Sunshine Coast councillor, Chris Thompson, and his wife Jane, welcomed their fourth child and first son on December 2, weighing 3.8 kg. They have named him Matthew Ian, and Matthew arrived on his due date, at 7.50 pm after a brief labour, and shortly before his parents’ sixth wedding anniversary.
Matthew Thompson joins big sisters Seanna, aged 5; Ella, nearly 4; and Mary, aged 21 months. The girls are “smitten” with their “early Christmas present”, and keep “poking and prodding” their new brother. The Thompsons don’t plan on having any more children.
The Thompsons chose the name Matthew because they liked it, and Ian is Councillor Thompson’s father’s name. They considered Thomas, but didn’t like the idea of people calling him Tommy, and also Joseph – but having a Mary and a Joseph in one sibset didn’t seem feasible.
Chris Thompson has been a Councillor since 2004, and holds the portfolio of Financial Management and Business Unit Performance.
We’ve missed several weeks of celebrity sibsets, so today we will make up for it with a group of sibsets from some mothers in the public eye who have to juggle a busy working life with an often equally busy family life.
Peta Mantzarapis
Power-mum Peta is managing director of Maloney Field Services, a property consulting company for petroleum and natural gas companies. Just in case this wasn’t enough, to fill in her spare time she runs the children’s fashion label, Sebastian and Sienna, with her sister. Last year she won the Telstra South Australian Young Businesswoman of the Year Award.
She has a flexible workplace, and an accommodating helpful husband called Sam, but she’s still taken babies to boardrooms, had them asleep under her desk, tried to look cool in a meeting even though she’s just cleaned vomit off her car, and opened her briefcase to find it’s filled with toy cars and fairy wands.
Peta and Sam have two daughters called Sienna, aged 4, and Evangeline, aged 2; Evangeline is called Evie in everyday life. It’s a pretty, popular and girly sibset, and shows that owners of kid’s clothing labels do often use their own children’s names as inspiration.
Amanda Blair
Amanda is a radio presenter on 5AA, doing the 1-4 pm shift on weekdays. Before she had children, she says that she was completely disorganised and just did things to suit herself; now she runs on a tight schedule to military precision. Work is her “saviour”, as every afternoon she gets “adult time” where she can chat to other grown ups and have cups of tea.
She says it’s not possible to continue the life you had before children as a parent, and what she most misses is her friendships, which are often maintained with a brief phone call each month. Even though she has a nanny, her life still feels so “crazy” she wants to punch childless people in the face when they say they’re busy. However, she loves every second of it.
Amanda and her husband Michael Farquarson have four children, which they planned on a rigorous “breeding roster” for fear they would have trouble conceiving due to their age. Amanda considered herself completely non-maternal, but once she had one child was “hooked”, and immediately needed more of them, finding motherhood the best thing ever.
Their kids are Sidney (Sid), aged 7; Ginger, aged 5; Frank, aged 3; and Nancy, aged 2. Sidney is a boy and Ginger is a girl, in case you are wondering (see The Name Agender’s entry on Ginger for more information). It’s a lovely no-nonsense Australian sibset with Depression-era chic; there’s a school of thought that you can’t have famous couples’ names as siblings, but here we have a Sid and a Nancy! I’m not sure if it reminds anyone else of Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen; their self-destructive relationship was depicted in the film Sidand Nancy. Sid Vicious’ real name was John, however.
Rosanna Mangiarelli
We’ve seen celebrity mum Rosanna on the blog already; she’s the presenter of Channel 7’s current affairs show, Today Tonight. Out of all the mums interviewed, she seems the most conflicted about balancing career and motherhood, admitting to sobbing after dropping her daughter off at childcare. She only had 8 weeks maternity leave after having Emma, and is adamant that she needs more time off with the next baby.
She has Emma, aged 2 and a half, and as we know, she went on to have Olivia last month. Two Top 10 girls names that have been popular for a long time – both began rising in popularity during the 1970s and ’80s and were Top 20 by the 1990s. I get the feeling that Rosanna had these names picked out well in advance.
