TERRI IRWIN: ‘I’M GETTING MARRIED TOO’
CRIKEY! WILL TERRI BE THE NEXT IRWIN DOWN THE AISLE?
Is Terri Irwin open to finding love again? The former wife of Steve Irwin was recently spotted enjoying herself at a Destination Queensland tourism event. The 55-year-old was spied happily enjoying the company of a number of male friends, sparking whispers that Terri could finally be warming to the possibility of dating and even marrying again one day.
Terri’s daughter, Bindi, has also reportedly been a catalyst behind this mindset shift. According to a source, seeing Bindi excitedly prepare for her upcoming wedding to her fiancé, Chandler Powell, 22, has made Terri realise that she is missing out on having a romantic relationship of her own.
A friend close to Terri tells
“TERRI HAS PREVIOUSLY FOUND THE PROSPECT OF DATING AGAIN ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING”
New Idea, “Watching Bindi find happiness and basking in all the joy and excitement of planning her wedding has made her more open to the possibility of settling down again herself – admitting how she feels excited about falling in love again for the first time in 13 years.
“Terri has previously found the prospect of dating again – after not having been on a date in almost 30 years – absolutely terrifying.
“And despite the kids and friends all trying to encourage her to dip her toe back in the dating pool and offering to set her up with friends and matchmake, she’s battled with a deep-rooted fear of getting hurt again and a burdening sense of guilt over Steve,” they added.
According to the source, Terri’s children, Bindi, 21, and Robert, 15, are extremely supportive of her finding someone special in her life again.
“Bindi and Robert have both encouraged her to open herself up to finding her own happy ending which has made her feel more at ease with the thought of marrying again
knowing how much her two children want to see her find love again too.
“Bindi’s love story from when they first met to seeing them get engaged and now helping to plan their big day has given Terri her spark back and made her excited at the possibility of a new romance … and having her own dream wedding day again too.”
The move is no doubt a brave one for Terri, as only last year the mother of two admitted she had not dated anyone since Steve tragically passed away 13 years ago.
“I always felt with Steve … if I didn’t marry Steve I wouldn’t have gotten married. I wasn’t dating, I wasn’t even looking. I was 27 years old and thought my life would be work. Then I met Steve and fell in love,” she told comedian and TV presenter Anh Do.
“I just feel that we had that soulmate thing. In the 10 years since, I haven’t dated and thought about it because I’m not afraid to be on my own, it’s just really hard not having Steve … I’m lonely for Steve if that makes sense?
“The meaning of life is unconditional love … if you can achieve that, I think you’re set!”
Since Steve, there have been rumours of a close relationship with Russell Crowe, but the actor himself insists the pair are nothing more than good friends.
“Terri is one of the greatest women I’ve ever met in my life, without there being implication of intimacy or whatever,”
Russell previously said.
And despite them having an extremely close relationship, it appears that Terri has always kept him in the friend zone.
But now that she’s potentially ready to start dating again, who knows what could happen between them?
Just a few years ago, Ajay Rochester’s family was only herself and her 20-year-old son Kai. The former The Biggest Loser host was adopted in 1969 as a 6-weekold baby and spent years trying to rediscover her roots.
Ajay’s biological mother passed away in 1993 and she never got to meet her father.
But now, the 50-year-old TV personality has the one thing she has always dreamed of: a little sister.
After submitting her DNA online, Ajay was able to reconnect with her long-lost family and was beyond thrilled to discover she had siblings, including a half-sister, Janeene.
“I really struggled to get in touch with her at first. I messaged her on Facebook, but she didn’t reply, and I couldn’t send a friend request,” Ajay exclusively tells New Idea.
“I thought they didn’t want to know me, so I had a sob-fest on Instagram. They must have seen it, because immediately I got a message from Janeene saying: ‘Of course I want to know you! I just didn’t think it was real, I thought you were a scammer! I’m so happy you’re my sister!’.”
Janeene and Ajay share the same father – a man Ajay sadly never had the chance to meet.
After finally connecting with her little sister, Ajay booked a ticket in August this year to Queensland and flew to meet her. It was a surreal moment Ajay will never forget.
“We just hugged and cried,” Ajay recalls.
“Then we had a girls’ weekend and we did facials and watched Grease. We kept saying to each other, ‘We should have done this when we were kids!’.”
It took some time, but Ajay was finally able to piece together the confusing jigsaw of her biological family. Ajay’s birth mum Kaylene, who died in 1993, fell pregnant to Janeene’s dad in 1968.
He refused to marry her, and as being pregnant and unwed in the ’60s was frowned on, Ajay was forcefully taken after birth and given to an adoptive family in NSW.
Ajay says her childhood was marred with suffering.
“[My adoptive mum] was
horrible. She was violent and abusive,” she says. “I’m at peace with it, but as a mum, I think about that poor little girl now ...”
