers and sequins and color and happiness and joy, and you get to also see the other side where you know, people are moved and emotional, and so it has all of that. And now we've got doctor Chris Brown. So life doesn't get any better.
Really, when you say that, the sequence and the feathers, it's the exact same reason. To go back to why even probably the people that green lit the show back in two thousand and four were not expecting it to be that successful. Sonya, you had worked in the industry for a while, been in on Strictly Ballroom and then had worked as a reporter, entertainment reporter, you had been a weather presenter. That felt like the moment that first season of Dancing with the Stars where you really broke out from television presenter with a good steady job to a star to a really, you know, in the most technical terms, a viable commodity and started the way for the career that we have seen in the twenty years since. Would you agree with that assessment and what were your memories of processing that at the time. So I had been doing some entertainment reporting for Today Tonight. That was my full time job, and I had been in London and I just turned the television on and this show came up and it was called Celebrity Come Dancing. And I was mesmerized by this show because it was ballroom dancing. But there were people on there who I didn't particularly know, but one was a sportsperson, one was a politician, one was an actor. And I was just looking at this show thinking this is amazing and so in my wheelhouse because it's about dancing. I got back to Sydney.
I spoke to Peter Meakin, who was the head of news at the time, and I said, you know what, I saw this show in the UK. I really think we should do it at seven and he went, oh, no, I think we've got the rights to it and I went, you're joking. He said, no, you should talk to Brad Lyons about it. So I called Brad.
Lions and he said, yes, all right, come and see me.
The dearly missed and sadly departed Brad who you know who went I think far too young. But Brad really didn't fill me with a lot of confidence. He kind of you know, there were a few expletives, and he basically said, I don't not sure why we're doing this, but we ah and it better work.
Krueger were his final words to me on that.
And then we went to start shooting the show. Shooting it, we were doing it live, we started rehearsing it. We didn't even get through a rehearsal. It was a disaster. There was no auto Q. Daryl worked with Q cards. What was written on those was illegible hieroglyphics, and so the whole thing was very free wheeling, as live as.
You could get.
And then I think when the numbers came in the next day, everybody was just gobsmacked. So, yes, I was lucky in that I ended up on a show in primetime that had a huge amount of viewers. And yet there was some bizarre and I don't want to sound completely woo about this, but you know, when the universe takes you in a certain direction, and I sort of feel like that happened with Dancing with the Stars.
You know, I had no idea that you had had that role and were responsible really for them green lighting it.
Had those conversations with Peter and Brad.
I don't think I was responsible for them green they had, they had green layout, but to actually then say, well, we have this property, let's actually put it together. Which was a similar thing that happened with Strictly Ballroom. Because I heard they were making that movie, I knew I would be involved because of my dancing background, so I asked for a role, and.
I think it does.
Sometimes you can sit back and wait for things to come, but if there's something that you're really passionate about, ask the question because you just never know where you might end up.
Surely you've got a big bunch of flowers or two, not just for being the co host of this massive, unexpected breakout hit, but also somebody that did say to Peter and Brad, hey, I think we should do it.
Well, I can't take the credit because I think they had already planned to do it. I just don't know how much confidence they had. I think it was one of those this is it was not it's a certainty, if you know what I mean. It was very much going to be we'll roll the dice and we'll see what happens. Every year, networks need to constantly refresh and evolve and bring in new product, and you know that's the job of our programmers, the people who go overseas every year and look at what's out there. And sometimes things don't work here, and sometimes they do, and they work for a very long time, like Dancing is it twenty year proposition, or shows like Idle, you know, have this incredible heritage the voice. These big global franchise shows I think live for a long time, and that's why they're very they're coveted by the networks and they're protected.
And they grow and they evolve over the years. They can go off air for a couple of years and then they'll come back on a different network or a different host. Which all the things that have happened in this twenty year period of Dancing with the Stars. You mentioned Darryl Sonya, So that's obviously Darryl Sommers, who was your co host there for the first few seasons, and as you say it was filmed live in Melbourne. Darryl very iconic, especially Melbourne personality. Over the years, you have had a few different co hosts, and doctor Chris Brown is your co host this year. Now, I did want to ask you about Chris because he is part of the extended Stellar family, like self is a Stellar columnist, being a previous guest here on something to talk about. He is going to be upstairs in the skybox when the contestants received their scores. And for the first time ever, Sonya, you are actually taking on the main hosting role.
Now a lot of people.
You're making me nervous.