Niki Vasilakis
Niki is an award-winning concert violinist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, was named Young South Australian of the Year in 2007, is Youth Patron of the Adelaide Festival Centre, and had her first baby around a year ago. Being a performer, she couldn’t afford to have a lot of time off to have a baby, and was back at work within three weeks: she did her normal music practice the day she gave birth.
It’s been very challenging and she has had to make a lot of sacrifices, but she credits her “amazing husband” and “big Greek family” for providing her with “unbelievable support”. Her big tip? Don’t wear a satin gown to perform in while breast feeding.
Niki’s baby daughter is named Amarie-Rose. Amarie is one of those modern names that are hard to say where they originated from; it looks like a contraction of Anne-Marie, and that’s usually how it is understood.
(Story and photo from Sunday Mail, November 5 2011; photo shows Amanda Blair with her four children)
Kasey Chambers has impeccably authentic country music roots. When she was only a few weeks old, her father, guitarist Bill Chambers, and her mother Diane took her and her two-year-old brother Nash to the Nullarbor Plain. It was meant to be a working holiday shooting foxes and rabbits, but the holiday lasted for ten years. Kasey grew up wandering the desert with her nomadic parents. They slept in the open air, or in the back of the family Landcruiser; each night under the stars, Bill would sing country songs to them around the campfire.
When the ten year “holiday” came to an end, the Chambers family moved to a fishing village in South Australia so that Bill and Diane could resume their interrupted music careers, and Kasey and Nash could attend school with children their own age. Back in civilisation, with mod cons like radio and TV, Kasey discovered Top 40 music and was soon rocking out to Mötley Crüe and Metallica – but those formative years spent listening to her dad sing songs by Hank Williams and the Carter Family left their mark on her.
Bill and Diane began playing in pubs and clubs again and before long they became a group, as first Kasey, and then Nash, joined their parents on stage. They called themselves The Dead Ringer Band, as Nash and Kasey resembled their parents so closely. During her teens, Kasey not only gained experience as a performer, but also began writing songs. Nash built his own studio so that he could produce the band’s albums (he is now a full-time music producer). The Dead Ringer Band put out seven albums, won three ARIAs, two MOs and seven Golden Guitars during the 1990s.
After Bill and Diane separated, the band took a long break. When EMI tried to sign them and found the band were no longer together, they were happy to sign Kasey as a solo artist instead. She and Diane took a trip to Africa, and there she wrote many of the songs for her first album, The Captain. The Captain was recorded on Norfolk Island, her mother’s new home, with her dad playing guitar and her brother producing. The album went double platinum, and Kasey went on to win ARIAs for Best Country Album and Best Female Artist. On the back of her success, she toured the US as a support act to Lucinda Williams, and supported Emmylou Harris on her Australian tour.
The Captain was a good start to Kasey’s solo career, but her next album, Barricades and Brick Walls, made her a country pop star. Not only did the album go seven times platinum, but her single “Not Pretty Enough” went double platinum. She is the only Australian country artist to have a #1 single and a #1 album in the charts at the same time. She won ARIAs for Album of the Year, Best Country Album and Best Female Artist.
In 2005 Kasey married singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson; they met in the early 2000s when Kasey’s brother Nash produced Shane’s critically-acclaimed album It’s a Movie, for which Kasey and Shane performed a duet. In 2007, Kasey and Shane welcomed their first child together, Arlo Ray – he is named after folk musician Arlo Guthrie, and Ray is the name of Shane’s father.
Kasey already had a four-year-old son from a previous relationship to actor Cori Hopper, and although Cori may not have been the perfect partner for her, they were compatible enough as baby-namers to both come up with the name Talon for their son independently. Kasey is a fan of songwriter Fred Eaglesmith, and Cori was a supporter of the West Coast Eagles football team, so Talon made sense to both of them. Talon was declared one of the worst celebrity baby names in a Brisbane newspaper, and an elderly woman told her the name was “horrible” – luckily Kasey just found this hilarious.
