GOGGLEBOX’S MICK AND DI:
our amazing life
It was 1965 and Australia was in the grips of Rolling Stones fever. The British band – then at the height of their early fame – had arrived for their debut visit Down Under, where they were met by hordes of screaming fans, desperate to catch a glimpse of their idols. To attend a party with the Stones was the stuff of dreams for many young girls. Di Kershaw received a coveted invite, but when she met the lads face to face, she had a surprising reaction.
“A girl I worked with had told me, ‘Now listen here Di, if one of the guys comes up to you and asks, “What’s your name?” you say, “None of your business and leave me alone.” Which I then did – how stupid,” the 73-yearold Gogglebox star recalls with one of her trademark cackles.
It’s the first of many tales with which Di and her husband, Mick Kershaw, 77, regale The Weekly over afternoon tea at their home, where their segment of the Lifestyle and Network Ten reality program is filmed. And if Di and Mick occasionally seem unimpressed by the shows they critique on Gogglebox Australia, it’s possibly because they’ve lived a far bigger life than the characters in the shows they review.
From partying with the Stones, to trekking through some of the world’s most far-flung locations, to hobnobbing with Monaco’s Prince Albert, their photo albums are stuffed with their many shared adventures.
Di was 17 and Mick 20 when they were introduced at their local pub in Newport, on Sydney’s northern beaches. In those days, “there were still koalas in the trees,” he says of their sleepy seaside courting ground.
Di was a model; Mick an advertising man and former surf lifesaver. But it wasn’t long before the duo – whose love of art and adventure sparked a romance that has lasted over 50 years – tired of their lazy beachside life. Without their parents’ knowledge they moved in together, renting a heritage stone cottage in inner-city Darlinghurst, where they held raucous dinner parties with friends who included artists, photographers, filmmakers and gallery owners. They traded the Newport Arms for Sydney’s legendary (and since demolished) Australia Hotel, a home away from home for visiting celebrities and the place to see and be seen.
“That was the most memorable period of our lives.”
“Di would be sitting in the foyer drinking martinis and I would be in the long bar having a beer with my mates,” recalls Mick, who was by then a director and shareholder in an advertising agency housed on the same street.
It was there that Di, then working as a lawyer’s registration clerk, was spotted by John Hemmes – owner of Australia’s newly opened high-fashion boutique, the House of Merivale – and offered a coveted job as a salesgirl.
“It was the age of the miniskirt and Merivale was a pioneer,” recalls Di. “We said to John, ‘For God’s sake, get to London, go to Carnaby Street, buy everything you can and bring it back.’ He did that and they had people lining up in the streets to buy clothes.
“I can remember taking clothes up to Marlene Dietrich when she stayed at The Australia Hotel. We were invited to every single thing that was going on. And I was very, very well rewarded. Mick may have been working in advertising but I earned about double what he did. It was an amazing time, we had a lot of fun.”
The hippy trail
Having dated for five years, in
1967 the pair became husband and wife, much, laughs Di, to her father Jack’s relief.
“When Mick asked for his permission, he probably replied, ‘Thank God, get her out of my life,’” she chuckles. “We got married at my parents’ house in Newport and that was a fantasy.”
As was customary for many brides of the era, Di’s mother Dawn made her dress, although she says she could easily have run it up herself.
“Before I worked at Merivale I made all my own clothes because there was nothing much to buy,” she says. “I still sew now, but my daughter, Victoria, she couldn’t sew on a button. I was with her in Bondi one day and she had a bikini with a broken strap that she was taking to an alteration place. I couldn’t believe it! I bought her a sewing kit once and she said, ‘What’s that?’ I mean, God, no idea.”
After buying their first home in Paddington for what then seemed a princely sum of $16,400, the pair purchased two round-the-world tickets and embarked on a new adventure. Departing Sydney in 1969, they couch surfed with friends in Mexico, Los Angeles and San Francisco, before Mick was offered a job as a consultant for American wine dynasty Gallo. A green card was on its way when they hit an unexpected hurdle.
“The wine pickers went on strike and there was no longer a job,” Mick explains. “So we went to visit some friends in Toronto in Canada and ended up staying almost two years.”
Next on their travels was Europe. Picking up a car in London, they spent five months skirting the Mediterranean, taking in Greece,
Italy, France, Portugal, Morocco and more. Still not having shaken the
“Losing the baby was devastating but you just get on with it, don’t you?”
travel bug but knowing it was time to return home, they packed one canvas bag each and boarded a train to Istanbul. From there they returned overland to Australia via Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal.
“We did it on next to nothing,” says Mick, adding that their wanderlust has yet to fade with a trip to Russia – one of the few countries they are yet to set foot in – planned for later this year. “That was the most memorable period of our lives.”