Look, you had the whole show riding on your shoulders when it launch. If it hadn't worked in two thousand and four, Krueger, we told you, yes, right, you can.
Have doesn't work, you blame someone else there, and if it does work, it's all you.
Now.
Some people, myself included, would hear that and think, oh, thank goodness about time. I've actually written columns over the years saying if co hosts were moving on, how about Sonya Krueger just host the show full time. I've asked you about that over the years, and you've said no, no, I don't want to do that.
Like I like having my part of it.
So some people would say, great, this has been a gender role reversal twenty long years in the making.
Like a really progressive move.
Yeah, and that's not really the case. Is it something for you?
You've just thought, Okay, I've decided, I'm ready. What's happened, what's changed?
Well, I think for me, like I've hosted shows, big shows on my own, I've hosted The Voice and Big Brother. I think with Dancing with the Stars, I did have that.
All care, no responsibility.
I could be in the green room and kind of get away with murder in there.
But when Chris came on board, it was obvious that even.
From a practical perspective, being across the mechanics of a show, that I had a lot more experience in that regard.
And also Chris really.
Wanted to be able to come and have fun, you know, and just really have some fun. So the obvious place to do that is in the green room. So we thought, well why not. It doesn't it's you know, it's something people have said in the past that that should happen. And then we thought, okay, let's just do it this way and see how it goes.
I still get to have.
As much, if not more fun, because now I'm very close to those judges, and so it's almost more fun, I think, teasing them than some of.
The celebrities, you know.
So I've really enjoyed being able to be down on the floor and in amongst the action and talking to the dancers and performers and celebrities once they've finished, too, like cut off the press.
They've literally just on.
A routine, and I get to find out what the experience was like for them, talk to the judges, and then watch Chris and he makes me laugh with what he's doing upstairs in the green room. So we don't actually call it the green room anymore. It's the sky Lounge, or you know, it's had a few different names. We'll have to come up with a specific name for Chris.
Up next the gold Logi speech that stopped the Nation and the Therapist's advice that stops Sonya in her tracks.
You mentioned hosting other shows on your own, that's right.
You also, of course, are the host of The Voice, which will also be back with the new season a little bit later this winter. I understand that's been filmed. There's a few new coaches joining the show this year, Adam Lambert, Leanne Rhymes, Cape Miller Haike.
Can you spill a little bit of tea.
About working with some of those biggest names in music that you have worked with in your years hosting The Voice.
Oh, look, it's really quite surreal at times, because you'll be sitting there and I remember what I started, and I walked past Ricky Martin's chair, and Ricky smells amazing, to the point where I was like.
What's that colone you're wearing? Ricky? It's comte de.
And he is just one of the nicest, sweetest people, but just incredible to look at and to smell. I know that sounds very baby Reindeer of me, but he's divine. And then you've got people like CeAl, the Madden Brothers, Jesse j Kelly, Rowland, Boy George. You know, to have worked with all of those people is incredible. And then along comes Adam Lambert, who is just the epitome of glam rock. You know, he brings it.
He makes me feel like such a wallflower.
I've just spent four hours in hair and makeup and I look plain next to you Leanne Rhymes, who is just a door And I'll tell you why because we share a birthday, so where Soul Virgo sisters. I think that's what that's you know, as soon as I said we have the same birthday, she went, ah, I see you so yeah.
And Kate Miller hide Key to me.
Was just a complete surprise package because she's classically trained, she's had so much experience represented Australia at Eurovision. Is incredibly articulate, but also comes out of left field at times and you know you're you sort of raise your eyebrows and go, wow, did I just hear that?
Right?
So I think I think the audience will be really really surprised by the new lineup and getting to know those coaches.
All of this television that you've done over the last two decades, a lot of live TV. Not that many people in Australia have that many hours of live TV under their belt. That's something we talk about a lot with the hosts of the breakfast TV shows. Yes, because you really have to navigate anything could happen.
Yeah, they're the best.
And when you're in the country anchoring a show like a Dancing with the Stars, finale when it was being filmed live. If something is going to go wrong, you've really got to be thinking quickly on your feet. I'm curious, first of all, how your confidence has grown. Anyone that is working in any field, whatever it is, you feel like you start to really find yourself and realize that there's skills you've developed and honed that you're probably taking for granted, except when you look back and think, oh, I probably didn't know that five, ten, fifteen years ago. Absolutely, And the second part of my question, I suppose I mentioned that sort of fearlessness that I think that energy that you have always brought to your television work and your presenting work. Does knowing that you are prepared for anything to potend go wrong when you're anchoring live TV give you a certain agility And I don't know if fearlessness is the word, but just know I've probably really got this and in your real life, in your offscreen life.