To continue the family tradition, Talon Hopper is already writing his own songs, and has his own band, called The Little Hillbillies, of which Arlo is also a member. Others in the band are Nash’s children Eden, Béla and Skye, and Bill Chamber’s kids from his new relationship, called Tyler and Jake. Rounding it out is Townes Werchon, the son of Kasey’s best friends Worm and Bernadette. The band has brought out an album called Little Kasey Chambers, Poppa Bill and The Little Hillbillies. Kasey says it is a “politically incorrect” children’s album (I think that means it has songs about poo on it). The album was nominated for the ARIA for Best Children’s Album in 2010, but lost to The Wiggles’ Let’s Eat! I hope that wasn’t about poo, anyway.
And now Kasey and Shane have added their baby girl, Poet Poppin, to this big crazy musical extended family. I am just so happy to have Miss Poet Poppin Nicholson as my last celebrity baby name profile for the year, because she is a name-blogger’s dream. She’s exactly what people want from a celebrity baby name – something original, slightly outrageous, fun, fresh and lyrical.
Poet because she is the daughter of two songwriters, and Poppin was chosen by her big brothers – because she kept “poppin’ around” in Kasey’s womb before she was born. Add another celebrity trend to the mix: baby names chosen by their siblings. If all the digits on both my hands were thumbs, I still wouldn’t have enough to give as many thumbs up as I’d like.
She says, “I was at home babysitting a friend’s one-year-old son along with my two boys. It was one of those chaotic days with kids running around and having lots of fun while this song was coming out. And that’s what it felt like that day – a beautiful mess. That’s what parenting constantly feels like. It’s specifically written for Arlo and Talon, who are the most important things in my entire life. I love them, and I have an outlet to show them that through songs.”
That’s kind of how I see Kasey’s naming style: it’s kind of a mess, but boy, it’s just beautiful.
Current affairs host Rosanna Mangiarelli, and her husband, television producer Andrew Oborn, welcomed their second daughter on November 22, named Olivia Rose. Olivia Oborn was born weighing 3.2 kg (7 pounds 1 ounce). Olivia joins big sister Emma Marie, who is nearly three. Emma suggested the name Rapunzel, which has been covered on Bewitching Names, but although being named by your sibling is a new celebrity trend, her wishes were ignored.
Rosanna is the host of Channel 7’s Today Tonight, and Andrew is a producer at Channel 10.
(Story from The Advertiser, November 23 2011; photo from The Advertiser, February 12 2009, photo shows Rosanna and Andrew with Emma)
Former hockey champion Bianca Pritchard, and her husband Michael, welcomed their fourth child around February this year – a boy named Sebastien. Sebastien joins older siblings Oliver, aged 8; Oscar, aged 6; and Stella, aged 4.
Bianca, then Bianca Langham, was selected for the national hockey team in 1994, and was a member of the 1996 and 2000 Olympic training squads. In 1998 she won gold in both the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup, where she scored the wining goal over the Netherlands. She was recently voted #18 on a list of greatest Tasmanian sportspeople. She and her husband were married in December 2000.
Bianca suffered from postnatal depression after the birth of Oliver and found it hard to adjust to life as a mother. However, she’s now very happy, and so comfortable with motherhood that the whole family went on a caravan trip around Australia when Stella was only a few days old.
She recently launched a Bubs and Bubbles mothers social group in Hobart to combat social isolation amongst mothers of young children. Any money raised by the group will go to the Royal Hobart Hospital Paediatric Unit.
(Story and photo from The Mercury, November 2 2011)
Lawn bowls champion Stacey Collier, and her partner, welcomed their third child at the start of the year; a girl named Indiana. Indiana joins older siblings Bailey, aged 7, and Declan, aged 4.
Stacey has played for Australia, and also for her home state of Victoria. Tomorrow will be her first Victorian Open. Last week Stacey won the Mooroopna Club Championship, after only three weeks back playing sport after the birth of Indiana.
