BRODIE KANE & MUM JO

When Jo became pregnant with her second child, she was adamant she wanted a brother for her son AJ. “I just knew that girls were far more difficult, emotional, manipulative and bitchy,” she laughs.

When she discovered she was having a daughter, she cried for a whole day. But fast-forward 30 years and Jo’s girl Brodie, a reporter on TVNZ 1’s Breakfast, is her best friend.

Jo smiles, “From the moment she arrived, she was just wonderful, so chubby and happy. I can’t imagine life without a daughter now. We’re incredibly close. There’s nothing we can’t tell each other.”

Nodding, Brodie insists she’d be lost without her mother, explaining, “Growing up, Mum supported me 100% in anything I wanted to do. She’d be up at 5am to drive me to swimming, then to surf lifesaving. She’d be on the sidelines at every single game or event. She taught me resilience, hard work, determination and believing in myself.”

More recently, 61-year-old Jo has even taken on the mantle of matchmaker, regularly phoning single Brodie, 30, with suggestions of eligible bachelors. “I’m always on the prowl!” she jokes, although her daughter quips, “Sometimes her taste is a bit off.”

The mother-daughter duo are so close, they’ve recently bought a house together for Brodie, just 500m down the road from the family home in Waikuku Beach, near Christchurch. Auckland-based Brodie hopes it’ll mean spending more time with Jo and her dad Murray, something that’s become more important to her since her mum was recently hospitalised following complications after a knee replacement.

“The past year, I’ve felt the roles reversing and I had to be more like the parent,” admits Brodie. “I was really scared because I’d never seen Mum in pain or vulnerable before. She was so sick that it made me very protective of her.”

Smiling, Jo tells, “I couldn’t have got through all that without Brodie. I’m incredibly proud of her. She’s the best daughter in the world!”