Yeah, okay, which part of the question do I answer?
First?
I think the experience of doing it day in day out, and I came through a morning news program when I first started to and then onto primetime television. Making mistakes is really what is where you learn how you learn. And I try to instill this in Maggie, for example, my daughter, because I want her to understand it's okay to make mistakes. None of us are perfect. None of us can get it right one hundred percent of the time, and if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn from it. So and I think that's the thing. Oftentimes it seemed to me that the audience.
Enjoyed the mistakes too.
They didn't love you know, if the show was so slick it looked like it could have been pre recorded and edited and everything was just perfect, it kind of became a little boring, you know. They like that danger mouse aspect of live or as live television. So there is something to be said for experience. Definitely doing it, you know, year in, year out, does bring you a certain amount of confidence. And I think I learned too that when you look at a show and you come to a grand finale and you think, what's the worst thing that could happen here? And it happened to me on the voice one night. We had this full proof method of when it came to announcing the winner, the voice would be given to me in my ear from the producer and I would have it on a card to make sure that we had crosschecked.
It was all in hand.
And I never really liked to look at who the winner was on the card until just before, because I'm not a great actor and I didn't want to, you know, accidentally sort of look at somebody or they're quite paranoid if you were looking at them, and you don't want to give it away. So got to that moment, I said the winner the voice is. I looked at my card. The name was given to me in my ear and they were different. And in that moment, I really didn't know what to do, and there was nothing I could say because I couldn't say it well, I couldn't say.
Exactly, Hey, guys, you're being watched, you're being listened to, that's right, And so I signed, I paused. I think I may have touched my ear piece and sometimes that's a little bit of a sign. And so they repeated the name in my ear, still different from the name on my card, and I it was almost like the the whole room just stopped, and I think people were thinking, Wow, this is the longest dramatic.
Case the probably just say it, yes, just say it, and you know what I did. I probably shouldn't admit this, but at that moment, I took a punt on who I thought was going to win, and at that exact moment they realized in the control room something was wrong, and so they said the name again, and that's what we went with. So the name on the card was wrong and right.
And is that what you would have done? Is that what you were when you say there was a punt?
Yes?
Yeah, well yes, it was kind of like I have to pick one here and I don't know which way I'm going, but I'm going to go. I'm just and luckily for me, it just happened at the same time that they confirmed it again in my ear. So but that left me with some very sweaty palms. I can tell you it must have felt.
I don't know what the real time was.
It might have only been eight ten seconds, but it must have felt eight years.
Because I think it came after it was after the Sarah Murdock situation had occurred, and everybody was really afraid of making that mess.
Which is why they're like, foolproof, You've got the car and the go wrong.
That's right.
Yeah, So did that then when you got on the other side of that, did you As you say, you sometimes say to yourself, well, what's the worst that could go wrong?
Yeah, arguably the worst went wrong.
That's right.
I survive and everybody's survives, and I think that's the thing is also to keep it in perspective.
You know that nobody dies.
It's a television show, and it's a singing competition, or it's a dance in competition. You know, so these things it's entertainment, and really, you know, we just have to give ourselves a reality check from time to time that you know what if as long as we're having a good time, the audience will be having a good time with us, and mistakes will happen, and we probably just need to be a little kinder all round to ourselves and each other.
And that's that's good advice for life.
For life.
Let's talk a little bit about the Logis. You won Gold LOGI last year and you are nominated again this year. Congratulations in two categories, including Gold. You were not someone who instantly won Logis early in your career. You often have people that can be on really successful shows and for some reason aren't included in Logis, and then there'll be something ten twenty years later, and then you have people like Kylie Minogue where in that Scott and Charlene Era was just winning all of the logis all at once. So for you when you first got your first nomination, because it had been a few years in the making, what did it.
Mean to you?
You know, it was just incredible really because I had never personally been nominated for a LOGI.
The shows that I worked.
On had been so Dancing had been, The Voice had been, Big Brother had been, but I had never been nominated. I don't even think even when I first started out there was like a Best New Talent nomination.
So I just kind.
Of grew used to the fact that the shows would be nominated, and that was great because I think the other thing is to operate under the illusion that any of us as hosts really are white people tune in. They don't they come for the show, they don't come for us.