Craig Dontas, who drives for Thirsty Camel Racing, and his wife Renee, welcomed a baby boy in March, named Zac Michael. Zac joins big brother Samual. Zac Dontas has already been mentioned on the blog, in the entry Boys Names That Only Chart in Australia.
Grant Johnson, the reigning V8 Ute champion, and his wife Belinda, welcomed a baby boy in June, named Elliot. Elliot joins big sister Amanda. Grant and Belinda apparently allowed themselves the full 60 days after Elliot’s birth to choose a name, and Belinda stipulated the name couldn’t start with the letter J, or “sound like a NASCAR driver”. The interviewer pointed out there is actually a NASCAR driver named Elliot – Elliot Sadler.
(Photo is of Craig Dontas with his eldest son, Samual).
Hugh Jackman is an acclaimed actor of stage and screen, has won many awards, and been voted “Sexiest Man Alive” in popularity polls. He is often put forward as a shining example of the nice ordinary family man – the type who could be welcoming you to the neighbourhood by putting on a barbie and offering you free tickets to the footy, except he can’t because he happens to be a big movie star. While women vote him as their preferred choice of dream hunk, Australian men rate him as the celebrity who best embodies the spirit of the modern Aussie bloke.
Yet if things had gone just a little differently, Hugh Jackman might have been a dancer instead of an actor, and wouldn’t have been an Australian either. (I guess it’s still possible he might have been sexy though). Hugh’s parents were English emigrants, and he was only their second child to be born in Australia. His parents divorced when he was eight, and his mother returned to England, while he and his siblings remained in Sydney with their dad.
After a teacher praised his dancing skills and suggested he undergo professional training, he was all set to become a dancer, until his older brother told him that was for “poofs”. Hugh describes himself as the “ten minute Billy Elliot“, because this childish comment convinced him to drop the idea of dance study for fear of his manliness being eroded.
His brother apologised for his comment, and as soon as he did, Hugh enrolled in tap class – however, by that time he was already grown up, and it was sadly far too late for him to become a professional dancer. (Much later, he got to dance his heart out in the stage musical, The Boy From Oz, playing the role of, in some bizarre fulfilment of his brother’s taunt, the gay Australian composer, Peter Allen).
Hugh enjoyed drama so much at university that he ended up studying acting in Sydney and Perth, even though he considers himself to have been the “dunce of the class”. Yet his period of unemployment as an actor lasted exactly thirteen minutes, as he was offered a lead role in TV prison drama Corelli on the night of his graduation ceremony. Corelli was a huge flop, but Hugh met actress Deborra-Lee Furness on the show, and two years later they were married, in 1996.
Hugh personally designed Deborra-Lee’s engagement ring, and their wedding rings had the Sankrit inscription Om paramar mainamar, meaning “We dedicate our union to a higher source”. Hugh has been a member of The School of Practical Philosophy since his student days; this organisation teaches a blend of Eastern and Western thought and spirituality, and Hugh practices yoga and meditation.
Hugh’s acting career went from strength to strength, as he worked on stage, film and television. He became known outside Australia in 1998 when he played the lead role in Oklahoma! in London’s West End, earning an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. His Hollywood break came the following year, when he was offered the role of Wolverine in the X-Men movie. Deborra-Lee advised him not to take this role; she is now extremely glad that he ignored her suggestion.
Successful acting career? Check. Beautiful wife? Check. Happy marriage? Check. Meaning of life? Check. Everything was going brilliantly for Hugh and Deborra-Lee, except for their dreams of parenthood.
They had originally planned to have children naturally, and then adopt, but it turned out that they needed IVF, and then Deborra-Lee suffered two miscarriages. Hugh and Deborra-Lee tried to adopt, but found the process so fraught with difficulty that they moved to the United States in order to have children. Deborra-Lee is still very critical of how strict the adoption laws are in Australia.
