marieclaire.com.au 69PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN RIDLER; KRIS WASHUSEN. HAIR BY BRAD MULLINS/VIVIEN’S CREATIVE. MAKE-UP BY EVE GUNSON. PROP STYLING BY DEBRA BOWEN/COCO PRODUCTIONS.
I
t’s hard to imagine what Carrie
has endured, watching the man
she loved and the father of her son
pass away. Some of those experi-
ences float into other conversations,
such as when she talks about being
a young mother. “There were times with
Ollie when we were in and out of hospi-
tal rooms and he was a ... six-month-old
baby,” she explains. “He’s a very chilled-
out kid. He slept a lot, ate well and –
even to this day – I think he was sent to
this world to handle what was going
on in our family at that time.” As for
herself, that loss means she lives life
diferently, even today. “Every sense,
every experience becomes heightened –
good and bad. Grief is something that
doesn’t start and finish on a certain date.
It comes and goes, it ebbs and flows, and
sometimes years after an event you can
feel like you’re right back there again.”
Grief revisits out of the blue, she
says. “Grief can pass over in the most
mundane and random moments. It can
be when you are listening to music, or
driving past certain places. When you
are pottering around on your own, or
when you are surrounded by stacks of
people. It’s often when I’m watching
Ollie do something for the first time,
receive an award, hit a six at cricket or
say something hilarious that I reflect on
how I wish Greg could see how incredi-
ble Ollie is. He is like him in many ways.”
Her own ability to cope is some-
thing that might have been learnt
watching her mother deal with trauma
and loss, too. Carrie’s parents split when
she was three years old and mother and
daughter moved from her birthplace of
Adelaide to Colorado, USA, for a year
when Carrie was five. “How did she do
that in 1985? I could never do what she
did,” says Carrie. “She raised me for
some time as a single mum, and I think,
‘My God, you are the most incredible
woman ever.’”
The pair relocated to Perth when
Carrie’s mother met her second hus-
band, adding two older stepsisters to
the mix (“I think of them as my sisters,”
she says). It was a childhood spent play-
ing in the dam, climbing trees – and
avoiding television. “The only show I
could watch was Beverly Hills, 90210,
because Mum didn’t get what it was
about and thought it would be good for
us to learn about the lives of teenagers!”But tragedy hit her family again
when Carrie lost her stepfather to a
stroke. Once more, her mother’s sto-
icism was an inspiration. “My mum just
keeps looking forward and moving for-
ward. She always used to say to me, ‘Put
your head up, smile and just keep mov-
ing. Because if you keep moving, you’ll
move through whatever the pain is.’”
And move she does, quite literally.
At home, where she lives with her part-
ner Chris Walker, a TV executive
producer (“and legend!” adds Carrie),
she is fond of bopping along to ’80s and
’90s music with her two children: Ollie,
now 10, and Evie, three, her daughter
with Walker. She binge-watches Netflix
(Bloodline and Ozark are favourites), or
cooks with Ollie, who is a MasterCheffan. “I’m trying to raise him to be as
independent and capable as he can be. I
grew up having to do a lot for myself.
I was walking home from school when I
was eight years old, and I’d make my
lunch for school. Each of us three girls
had to take turns cooking for the whole
family, probably from the time I was in
year 7 ... My mum and stepdad both
worked full time, so us being indepen-
dent was partly out of necessity but
mostly just because my mum wanted to
prepare us for life when we got older.”
It’s clear she did a good job, not just
because Carrie made her way in the
world but by how that way was made.
Tommy Little, her radio co-host, says,
“She’s the one who remembers whenever
a staf member has a birthday and
will organise the present and put my
name on the card so it looks like I’ve
done something. She’s a beautiful, warm
soul – she’s just a good person. If you
don’t like Carrie, it’s not Carrie’s fault,
you’re the problem.”
But Carrie hints that creating a bal-
anced life requires diligence when the
spotlight hovers nearby. “I remember
my son and me being chased through a
park by a [paparazzi photographer],
and he was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And
I thought, ‘What is going on? I know I’m
not that interesting; why are you even
bothering to follow me?’” Wanting to
spend as much time as she can around
her children has meant that she has
declined certain opportunities, but she’s
not one to live with FOMO, either. “I re-
member seeing a counsellor a few years
ago and he said, ‘What are your dreams?’
I said, ‘I don’t know, mate; I’m just try-
ing to get through today.’ But I am
already doing (in work) what I never
thought I would get to do. I have a happy
family and really close friends. The old-
er I’m getting, the more I’m realising
that my goal is far less work-oriented
and more about a calm, chilled-out life.
I used to say yes to lots of jobs that came
up, and now I’m like, ‘Actually, no, I’m
good.’ There are occasions when I look
at people and see what they’re doing and
think, ‘Oh, maybe I should have said yes
to that thing.’ And then I look at where I
am and who I’m sitting with, on a patch
of lawn somewhere, and I think, ‘Actu-
ally, I’m really happy. My Instagram’s
not going to look very fun this weekend,
but God, my soul feels happier.’”BUY A BEANIE & SAVE A LIFE
Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer aims to raise
a further $5 million this year for brain cancer
research, after her new range launches in
partnership with Cotton On on May 1.Carrie and her kids
Evie and Ollie model
the new beanie range.INTERVIEW