We hopefully facilitate a good time, you know, that's why we're there. So to get that.
First nomination and to have it be a Gold LOGI nomination was.
Just wow, this is all I need. This is the best prize ever.
And then of course you won, and you seem genuinely surprised.
Not you talked earlier, you don't think you're the best actor. We see it the Oscars where you do have the world's best actors, and there'll be someone and everyone knows that that person is going to win that.
Year, and then they will go, oh, what me. But for you, you.
Genuinely seemed surprised when your name was called last year as the winner of Gold, like.
I was, because to me, I just felt that Hamish is just that he's so lovable. Everybody loves Hamish, you know, and he'd won it so many years in a row. And I think that's the other thing too. You know, sometimes you get winners, multiple winners, they win over a couple of years, and like I said, just to be nominated in that group of people, I can't even explain what that is like too, because you know, somebody like Sean Mcaloff, who I think is a genius, I don't even feel worthy of being in the same group as someone like Sean Mcaliff, you know, so, And whether that is imposter syndrome or or I don't think it is.
I just think.
There are some very, very talented people out there, and sometimes it's weird to be included in that group.
So yeah, I was shocked. I was.
I was also slightly delirious because I've been going since about eight in the morning, because we've done the red carpet coverage and we've been shooting rooftop openers, and it was by this stage it was like midnight or something.
They go on a bit, yes, the old logies.
Yeah, can we tighten that up this year?
Well, your speech then, your acceptance speech actually made more headlines I think than anything else that happened all night.
You wrote about.
Italy, how brilliant it was.
Well, that's a matter of debate. Let's say you did write about.
It later in Stella you said, I've rewridden that acceptance speech in my head over and over again ever since.
To recap for people. You made a joke about Hamish.
You've mentioned fellow Gold LOGI nominee Hamish Blake, and.
I've joked with Hamish. Hamish and I have the same agent, Mark Clemens. He's here tonight and I said to him, I said, Mark, who did you vote for? Put him on the spot, and he was like, well, sonya, I think people are a little over Hamish and I went, no, Ma, surely not no, he's he's the odds on favorite.
To win, and he went no.
And frankly, I'm secretly hoping he'll leave the age and see so I can concentrate all of my efforts on you, Sonya.
I'm just kidding. Obviously Mark did not say that. I'm paraphrasing.
It was perceived to fall flat.
Hamish and I have the same manager, and he was sitting next to Hamish and I put Mark on the spot earlier in the day.
I said, who did you vote for? And we'd like to.
Tease Mark quite a bit, Oh, I'm sure, having Sonya.
And and we we've pranked him, we've teased him, we've done all sorts of things to him, and so I thought it would be funny to say, you know, frankly, Hamish, Mark didn't vote for you. He voted for me, and just between you and me, he's lost interest in you, like it might be best to find another agent.
That was where I was going.
But I think the audience was very tired and my delivery wasn't brilliant, So at that point I thought I just need to get off this stage now.
Well, Hamish was a guest on something to talk about just a couple of months ago, and we spoke about that moment and he said.
I know she's joking. I don't care for it. I didn't care for two seconds at like foolishly or not. I'd sometimes take like weeks off Instagram, so I just wasn't on social media. Like we finished the night and again, love that sonya one. She deserves it. It was great. So yeah, I was like, great, we can go home. Like I went home. I when cuddled my daughter in bed and I was actually sitting there thinking this is so nice. This is great. I get to like lie here, I don't have to I'm not doing media. I don't have to wake up in the morning and do the today Like there's again I'm very grateful for the honor when it happens, if it ever happens, but there is a silver lining to not having to do media in the next day. So I was just having a final time and then I didn't realize until probably a little bit later, like maybe late in the next day, and by that stage, like the new cyclic gone and I probably should have done the right thing. I was prepaty should have posted something and said I don't care about this at all, but I just wasn't paying attention to it, so unfortunately for something like the blowback happened. And then I can't remember she mailed me or I emailed her, but I kind of realized late that next day that she was copping heat for this, so I think I maybe emailed her.
And these things they play on your mind, and I did, and I know Hamish mentioned this too. I send him an email the next day or the day after, and I just said, look, I hope I didn't offend you, that I really was just trying to make a bit of a joke about this and tease Mark. And he wrote the sweetest email back to me, and that's you know why we love Hamish.
Plus you can give a good speech.
Did it take the shine off that goal for you?