Finally a family
On their return to Australia, Mick headed back to the advertising agency while Di, noticing the growing popularity of indoor plants, swiftly opened a plant store, despite not having a particularly green thumb.
“It seemed like a thing to do at the time,” she shrugs of her inherent ability to spot an emerging trend.
Their dream of starting a family took longer to realise.
“I lost a baby at five months, when we first came back to Australia,” Di shares. “And it took a couple of years after that to finally fall pregnant. But we were very lucky, we had a boy, Alex, and then a girl, Victoria. Losing the baby was devastating but you just get on with it, don’t you?”
That no-fuss attitude is typical of Di’s approach to life, according to her kids, who are now 41 and 39. “Victoria always tells me, ‘You’re the toughest person, Di,’” she admits. “I was the total disciplinarian when they were growing up.”
“And I was the softie,” interjects Mick. “Mick didn’t talk to them until they were toilet trained. He wouldn’t have known what a nappy looked like,” Di hits back. “No, it had to be like that, a good cop, a bad cop.”
It was while their children were toddlers, during the early ’80s, that the Kershaws’ interest in art led to another change in career. One of Mick’s advertising colleagues was Australian artist Ken Done, whose work was taking off both here and internationally. Again, Mick and Di sensed an emerging trend and opened Poster Editions, a poster gallery.
“We distributed work of Ken’s that he produced himself and published lots of other Australian artists,” Mick says.
Their work saw them once again travelling the globe as they sniffed out emerging artists in Germany, France, Italy and more. With their children now entering school, they juggled parenting with the demands of a rapidly growing business.
“There was this wonderful woman called Mrs Burns who had a kombi van and would collect all the kids from the local school and then take them to where she had rented a big outdoor/indoor space until someone could collect them at 5.30,” recalls Di. “Then, when they got a bit older, we
had a number of university students who would collect them. In the art world it wasn’t unusual to be a full-time working mum. And the kids loved it. Alex has always said to me, ‘Thank God you weren’t one of those mothers who when you got home was like, I’ve made cookies and milk! I couldn’t bear it.’ It taught them to be independent as well.”
Kaboom: a new life
While the ’80s was a boom time for the Kershaws, the ’90s proved devastating. Poster Editions was sold and they started a new business, flipping properties. But when interest rates went through the roof, the banks came calling and took the home they’d put up as collateral.
“We had a total financial disaster, lost everything and had to start again,” says Di. “It was like, own your own home, work your arse off and then you overextend yourself and all of a sudden it goes kaboom.”
They moved into a small two-bedroom apartment, picked themselves up and started again. “You make the most of what you have,” Di reasons. “If you’re determined, you will do it.”
It was then that Mick made his first foray into the Indigenous art world, opening a gallery in Cairns, where he spent the better part of three years. Today, Mick and Di represent a clutch of acclaimed artists whose talents are being recognised all over the world.
One of those is Alick Tipoti, whom they accompanied in 2016 when he held an exhibition at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco at the invitation of Prince Albert II. The prince was so taken by the Torres Strait Islander’s work that they are currently collaborating on an upcoming Australian documentary about their efforts to save the oceans.
“Oh yes, we met Prince Albert. There was a huge dinner,” Di blithely recalls of their brush with royalty. “The wife [one-time Olympic swimmer, Charlene, Princess of Monaco] didn’t show her face but we had a wonderful time and Alick and the Prince developed a rapport. Monaco is an extraordinary place.”
They’re not easily impressed by royals but both Mick and Di light up when talk turns to their favourite subject – their growing family. Alex married last year in America and he and his new bride are planning a trip home to Australia (they hope, eventually, to stay). And Victoria has given them their first grandchild, Harvey, with Di happily volunteering for babysitting duty one day a week.
“He calls me Di-Di and he calls Mick, Mick,” she chortles. “He’s the cutest child, very funny, very extroverted and so adorable.”
“I love being a grandfather,” Mick agrees. “Kids do develop an incredibly strong bond with grandparents who spend time with them.”
They also love spending time together, despite working side-by-side all day and spending many nights on the Gogglebox couch. Curently, Di volunteers at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and
Mick at Oz Harvest. And their differences, along with a shared set of values and interests, have kept their relationship powering along for half a century and counting.
“I’m an Aries who Mick refers to as power drunk and restless, and Mick is a Capricorn who is the stubborn goat climbing up the mountainside,” Di laughs.
“You’d guess right if you thought I’m the one who tends to get their own way,” winks Mick. Gogglebox Australia airs Wednesdays, 7.30pm on Lifestyle, and Thursdays, 8.30pm on Network Ten.