RICKI-LEE: ‘I’VE BEEN THROUGH DARK TIMES’
The Australia’s Got Talent host opens up
After more than 15 years in the music industry, Ricki-Lee Coulter has her fair share of scars. The singing sensation may be one of the most celebrated female pop stars in the country, but according to the 33-year-old, it hasn’t come easy. Coulter has worked hard to get where she is, and she has learned some tough lessons in the process. “For some of my career, I had the wrong people around me that did me nothing but harm,” she tells WHO during our exclusive shoot. “I was young and impressionable.
I let people have more control than they should.”
One person who was pivotal in steering her back onto the right path was her nowhusband and manager, Richard Harrison. The pair met not long after Coulter’s first marriage, to Jamie Babbington, fell apart and she was at her lowest point.
Speaking honestly about that tricky time in her life, Coulter also reveals what it’s like to work with her husband and her surprising new role as host of Australia’s Got Talent.
You’ve been in the industry for so long but you’re still so young. Do you feel like you’ve lived a thousand lives?
Yes, I feel very old. When I think back on the last 15 years, Idol was 2004 – that’s 15 years ago! I grew up in front of Australia. I went through my awkward late teen, early 20s stage. You go through that, you make mistakes, and I went through things very publicly. You’re getting judged and criticised and then you might change something a little bit. And then all of a sudden people are like, “Who are you? You’re not allowed to change like that.” And I’m like, “What? I’m just being myself.” And then you’re dealing with everyone’s opinions, so I learned very early on, to not take people’s opinions personally.
One of my favourite quotes is, “If you don’t know me personally, I won’t take it personally.” Your friends and your family and the people in your life know you. Their opinions are what matter. That’s what I value, not someone who’s just slinging s--t on a wall. Just because “everyone’s allowed to have an opinion”, I’m just not going to spend my time worrying about it and being upset about something that doesn’t matter.
That’s such a difficult lesson to learn! How did you figure all that out? When I met Rich. He’s a very wise person and I think I learned a lot from him about focusing on what’s important. I don’t think I was like that in my 20s. I was just going through the motions and living. I’d been through some real s--t. But meeting him, he taught me to celebrate the good and focus on it and hold onto it, and do everything you can to keep cultivating it. How did he become your manager?
When I met Rich, I had a manager. It was just destructive. Just not taking care of me. I felt like I was trapped. I was too close to it that I couldn’t see. So he came in and kind of, as my new boyfriend, was like, “Tell me about this”, and was asking all these questions and I was like, “What do you mean?” I got really defensive to start with, then I slowly started to kind of zoom out, from how close I was, and then I was looking at things from the outside. I was like, “Oh my God, I’m not being looked after here,” in more ways than people can imagine.
How did you get yourself out of that?
It was a nightmare. Then I got another manager. Everything in that management relationship was just about dollars and cents. As an artist, a music artist, you work for years sometimes. You put in the hard yards; you spend money before you make money. And I remember Rich and I, through that time, we would talk about things and make decisions and try to guide and navigate, and be telling the manager what to do. So I felt like we were managing the manager. I’m like, “Why am I giving someone 20 per cent when I’m managing?” So it was just, “You know what? When this period ends with this person, why don’t we just see how we go.” How is it working together and being married?
I feel we really are a team and working together is a great thing. Lots of people find it very interesting – they ask, “How can you be in a relationship and work together?” But we just complement each other so well, both in a relationship but in a working capacity as well. He challenges me beyond belief. He probably believes in me more than I do. Sometimes, I truly don’t believe I
“I had the wrong people around me ”
can do something, and he’s like, “You can.” And I’m like, “I can’t!” And then I’m doing the thing, I’m abusing him saying I can’t do it, and he’s like, “I told you.”
What’s the secret to making it work, though?
We have each other worked out so well, and we know our boundaries. But also, the thing with him, he can say anything to me. He can say something to me that maybe some people, if I said it out loud, they’d be like, “He did not say that to you.”
After a show, after I come off stage, we’re not like, “Woo!” Kissing and hugging. I’m like, “How was the show?” I’m not like “How was the show, as in, tell me how amazing I am.” I’m like, “How was the show?” And he’s like, “Well, this went wrong, you should have done that, you didn’t do this.” I’m like, “Yeah, f--k, I know, yeah OK”. So, then we have little note session. And then we’re like, “Let’s go have champagne!”
How do you know when it’s time to switch off?
We have Ricki and Rich, and then we have work conversations. Work conversations, I don’t get emotional about, or sensitive about. It’s very black-and-white. We have arguments, we debate about things. We talk about things, he thinks one thing, I might think another. We get to the bottom of it, we figure it out, we chase things. And then sometimes I’m just like, “I just need you to tell me that you love me.” And so he just gives me a big hug.
Have you encountered any sexual harassment throughout your career?
No, I’ve never experienced any of that. I’ve always been treated really well. No-one was like, “If you do this …”
There was one time that I was put into a room and a man stood over me. And he threw
“We have arguments, we debate things ”
something at me, and I was like ... Really?
Yeah, and I was like, “I’m out.” That was the end.
Moving on to Australia’s Got Talent, tell us about how this role came about. Were you surprised to be asked to host and not judge?
When I initially got the call, I thought they wanted me to be a judge and I was like, “I’m ready for this. My time has come. The tables have turned, I’m going to be judging all of you.” So I went in and I met with Fremantle, the production company, and they were people that had been involved with Idol all those years ago. They were like, “There is nobody else that can host this show. You have to do this. This is you.”
And how did you respond?
I was like, “Oh, I don’t really know …” I thought I would be a judge. I was like, “Are you sure?” Then they showed me all this footage from the different versions around the world, footage of Tyra Banks on the US version and Ant [McPartlin] and Dec [Donnelly] in the UK. As I was watching it, I was like, “I’ve never seen anything more me, in my life.” I said yes because the core values of the show are pure, and this show is full of heart, and that’s really why I wanted to be a part of it.
Because you’ve never been a host before, what kind of preparation did you have to do?
They were like, “You can just be you,” and I was like, “But I’m not a host, I’ve never been a host. I don’t know how to host.”
So how did you know how to do it?
I didn’t! Because the thing is, it’s not about having to stand there and be really serious and be something I’m not. They literally gave me no guidance but “Be yourself ”.
How did you feel before filming started? The first day we got to auditions, I walk out on the stage and it was funny, because I’d gotten really nervous. As I was walking out on the stage at Luna Park, the Big Top, which is packed with 5000 people or something, the lights hit me, and in this flash of a moment, it felt like it went forever, I got light-headed, I felt like I was going to pass out. I went, “Oh my god, I don’t know what I’m doing!” Then I was like, “Why am I here, what am I doing?” And then, I just looked down, and I could see the producers, and they just looked at me and they were standing up and clapping. And I was like, “No, I’ve got this.”