They adopted a boy in 2000, who they named Oscar Maxmilian, and in 2005 adopted a girl who they named Ava Elliot. They had always planned on having a large family, but the reality of them both being busy and travelling a lot meant that it wasn’t practical. If you’ve ever taken a baby and a toddler on a plane, you would understand why the idea of adding several more kids to the mix didn’t seem like a good one – Hugh still remembers carrying a restless Oscar up and down the aisle of a plane “about 150 times“. He says the flight attendants thought it was sweet for the first 50 times. Oscar and Ava are both experienced travellers now.
Hugh says of being a father: “The love for your children is so powerful. It’s different from the love for your partner. You can’t believe you have that capacity – you’d do anything for them and not even think about it … Kids are the greatest joy. No matter what’s going on in the day, you can walk in that front door and it all goes away.”
Oscar and Ava are very popular names, and were already Top 100 in Hugh’s native New South Wales the years the children were adopted. There are lots of kids with these names, and I’m sure Hugh and Deborra-Lee chose them because they, like hundreds of other parents, just loved them.
However, I can’t helping feeling that they seem to have a Hollywood flavour to them. Is it just me, or does it seem peculiarly apt that a movie star would have a son named Oscar? Especially one who has hosted the Oscars? (Several years after Oscar was born). Ava of course is best known as the name of Hollywood screen legend Ava Gardner; I don’t know whether her middle name is in any way a nod towards the Billy Elliot that the young Hugh Jackman wished to be.
(Photo of the Jackman family visiting Disneyland from The Daily Telegraph, April 24 2009)
Motocross champion Jay Marmont, and his wife Abby, welcomed their son Jax Robert on November 3. Jax Marmont was born at 8 am, 8.2 pounds in weight and 51 cm in length. Jax has an older sister named Lila Emma who passed away two years ago today.
Jay’s younger brother Ryan Marmont, and his fiancee Chelsea, welcomed a daughter named Indigo Grace in September. The birth of cousins Jax and Indigo was announced on the MotoOnline.com.au website.
This weekend, both Jay and Ryan will continue their Super X campaigns at Campbelltown Stadium. Jay is currently fifth in the Pro Open standings, while Ryan is seventh in his rookie season.
Chrissie Swan is an example of one of those few people that you can point to and say that reality television was a force for good in their life. Without exaggeration, you can say that reality television has changed her life for the better. Without reality television, Chrissie would not be a celebrity, and although she may well have had babies otherwise, they would not now be covered in an article on celebrity baby names.
Once upon a time, Chrissie was a real estate copywriter in Melbourne, when she decided to apply as a contestant for the third series of Channel 10’s Big Brother. Her friends were all fans of the show, and she thought it would be funny to think of them watching in bewilderment as she entered the Big Brother House. The producers said they chose Chrissie for her “intelligence, wit, integrity, and intriguing sense of the absurd”.
The producers showed they were on the money, as Chrissie proved popular with both the other Housemates, and the public. She won great support for standing up to the show’s “villain”: arrogant, boastful and slightly corrupt ex-policeman, Ben Archbold, and by doing so, proved that she wasn’t just a nice person, she also had the strength of character to not allow herself to be bullied. (In case you were wondering, Ben Archbold is now a high-profile criminal lawyer, so don’t worry, Chrissie’s feistiness didn’t mentally destroy him or anything).
Much to her surprise, Chrissie was released on Day 86 (July 21 2003) as the runner-up to Regina “Reggie” Bird; it was the first time a woman had won the show, and the first time a woman was runner-up (it was the only series where both winner and runner-up were female).
Chrissie attempted to return to her normal life, but found it impossible to continue as a real estate copywriter – she was too famous. Instead of showing her around their houses for 10 minutes so that she could go away and describe them alluringly, people wanted her to tell them all the inside goss on Big Brother, look at the family photo albums, and talk to their aunty on the phone. Her attractive personality meant that people saw her as a friend, and a visitor to their home rather than as a professional; and as a good friend, they expected her to stay for at least 2 hours. Her business was in tatters.