I think I was expecting to feel this amazing happiness and joy and wanting to drink champagne and just have a really good time. But I was beating myself up. And this gets back to that concept of we can be very hard on ourselves. I think, and no matter what anybody else writes, I think I am my own worst critic and nothing anyone else wrote could make me feel worse than what I'm saying to myself in my own head. But luckily for me, you know, I have some really fantastic friends and family who started to point out a few things to me. They were like, you know what, Sonya, in how many years of the logo sixty nine to seventy years of the logis there's only you know, been sixteen female winners.
That's an achievement.
You know, you're one of sixteen women to take home the gold LOGI and it's yours and you deserve it. And you know, they were kind of pointing out all the things that you just mentioned to me, which was really lovely, and so yeah, I think it's an interesting thing. And I put this in the Stellar article. You know it did. It did bother me to the point where I spoke to someone about it because I couldn't stop berating myself internally. And I spoke to a psychologist who said, I don't watch much television, Sonya, but what I want you to do is I want you to practice being kind.
To yourself and practices sort.
Of kindness you employ with those young men you work with on beauty in the geek and I went, oh, you, that's Sophie Monk, and.
You know that put it all in perspective for me.
For a start, I felt very flattered because she's fifteen years younger than me, so thank you, I'll take that. Also, he was really embarrassed. This kind of lessened my embarrassment for some reason.
So yeah, there.
Was still good advice.
Though I need advice.
Okay, so the you know you're seeing someone that's getting their television shows that they're you know, glamorous, beautiful, blonde female host mixed up. But apart from that, it's actually still really good advice, isn't it to show yourself a bit more compassion?
And I wish I could promise that if there was to be a do over, and I don't expect that there will be at all, but if there was, I wish I could promise people an amazing speech, but I can't. I think I'd have to rely on chat, GPT or something to write it.
And coming up Sonya on what being a mother of a nine.
Year old is really like, I wanted to ask you about something else that you referred to in your columns, which is motherhood. You mentioned Maggie, your daughter, who is now nine. You write about her in a really self deprecating, refreshing but genuinely lovely way. It's very Sonya Krueger approach at nine? How is that age? And how is your relationship with Maggie evolving as she's nearing double digits?
I know, I know, nine and a half. It's crazy. She's obsessed with skincare, like most nine and a half.
Year olds are now at the moment, aren't they.
Yeah, it's really she makes me feel like, you know, I don't know what I'm doing at all, and she questions me about you know, what cleans are amusing? And so shift the shift between when they are you know, your babies to starting school and then the development from there is pretty rapid fire, isn't it for parents?
Happens so quickly? I mean, I know it's a cliche, but it does. You really see it?
You do?
It's a whole other era. Most with every birthday.
And what part of me, you know, I look back at photos like every mum and go.
Oh my gosh, look at her. There she was four and she was just a baby.
I also love the fact that now she and I can spend time just hanging out. You know, we'll have these amazing conversations and.
Just her curiosity about life in general.
And I remember nine specifically because it was when I discovered ballroom dancing. And I think at the age of nine and ten, you really start to find the things that you'd love and the things you're passionate about. And so I really want her to be passionate about tennis because I want to do circuit right.
Is she no cooperating? No?
No, I mean I'd like to go to Roland Garrison do the Grand Slam circuit.
But she's not. She's not.
Maggie's not falling, She's not picking up what I'm putting down. No, is there a plan? B?
Well, good question.
Strangely enough, Maggie is a very expressive person, and I feel she she's.
Got this natural of dramatic ability. I didn't have that.
I was a terrible actor, hence c strictly ballroom. But she actually has this really strong dramatic vibe. And I probably wouldn't advise her to become an actor because I think there's not a lot of job security there. It's often fraught within security. You know, she'd be better off probably going and doing a communications degree and becoming a journalist. She might she might have a bit more.
Solid Wow, maybe stick with skin care. Maybe she could become a science.
Or another profession lord, a dentist, you know, a doctor something. Yeah, maybe actually say lives that would be great. But yes, kids they find their own passion at that age, so I'm really kind of interested to see what that might be. I was joking, semi joking about the tennis thing.
You felt pregnant with Maggie when you were forty eight. Now, unlike some celebrity pregnancies, you were very open from the outset about the challenges that can come with conceiving at that age. Was that a conscious decision for you in being so transparent, not wanting to pedal false hope to other women.