Ajay’s biological father went on to marry Janeene’s mother and had three children. Ajay’s birth mum, Kaylene, tragically
‘‘IT’S LIKE I’VE PUT THE FINAL PIECE INTO THE PUZZLE − I FINALLY HAVE MY OWN SISTER’’
died a year after she’d tracked her down. But in an incredible twist of fate, Ajay had already known her mum for some time – she had worked for her at a restaurant in Sydney. “It’s like a Hallmark movie,” Ajay laughs.
She also believes there is another half-sibling her father kept from his wife and kids.
“I just wanted a real family who loved me for me,” Ajay says. “When you’re adopted, you spend your life feeling like a lost child. I had no idea who I was.”
“I’ve found someone who truly belongs to me … I had that with my son Kai, but it’s like I’ve put the final piece in the puzzle. I have real siblings!” Looking at the pair, it’s obvious Ajay and Janeene are sisters. They share the same blonde hair and cheeky smile – and Ajay says they get on like a house on fire. “We are so alike! She’s so funny and silly just like me,” Ajay gushes. “I love that I’ve got brothers but I’m not going to lie, my sister is so precious to me.”
Janeene agrees – she’s smitten with her famous sister. Amazingly, she even watched Ajay on I’m a Celebrity…
“I remember thinking to myself, this woman has been through so much in her life and endured so much pain and disappointment but here she is standing strong! I would never have dreamed in a million years that Ajay would turn out to be my actual sister,” Janeene tells New Idea. “Once we met, it all just made sense. Instantly we shared a bond that two sisters should for one another.”
The ladies are certainly making up for lost time, even planning overseas trips together as Ajay currently lives in LA.
Ajay’s life now is a far cry from the heartache she suffered as a child and into adulthood.
“I’m so grateful, and never in my life did I think I’d say that,” she says. “I’ve had a lot of years with a ‘poor me’ mentality and now I think, ‘lucky me’. I’ve been able to rewrite my own history.”
Right now Ethan Panizza is one of TV’S hottest young stars, and the Playing For Keeps actor says he’s forever grateful to his mentors – former TV power couple Paula Duncan and John Orcsik.
“They are my ‘showbiz parents’. I call them my second mum and dad, and they treat me like their adopted son. Without John and Paula’s extraordinary support, I doubt I’d be where I am today,” smiles the 28-year-old hunk.
Ethan grew up in Western Australia playing football under the watchful eye of his father Darrell Panizza, a WAFL Hall of Fame legend.
Ethan notes the irony of his first major TV role seeing him pulling on the footy boots as Rusty O’reilly.
“I love the role, and I’ve made some great friends of co-stars like Jackson Gallagher, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, George Pullar, Annie Maynard, Cece Peters and Isabella Giovinazzo. Madeleine West is full of energy and Olympia Valance never fails to put a smile on my face.”
But, by his own admission, Ethan’s rise to fame has been tumultuous: “My parents split when I was 3. I moved to Queensland with my mum, Dianne. But footy is in my DNA, so when the urge to play hit hard, I returned to WA as a teen and trained as an elite player. It was while recovering from a torn hamstring that I started thinking about acting.”
Ethan took an acting course, and that’s where he met John, the former Number 96 and Cop Shop star, who these days runs an international acting school. John’s ex-wife is his former co-star Paula Duncan.
“I was 23, I went for an audition which I thought I’d flunked. There was about 80 people in the room. John singled me out and said he’d be in touch, and that’s how I got my start. I remember my first acting job was for an ABC-TV docudrama called The War That Changed Us in 2014.”
When Ethan relocated to Sydney to further his acting career, he says money was so tight he spent a few nights sleeping rough in a park.
“I knew I had money coming in, so I didn’t panic, but a share house I was about to move into insisted I pay upfront. I didn’t have the money so I slept in my ute and in a picnic shelter.”
Through John, Ethan met Paula, who offered him a spare room.
“Paula is amazing. She may be a seven-time Logie winner with an astonishing showbiz career but she is so kind and grounded. Instantly, I felt part of the family. Mum and Dad both adore Paula and John, and are thrilled they’ve taken such wonderful care of me. Mum has always been my biggest fan, and urged me to follow my dreams.”
“When Paula and John are together, they’re like an old married couple. You’d never know they divorced years ago. I’ve been living at Paula’s on and off for the past three years, and they are some of the craziest times,” Ethan laughs.
“Life with Paula should be a reality show. There are people constantly coming and going, and there’s always a spare bed for someone in need.”
Paula says Ethan is a huge talent, and knows one day he’ll make it in Hollywood. “He really is like a son, he helps me clean out the cupboards, takes my dear old dog Rocky for walks and, being an electrician by trade, if a light bulb blows, he’s up the ladder and on to it,” says Paula.
“Ethan is a wonderfully intuitive actor, he’s spending a lot of time travelling between
Sydney and LA. I feel certain he could become the next big Aussie thing to hit Tinseltown.”
Ethan says between acting gigs in Australia and trips to Hollywood for casting calls, he happily goes to work as a sparky.
“I’m proud to have a trade. I was never given a life on a silver platter. Both Mum and Dad instilled in me the notion that hard work and being disciplined was the way to go.”