‘HOW I TURNED MY LIFE AROUND’
The singer’s ditching her day job to get her hands dirty
Former Australian Idol winner Kate Dearaugo has revealed she’s swapping the stage for a job site! After a spectacular fall from grace in 2017 when she was arrested on drug and weapons charges, the 35-yearold singer says her life “has completely changed in the last three years”. And that includes her job, too!
“I’m actually starting a [certificate] three in civil construction,” says Kate, who fell in love with the building industry after working in traffic management.
“It opens up lots of opportunities to work on big civil sites and building big projects. I’m learning to operate big machines and excavators, and to build stuff and get my hands dirty.”
But when it comes to drugs, the Aussie songstress says these days she’s clean.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
“It’s no secret that mental health, depression and addiction [have] been a big part of my story. The good news is that I’m nearly three years in recovery now,” she recently told Seven’s The Morning Show, about stepping out of the spotlight and focusing on her sobriety and mental health after she pleaded guilty to ice possession, drug driving and weapons offences in November 2017.
“It was a dark time but an incredible learning experience now that I’m out the other end.”
And while Kate – who avoided jail time and was handed a 12-month community correction order instead – has ditched her showbiz career for now, the former solo singer and member of Young Divas says she has “fond memories” of her time in the girl group.
“We were four very individual, very talented girls just trying to do our thing,” she says of her fellow Divas, Emily Williams, Ricki-lee Coulter and Paulini Curuenavuli.
“At the end of the day, irrespective of what anybody said, it gave me the opportunity to tour the country and do incredible things, so it was an amazing time for me personally.”