I didn't want to mislead any other women out there and have them think, oh, it's a miracle. You know this happened, you know, absolutely naturally and there was no scientific intervention here, because I feel like that kind of happened to me. And maybe if I'd known that a little bit earlier, wouldn't have waited so long. I would have taken other steps. Now, the brilliant thing is women can freeze their eggs. That option wasn't available for me at that time. So my advice to a lot of women out there is, if you do want to kind of you know, have some security later in life to know that you can fell pregnant, just just freeze your eggs now. Do it now if you can. And also for those of us who couldn't do that or didn't have that option, to normalize the fact that families come in all different shapes and sizes, and whether your baby is adopted, you know, whether it's a blended family. No matter what it is, it's still your family, and it doesn't change the amount of love that you have in your heart.
I think it was really generous and important of you to be upfront about it.
Thank you.
I've actually had a lot of women over the years thank me because they've gone on to have their own families as a result of reading about my story, and I think if I've managed to help somebody else, that makes me feel good. The flip side of it is, it is very much up to the individual, and I think if somebody wanted and chose to keep that private, I think they should be totally.
Entitled to do that.
Maggie was born in twenty fifteen. You've also referenced a couple of times in your columns in a really beautiful way your beloved father, Adrian, who passed away that same year. It's a big question, Sonya, and I understand if you'd rather also not get into it, but can I ask you about navigating those twin experiences of new life your much long for daughter and then grief losing your much love father within such a close period of one another.
Yeah, it's not easy. I mean, I think the loss of a parent is always it's a really devastating thing to have to go through, and we all have to go through it.
This is the crazy part about it.
And somebody said to me once, it's like you become part of this club of people who've lost their dads, and only other people who've lost their dads understand what that feels like. Yeah, and luckily Mom is still alive. So you know, my mother's genes stretch well into the nineties and the hundred, so I'm hoping Mom's going to be around for quite a bit longer. Dad was a little bit on borrowed time. He'd been sick for about eight years, so we kind of knew that it was coming. And in a way, I feel like he held on to meet Maggie. I think he really wanted me to have a child. And that makes me so emotional actually even even talking about it, because I don't feel like he's gone. I feel like he's still watching over of course.
And he would be.
It is so lovely that he knew that what he longed for you had happened. Yeah, we talked a little bit about Maggie and you know, jokes aside what she might come to do when she's older. For a mother of a daughter, I'm a mother of two sons, by the way, so I don't have this experience. What would you hope for her in the world that you didn't have she grows through her twenties and thirties.
It's very important for me to make sure that Maggie understands the power of independence, and I think for women in general, it's integral to our security. And you know, we can be married, we can be in relationships. Sometimes those things don't last, and I see all too often women who end up in a situation where they're financially compromised, and this can.
Lead to all sorts of stress.
And that internal leads to health issues, and that really concerns me. So for me, I really would like to instill in her the importance of being financially and emotionally independent.
I'm trying to find the right words.
For this, because I would like for her to be confident enough to call out a situation if she didn't feel comfortable. And I think that's the thing. Maybe when I was growing up, you kind of just sort of, you know, it was less talked about, I guess, And the fact that we're even having these conversations now is a good thing, because if you don't feel comfortable, you need to be able to verbalize it, and you need to be able to verbalize it at the highest level. And so I want her to always feel that she can come to me or speak up if there is something that she doesn't.
Feel right about.
So those kinds of things I think bring to young women a certain agency, and that's what I would like to see going forward.
Something else I think that we talk about a lot at Stella and here on something to talk about that a lot of my guest feel is getting better for women is the visibility of women in all walks of life, but particularly in pop culture in Shock Horror over forty, because there was a time really not that long ago, when you know, you were like, oh, well she's had a baby.
Okay, well, good luck that you had a good career. Off you go.
Just turned thirty now, so should be moving behind the scenes now. So I have published multiple covers of you in my time as a magazine editor in chief, most of them at Stella, but one for instance, at Body and Soul a few years ago, where we answered the question where honestly, people were asking, how is Sonya Krueger so ageless?
We've talked a little.
Bit about the responsibility fair and unfair, that sits on women in the spotlight to help change these conversations the way that you did around being candid about issues of infertility, IVF struggles.
Egg donation.
Are you aware of what a beacon you've been for so many Australian women.
About honestly defying age.
No, but that's lovely, thank you. I mean, it's just you know what I'm stuck on. It's the word beacon because when I was a teenager and I'd hang out at the beach with my friends on the Gold Coast.
My hair was white blonde from being in the surf all the time, and I was very tanned because we did not have the whole kind of we weren't across the whole sun protection issue. And they used to call me the.
