Anh's Brush with Fame

In this series, I explore the extraordinary lives...

I feel like a king.

..of some of the most famous faces in Australia and the world.

I'm giving you some great exclusives here.

Being black, you can't wash it off.

Great characters...

I hated ballet with passion.

..have great stories.

Try getting your first bra in front of the nation.

I've never bought the live fast die young.

And I love the challenge

of trying to capture personalities on the canvas.

The most exciting part of my life

and the most disappointing part of my life.

The portrait is theirs to keep,

so I really hope they like it.

I like it very much. It's wonderful.

Wow.

Oh, my gosh.

That is me!

Wow. (LAUGHS)

Mate, that looks amazing.

Welcome to Anh's Brush With Fame.

Jamie Durie is one of our most dynamic TV personalities.

After six years of international sold out shows with Manpower Australia

he left to pursue his interest in design

and a huge career in lifestyle television followed.

With the support of Oprah Winfrey,

he has gone on to host more than 50 shows across three continents.

How has his varied life experiences affected his world view?

Excited, but nervous.

I don't like looking at myself on camera.

Certainly nervous about getting painted.

Could do with a few less lines.

But that's the character of the man, isn't it? (LAUGHS)

I've had a few knocks in my career.

I'm happy to wear those knocks,

but I'm hoping he finds the energy that I bring to everything I do.

I feel like I'm in good hands.

I'm a fan of his work.

Jamie Durie is a charming and natural performer.

His charisma and energy, combined with his love for design,

has helped export Australia's outdoor lifestyle to the rest of the world.

We know what he looks like, he's got great chiselled features.

I'm looking forward to painting his portrait today.

Jamie! Anh, how are you?

Great to have you on the show.

Mate, very flattered to be here. Such a fan.

Please, take a seat. Cheers, thank you.

We've been trying to get you on for yonks, Jamie.

Have you?! Yeah.

It's good to finally have you. I don't normally play hard to get.

Let's go right back to the start.

You grew up in a little, little mining town in WA.

My dad was in mining, in iron ore.

And, so I was... I was born here in Manly, in Sydney.

But we quickly got shipped off to this little town called Tom Price

and my dad worked in the Hamersley range in the Pilbara.

So we pretty much, my brother and I,

grew up on powdered milk and red dirt.

And that's where Mum grew roses.

How did mum grow roses out in...?

Because she's a genius. Yeah.

When it comes to gardening,

I really would have to say she planted a seed in me

that wasn't to germinate until many years later.

Yeah. Yeah. You know.

I can still remember those days of me watering the garden with Mum,

you know, and there's the roses out there in the outback.

I was running around, you know, building treehouses

out in the scrub and the mulgas.

It was good fun, actually.

And, you know, we had a lot of connection

with the Indigenous community out there,

which was great, they were really fond memories for me.

Did you have a kangaroo for a pet for a while?

I did, yeah.

We had a little pet joey for a while, which was fun.

I mean, they were often roaming around, so, you know,

you'd take care of them for a few months and send them on their way.

And for me, that was... they were really fond memories

of Central Australia, what I would call true Australia.

It was tough for Mum, because my mum was born in Sri Lanka.

And so for her to be in this really arid, small little town

with two young boys, one that was a little naughtier than the other...

And who was that?

Well, you're looking at him. You know.

So, it was... it was tough for her, I think, but she did a great job.

And then my parents separated when I was, ooh, probably about nine.

So who did you live with?

Well, it was a strange situation.

We got picked up from school one afternoon and...

..shuffled off to Queensland.

I didn't see my dad for a couple of years after that

because it wasn't an easy break-up, I think, for both parents.

For a lot of years, you know, my mum had a tough time,

you know, raising us two kids.

I remember we used to get our Christmas presents from the church.

I lived in the garage of my grandparents house downstairs there.

And they were kind of my early teenage years, you know,

and in a lot of ways I had to, I guess, I had to become the dad.

Mm. Yeah.

I had to grow up pretty quickly.

And then my brother went back to live with my father in Perth.

I got to see Dad once a year after that two-year period,

and I wish it had been more.

Did you miss your dad and your brother?

Oh, yeah. I missed my dad terribly, yeah.

I think every... every boy needs his father around

for as much of his life as possible.

My dad's, you know, 84 now,

but he's still sharp as a tack and rides his motorbike

and he's a great gardener, and he's just...

He's a real character.

My dad's a great man. Yeah, he really is.

He's a man of integrity.

As a child, Jamie threw himself into a number of different sports,

including gymnastics.

Yeah, I was super active, and taekwondo.

Anything you could throw at me, you know, barefoot waterskiing.

I was just up for anything.

Yeah, yeah. I loved it. Yeah.

I was competing pretty heavily in gymnastics for a long time.

I was a tumbler.

And then later on in my life, I got into trapeze and acrobatics

and all sorts of things.

Right.

I had dreams of being an Olympic gymnast.

Were you that good that the Olympics was a dream?

Look, I won't say I was good or bad.

It was certainly just, you know, a passion of mine

and something I was very dedicated to.

And I had dreams of one day representing Australia, you know,

that's what I wanted to do.

Then, unfortunately, I had a disease called Shulman's Disease,

which affected my spine.

And it was a degradation of... of the vertebrae.

Right.

And so I ended up having to stop gymnastics for a few years,

which was a big bummer, and find other things while my spine

healed and repaired.

When Jamie was in his early teens, his mother remarried.

But that unfortunately had unintended consequences for Jamie.

The stepfather and I did not get along very well,

so I ended up leaving home very early.

Right. How old were you?

I was 14.

Wow.

I remember standing in the living room and he's like,

"Well, it's either him or me."

And I said, "Don't worry, Mum. I'm out."

Oh, wow. What a moment.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I wanted to make this as easy as possible for Mum.

She was a single mum in love.

I knew I was going to leave eventually.

I wanted my mum to be happy

and I didn't want to take that away from her either, you know?

Yeah.

And you made the decision.

I did. I made the decision for her. Yeah.

And, I mean, Mum and I have not talked about that a whole lot.

We've had a couple of conversations about it since, but I'd imagine

that that was a fairly difficult decision for her to make

at that point, so I just made it for her.

My mum made a lot of sacrifices for me when I was young.

I think my mum did put a lot on the line for me

and... she helped...

..I guess make...

..build me into the man I am today.

And she had to make a lot of sacrifices and...

I think for... for any single mum out there,

they have to make so many sacrifices for their kids,

they've got to put their personal life aside, they've got to,

you know, get jobs that they probably wouldn't normally get.

My mum was a house cleaner.

So I can remember scrubbing showers with her when I was ten, you know.

And I hated her doing that.

Going to these rich people's houses, you know,

scrubbing their dirty, mouldy showers.

You know, I hated that my mum had to do that.

When Jamie moved out,

he went to live with someone he thought was a friend and mentor.

However, it wasn't all that it seemed.

We had what I thought was a fairly close relationship...

..that didn't end well.

But I think, I got out...

..as quickly as I could.

Right.

And there are traces of those months

that still haunt me every now and then, but, you know,

you learn to just get on with life.

And I think, you know, sadly, it affects...

That type of abuse affects one in four...

Right. ..boys these days.

And girls. Yeah.

And so...

You know, you kind of learn to, I guess, at that young age,

you don't really understand what's going on, so...

You get on with life, you shove it under the carpet