A baby for SuzelleDIY’s Julia
SuzelleDIY actress Julia Anastasopoulos is loving getting to know her beloved little Zoe
SHE’S in her element when she has a drill or a hammer in her hand and is engrossed in an ambitious home-improvement project. With her bobbing bun and often unintended puns, she has viewers of her SuzelleDIY YouTube channel in stitches.
But how would she cope with dirty nappies and a crying baby? It’s hard to imagine because Suzelle doesn’t seem to have a maternal bone in her body. Fortunately her creator, Julia Anastasopoulos, definitely does – as the proud new mom gazes at the sleeping baby in her arms her face is flushed with love.
There are no jokes or sharp one-liners as Julia (35) tells us how little Zoe Annabelle Kruger, who was born two months ago, has rocked her and husband Ari’s world.
“It’s blown my mind,” she says. “The level of change I experienced was so unexpected. I’m a completely different person. There’s nothing else that matters now. There’s a baby.”
“It changes your perspective,” Ari (36) adds “It also helps that she gets cuter all the time. Whenever I see her I love her even more.”
While the couple chat to us at their Cape Town production studio, which they co-founded, their dark-haired cherub with a button nose is fast asleep in her doting mom’s arms, blissfully unaware of all the eyes on her.
The name Zoe – which means life – was drawn from Julia’s Greek roots, while Annabelle was chosen as a tribute to Ari’s grandmother.
“She’s a real sweet little thing,” Julia says, her expression softening. “She’s eating well and sleeps well – well, most of the time. We’re really lucky.”
FANS watching Suzelle’s popular YouTube videos would never have guessed there was a baby on the way. Julia and Ari, who directs the show, went to great lengths to hide her growing pregnancy bump because it just wouldn’t have fit in with the storyline.
“Suzelle isn’t married and doesn’t even have a boyfriend,” Ari explains.
While it might not be practical at the moment for Suzelle to have a baby in her life, couldn’t Zoe make her TV debut in a follow-up series of Tali’s Wedding Diary?
In that hilarious mockumentary, broadcast on Showmax earlier this year, Julia played neurotic Joburg kugel Tali who worked herself into a complete tailspin as she went about planning her wedding. Surely a baby would be the next logical step and provide many moments of pure comedy gold?
But Ari and Julia are adamant they’d never force Zoe into a career or lifestyle.
“It’s my world and it can be quite hectic,” Julia explains. “I think she’d be comfortable in that world but I wouldn’t want to forcefully bring her into it.”
Although Julia is still on maternity leave and trying to spend as much time as possible with Zoe, her career hasn’t come to a halt. She’ll soon resume filming episodes of SuzelleDIY and her new cookbook, SuzelleDIY Recipes, will hit the shelves in October. (See page 26 for a few of the book’s tasty dishes.)
The cookbook is packed with easy recipes, many of which came from Julia and Ari’s families, with plenty of helpful tips delivered in Suzelle’s quirky tone of voice.
“I make them all the time,” Julia says. “There’s a spinach pie I love and there’s
also a fish recipe Ari’s mom created that’s delicious. People will find a lot of us in that book.”
They took the photograph for the book’s cover when she was five months pregnant so it was quite a challenge to keep her baby bump hidden.
Sitting on a couch in the open-plan office of their production studio, Julia looks lovely in a loose-fitting black blouse and pants. She says it feels strange to be back in this familiar environment after having gone through the lifechanging experience of becoming a mom.
Zoe was born in July, a week late, and Julia admits she was getting quite impatient and just wanted it to happen. But she put the time to good use by getting out her tools and quickly knocking together a changing table for Zoe. She also put up wall decorations in the nursery.
“I thought I was done with DIY for a while,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Not so!”
Julia had a natural birth and was in labour for 16 hours. Her eyes grow wide when she talks about the experience, which was wonderful but quite overwhelming. “I think it’s a combination of the fact that your body has gone through such an extreme thing. You’re pregnant for so long, your hormones are hectic. Then you go through labour and delivery and no matter what kind of birth you have it’s a total shock to the system.
“Instead of being able to recover and go home and have a nice rest, you’re in this new mode. This mommy mode. You’re spending the whole night trying to feed the baby and sometimes you don’t know what’s wrong. One day I was crying and crying and said it was because I love the baby so much. Ari didn’t know what to do with me.”
To be alone with a baby at home during the day is also a challenge, she says.
“You’re busy all the time and you don’t know where the day goes because you can’t do much more than looking after the baby. It’s just a haze of busyness and you don’t know what you’ve really achieved, except feeding the baby. And keeping her alive.”
Julia says she really feels the process of giving birth and becoming a mom has connected her with women down the ages. “So many women do it – my mom did this and her mom did this. We all did this.
“It’s really amazing. It really is a very humbling experience. It’s the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced.
“Bu t amazing in many ways. It’s really hard to describe.”
She concedes that at the end of the day she’s relieved when Ari arrives home and can make her a cup of tea, rub her back and change a nappy or two. “I really don’t know how single parents do it,” Julia says.
The couple got married in March last year in Cape Town after being together for five years.
“Last year we were busy,” Ari says. “We got married and made a TV show about getting married. Then we found out we’re having a baby. And then we also went to Japan, which was amazing. We’ve always wanted to go to Japan.”
They were determined to keep their wedding private.
“We didn’t want it to be another performance,” Julia explains. “We’re performing all the time. And I just felt this was for us.”
The pair, who started out as creative partners before becoming involved, say although it’s challenging to work together, it’s also satisfying.
“I also feel that I’ve become a better director working with Julia,” Ari says. “We’re very honest with each other and she’ll tell me if she thinks I can do something better.”
Julia agrees but says it can sometimes be difficult juggling so many different roles. “You’re the actress, but you’re also the wife and the mother of his child. You have to negotiate all of that.
“But it’s amazing to work with your partner because you trust each other completely.”
And now they’re embarking on their biggest challenge ever – because DIY is one thing, but the nightly pyjama drill is a whole new ballgame.
‘She’s eating well and sleeps well – well, most of the time. We’re really lucky’