Three days after leaving the Big Brother House, she was offered a job in breakfast radio on the Sunshine Coast, and moved to Queensland in September. She worked hard at learning how to be a good presenter, and in 2005, she and her co-hosts won the Best On-Air Team from ACRA, since the ratings for their slot were almost double that of any other station on the coast. When she moved back to Melbourne, Chrissie got a job doing breakfast radio at Vega in Melbourne, until she and her co-hosts got the sack during Vega’s (now Classic Rock 91.5) notorious cost-cutting exercise.
In a clear case of one door opening as another closes, last year Chrissie was offered the chance to co-host a new morning chat show on Channel 10 called The Circle. It was a gamble having an all-female panel on a television show, especially as The Catch Up, an attempt to copy US show TheView, was axed from a rival channel after just a few months.
Not surprisingly, Chrissie was nervous about her gig on a new show in an untried format that everyone said seemed awfully risky. But she and her co-hosts rose to the challenge, and the show became a success. The premise of the show was that the women would never be bitchy or create staged conflict; it would be four women having a chat together like friends, and anyone who came on their show would join this circle of friends, and the audience would also be made to feel as they were friends with everyone as well.
It was so entertaining being a guest on The Circle that some celebrities were willing to pay their own way to be on the show. Chrissie got to meet stars like Jerry Hall and Elmo; she cooked with psychic John Edward and cuddled Meatloaf; she sang Stop in the Name of Love with a Supreme and TotalEclipse of the Heart with Bonnie Tyler; and she felt up Kim Kardashian’s bottom. Lily Tomlin refused to give interviews when she came to Australia, but insisted on guest-hosting on The Circle, because she had heard about it in America and wanted to be part of the fun (nobody touched her bottom though).
Chrissie gained such popularity with her audience that in April, she was nominated for three Logie Awards – Most Popular New Female Talent, Most Popular Presenter, and the Gold Logie, given to the most popular TV personality overall. While Chrissie’s head was spinning at this unexpected news, pundits on social media and talkback radio questioned how this “nobody” from a show with only 70 000 viewers could have been nominated for the top award, and darkly hinted that the voting must have been rigged.
Long-time media presenter Eddie Maguire used his breakfast show on Triple M to attack Chrissie, suggesting that people might have voted for her, in the same way that children will vote for “the dumb kid” as class captain in order to irritate the teacher. Chrissie stood up against this onslaught as she stood up to Ben Archbold, and refused to buckle to the bullies.
Chrissie’s fans were quick to defend her, saying that they had nominated her because she was intelligent, funny, warm, genuine and compassionate. People who had never voted for the Logies before said they had to this time, because at last here was someone on TV who brightened each day with their sunny smile; someone fresh and natural and honest; someone that ordinary Australians could relate to. In fact, her fans felt that Chrissie was their BFF, and you always stick up for your friends, right?
In the end, Chrissie won the Logie for Most Popular New Female Talent, and Karl Stefanovic from breakfast TV show, Today, won Most Popular Presenter and the Gold Logie – which started up the whole voting debate again, but that’s another story.
Chrissie met her partner Chris Saville through Big Brother; he was part of the crew, and because she calls him “The Chippy”, I’m guessing he was one of the set builders. Chrissie and Chris had a son named Leo in November 2008, and Chrissie, who has always been a big girl, gained 55 kg (121 lb) during her pregnancy.
Hoping to become pregnant again, she had a very public campaign to shed the extra kilos through healthy diet and exercise which won her even greater public sympathy, and the resulting weight loss had the desired effect – she got pregnant almost immediately. During her second pregnancy she stuck to her eating plan, and was happy to report that she only gained 4 or 5 kg (around 10 lb), and was back to her pre-pregnancy weight within a few weeks of giving birth.
Chrissie and Chris named their second son Kit, which as a male name is usually taken as a pet form of Christopher – very appropriate for the child of a Chris and a Chrissie. A famous Australian Kit is Arnold Christopher “Kit” Denton, the novelist who wrote The Breaker, about Breaker Morant, and the father of comedian and television presenter Andrew Denton. Baby rabbits are called kits, which makes it seem very cuddly. Chrissie’s surname of Swan is used as the middle name for both her sons; a charming modern custom which gives Kit Swan Saville a double animal name.