Beacon because I think because like I literally was glowing.
No, so whilightlight triggered.
Let's just try to don't dig those photos.
No, no, no, no, no, that's all right, but no, that's it's a massive compliment. They also see me after I've been through a fairly lengthy process with hair and makeup, and I certainly don't look like the way I look on television first thing in the morning at all.
I mean, it's all spoken miras to a degree, because we live in the Instagram filterage where everyone.
Has got capacity to that.
And in fact, I'm sure we talked about Maggie and that generation being into skincare. We also know by the time they're doing the year ten and Year twelve formals, they may all be getting ready for the Oscars. So it's not though as though everyone isn't playing around with that.
But I can I just say, I feel it's more attitude. I feel it's more internal than external, because you and I both know people who are probably younger than us, who come across as being more I want to say serious, responsible, not those words, but do you know what I mean? Probably honestly, at times I look at myself and I'm kind of like, Sonya, you need to grow up, you really do. I still feel the same way I felt when I was, you know, twenty five. So the question of optimism and pessimism comes into it. I've always been in a glass half full person. I've always been very optimistic about life, and I think.
Those sorts of attitudes will keep.
You young really, and a curiosity having fun, laughing with your friends, having a good time, you know that old saying. You know, life's not always a party, so you might as well dance while you're there.
It's all of that.
I think that really keeps us young, our attitude and less so, you know, we can work on the other aspects of it, but really, if you're like my dad was eighty, but he was when he died, but he was still had that twinkle in his eye and was very young at heart.
Also, of course, we're living longer, so where in our careers, in our personal life, you have people starting new jobs at a time where it was like, oh that that ship has sailed.
We don't accept that. Now people will.
Start new relationships, they'll start over, they'll move houses, they'll take big risks in their life. Were not accepting male or female that we have to pack up. And I think that's part of what this whole wider cultural thing. So I actually really agree with you. I think, yes, of course, you know we're not being disingenuous. We know there's a physical component to these conversations. But I do think so much of it is just actually thinking, well, why do I have to quote unquote grow up?
Yeah, well true, true, or grow old? And I think, you know, inevitably we do, but it's we have to choose how we want to age, I suppose, And I guess you know the fact that in our fifties we do tend to have this rebirth where were all of a sudden, you know, we're not going out clubbing, we're certainly not doing that. We're probably doing a bit of exercise, and we're thinking about what we're.
Eating, and we're not drinking as much as we used to.
So I think we do go through a bit of a health renaissance, and that that is the other thing. When we go through that renaissance, then often we'll go, oh, I might work on my look. I might change my hair, color up hair, or do something different or try a new fashion.
So yeah, now.
It's perfectly acceptable to do that, and to not for women in particular, I think become invisible with age.
I think invisible is the keyword, isn't it. It's just it's about visibility.
And as we always say, you can't be what you can't see, and we're seeing it, which makes us think that work could be it.
You can't be what you can't see.
I wanted to ask you about your partner, Craig, because you and Craig are not a high profile couple. You're obviously one of the most high profile women in the country, but you have never been on red carpets together. You don't post about each other on social media. We don't see those big, real posts on one another's birthdays, so there's no celebrity nickname for you. But of course, in April, Craig stepped down as Seven Networks Director of News and Public Affairs, which saw his name in the headlines as opposed to yours. And I wanted to ask you what that experience was like of suddenly as is very private couple, having his name out there as well, and what challenges if any, that presented for you as a.
Couple, well as a couple.
Really no challenge, because I think the one thing that Craig has always been for me and I for him is rock solid, you know, and in an industry that can be a little bit fickle at times, you'd need to have someone who you know is in your corner and has your back, and we certainly we are that person for each other, I guess, you know. The thing for Craig, He's had such an incredible career. He started as a copy boy on the mirror, you know, he worked his way up through the television ranks and really climbed the mountain to become like the head of news at Channel seven.
And that is a tough job.
It's a really really difficult job for anybody twenty four to seven.
There's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of stress that I think as an individual you absorb a lot of And the thing I.
