Brown is excited about the idea of having a second career. Photo/Dean Purcell.
Brown is excited about the idea of having a second career. Photo/Dean Purcell.
Welcome to the second season of the Herald’s dating podcast: It’s A Date. Join Herald dating columnist Lillie Rohan as she takes notable Kiwis on a fantasy date, finding out about their relationships and love lives along the way.
Jaquie Brown has come a long way since we first fell in love with her on Space 23 years ago.
She’s hosted her own show, The Jaquie Brown Diaries, got married, had two children, wrote two books and now she has two feature films in development in Hollywood and is starring in the new Three show, Blow Up.
Yet despite the star’s successful career, she admits it hasn’t been plain sailing and her confidence has only recently reached a high.
“I’ve only felt like I could be my beautiful self as an adult woman, it’s taken me a really long time to actually feel confident or feel beautiful,” she says crediting the change in perspective to getting older, getting more comfortable with herself and really settling into who she is.
That, and a decision she made in support of her late sister-in-law.
Jacquie Brown has been working steadily behind the scenes on a screenwriting career. Photo / Dean Purcell
Shave for a Cure
Brown’s signature white hair is all part of her iconic persona but the star explains she only chose to let her natural hair free after she shaved her head in solidarity with her late sister-in-law who was battling cancer.
Sick of looking in the mirror at the hair salon every three weeks and spending mass amounts of money dying her hair she thought to herself, “This is ridiculous,” and decided to do something meaningful and shave her head for charity.
“It was good to raise money to go towards a cause that meant something to our family,” she said before revealing she would do it all again. “We’re watching Stranger Things at the moment and Eleven has her head shaved and my daughter’s like, ‘Hmm, interesting’, And I’m like, ‘Hmm, Interesting’,” she says, grinning.
The ‘kids’ conversation
We rarely talk about kids on It’s A Date - we would rather save the kid chat for the Herald’s parenting podcast, One Day You’ll Thank Me, however, we made an exception for the lovely Brown. Not only because she’s charming but because it’s a topic that can be a make or break in dating.
The star is all about choice, whether you want kids or not, that’s entirely your choice but she admits it’s something you should talk about relatively quickly with your potential life partner.
“I think the child question is one that really should come up early so that you know, okay, either they’re into it or they’re not into it,” she says admitting how you feel now might not be how you always feel, “When you love someone, you might change your mind,” she smirks.
Jaquie Brown and balloon expert Dave Brenn co-host Blow Up. Photo / Matt Klitscher
A 17 year long love
Brown’s husband is “Instagram shy” and she prefers to keep her lengthy romance out of the spotlight but while talking to It’s A Date host Lillie Rohan she revealed a little bit about their love story.
“I think I got him when he was 27. I snapped him away from the world and we’ve been together 17 years.” While she didn’t reveal the secret to long-lasting love, she did say they recently went on a date night and couldn’t stop laughing for a rather random reason.
For more from Jaquie Brown and why she couldn’t stop laughing on date night, if the Jaquie Brown Diaries will ever return and more, listen to the full episode of It’s a Date.
Watch Blow Up on Three and ThreeNow every Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm
It’s a Date is a NZ Herald podcast, with new episodes coming out every Thursday.