I must confess that I’ve never really liked the name Kit, but you know how sometimes you don’t like a name much, and then a good friend uses it for their child? And then you see it on a real baby, and gradually like it more and more, and eventually you end up liking it heaps. That’s how it was for me – once I saw it on baby Kit and got a real feel for it, it seemed like the perfect name for him. It’s so cute and chipper, and a brilliant match with Leo – two three-letter names that both refer to animals. I love it! A thoroughly converted thumbs up!
Dave Hughes, affectionately known as “Hughesy”, is a comedian who always seems to be described as “laconic”. “Laid-back” and “dry” are two other popular words used to describe his style of comedy. American audiences are, according to him anyway, fascinated by his broad accent, and US comedian Seth Rogen has said that he would turn gay for Hughesy (I presume he meant this in a light-hearted jocular sort of way, rather than a tortured confession of uncontrollable lust).
The odd thing is, Dave Hughes isn’t particularly laconic or laid-back – he has plenty to say for himself, and he admits to being an insecure teeth-grinder. According to his profile on Twitter, he has an addictive personality and will be checking for replies to his posts in an OCD-like way. In his act, he pretends to be lazy and careless, but is relentlessly ambitious. He portrays himself as an academic failure whose education consisted of being hit around the head by the Christian Brothers, but he was Dux of his school the year he graduated.
A man of contradictions, he is a teetotaller and doesn’t eat meat (except fish) for his health, but he hates vegetables, loves sugar, and (according to his Twitter posts) seems to be ill quite a lot. He meditates and reads self-help books, but still appears anxious and irritable. He appears on the customary left-wing comedy shows, but strikes me as a social conservative. Despite his working class rural background, ocker accent, and endless wardrobe of man-of-the-people shirts, he’s a multi-millionaire living a celebrity lifestyle.
A stand-up veteran, he has appeared on radio and television for many years. Currently he co-hosts the breakfast radio programme, Hughesy and Kate, with Kate Langbroek, on Nova 100. He is also co-host of Channel 10’s light entertainment current affairs TV show, The 7PM Project, with Charlie Pickering and Carrie Bickmore.
He married Holly Ife, a reporter with the Herald Sun, on New Year’s Eve 2006 at Flemington race track. Hughesy tends to portray his wife as both bossy and long-suffering. Dave and Holly have two children. Their son Rafferty David was born in April 2009, and their daughter Sadie May was born in April this year. (Dave got the giggles while she was being born).
Rafferty is “on trend” here, as names beginning with Raf-, such as Rafael and Rafi, are very much in vogue. It has a particular flavour in Australia, due to the old-fashioned slang, “Rafferty’s rules”, to describe a state of lawlessness. This was also the name of a police drama in the 1980s, starring popular actor, John Wood. More Australian-ness: Chips Rafferty was an iconic Australian movie star from the 1940s and 50s; and Rafferty’s Garden is a company which makes baby food.
Sadie is starting to become fashionable here, following recent North American trends. For many years it was in the no-go zone, thanks to Johnny Farnham’s hit single, Sadie the Cleaning Lady, but does now seem to considered more usable. The Canadian kid’s TV show, Naturally Sadie, has probably helped. Christina Applegate’s daughter, Sadie Grace, was born just three months before Sadie Hughes.
Keen-eyed starwatchers may have noticed a coincidence in the Hughes’ family names – English film star Jude Law has a son named Rafferty, and for several years was married to actress and designer Sadie Frost. I presume this was unintentional, rather than some sort of homage to Mr. Law.
Rafferty and Sadie are a sibset with strong Australian associations; the names are shabby-chic, and have already been road-tested by overseas celebrities. I can definitely see the names Rafferty and Sadie gaining in popularity in the next few years.
Dave discusses fatherhood on chat show, Rove, in 2009:
Waltzing More Than Matilda 