Love about Craig as a boss that when he decided to resign and step down the messages of support that he got from his staff were so beautiful, and there were handwritten notes and cards, and I had phone calls from people, you know, And I think the thing is that Craig, you know, for a few years now, he's been saying to me, you know, he kind of he's not ready to retire, but he, I think needed to step back from such a demanding job, especially when we have a child who's nine and she requires his attention to at times, as do I. So it was just the timing was right for him to step out, take a break. And then I'm excited to see what comes next for Craig because he really is and I know I'm biased, but he really is one of the best in the business. He's had such a huge wealth of experience. He's been one of the you know, fairest fairest bosses, and he was my boss for a time there. He was tough, but very fair, and I think, you know, has you know, an amazing amount of integrity and a very very high ethical bar. So you know, I know that there'll be something, something fun that comes for Craig where he can actually maybe indulge a passion even which is sport so who knows.
With Craig, it could be.
Maybe tennis dad. Do you know maybe maybe.
I think he's a bit more NRL and cricket right, Yes, okay, maybe maybe he should get into ten My final question, I actually wanted to go back to nineteen ninety two when you tore up the dance floor in a costume made of fruit as Tina Sparkles in Strictly Boreroom. Jia Corettes was recently in Stella and she told us she still gets approached by people. Do you still get approached about it?
You know, it's really funny.
People have so much affection for the movie, and I think it came at a time when Australian film.
Was really kind of taking off.
I think we had Muriel sweating Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Strictly Ballroom, and we were getting a lot of international attention. And it was this little homegrown movie that cost you know, a couple of million dollars to make, but it had huge international success therefore, and I think the story was so heartwarming.
People really loved all of those characters.
I read Jea's interview that you did because I love hearing from the other cast members to see what their experiences are like. In the fact that she was saying, would be awesome if Baz did a sequel, and yes, I'm all for it too. I think it would be a great, a great thing to see, just to just to basically catch up with the whole cast.
You know Stephen Grace, you know the guy who played the Little Boy.
Oh, yes, how he would be obviously a grown man.
He's a grown man. He's doing Chicago at the moment in Sydney. I bumped into him literally on Monday, just gone. So yeah, it's quite a quite an it's a phenomenon that film, I think in terms of Australian culture.
So yeah, it's nice to be. It's still nice to be.
People sometimes get nervous, like, oh do you not like people bringing it up?
I love it when people bring it up.
It's nice to have something that is still so loved and is a completely uncomplicated, unproblematic part of the cultural landscape. Again, let's go back to nineteen ninety two. What advice would you give yourself starting off on this fascinating career that's gone down all these paths, some that you could never predicted as you were saying earlier not to get woo woo about it, but moments that you have probably manifested, moments that you've stumbled into, and that advice you would give yourself, how will that take you into whatever the next big adventure is for you?
You know, I think for me.
What advice would I give myself? Well, surround yourself with the best people you can possibly find, and don't ever be afraid I think of doing that.
I think sometimes people maybe.
Maybe maybe like because I'm a bit of a collaborator though when I work, I like to work with other people. I like to brainstorm ideas. I like to know that you know that this person is a great writer, or this person is fantastic with hair and makeup, and this person knows how to lighter shoine, this cameraman is the best in the business.
You know.
Surround yourself with great people and you will automatically be elevated with them. And that's obviously something that you can't necessarily choose to do. That comes after a period of time. I guess where you've been in the business for a little bit longer. When you're starting out, find as many learn as much as you possibly can, and often work. Experienced kids will come to me and they'll say, you know, how do I get your job? And I'll say you go and start start shooting stories, writing stories, Learn how to edit, learn how to write a short form story, a longer form story.
Look at the.
Pictures, find your own music for the track. Just be as creative as you possibly can be. Learn about promos, learn about marketing, try and learn as much as you can about the business. And I think that will I'll take you forward and stand you in good stead, because it's not enough these days to just kind of be a presenter.
You can't.
That's just a very one dimensional way to look at it. So be multi dimensional.
Multi dimensional.
I love it sounds like you've always been multi dimensional though, like I said, I didn't know that you were someone that really helped galvanize a few people at the network to have that entity they had in Dancing with the Stars and actually get it on air on two thousand and four.
I mean multi dimensional work there.
Thank you, Sarah.
Sonya Krugad, Thank you so much for coming into the studio to talk to me today. It's been really lovely to speak to you.
Lovely to talk to you too, And.
I hope you'll be able to make something of this that's slightly better than my Logi's speech.
Well, I was going to say good luck at the logis, because whatever happens, I cannot wait to watch. Dancing with the Stars. Premiere is Sunday, July seven on Channel seven and seven plus. And if you've enjoyed this episode, then make sure you're following us because I'll be back with another exclusive guest, maybe even two. Now there's a big hint on something to talk about next week.