Jason Donovan: ‘Kylie Minogue’s my favourite co-star – it was five years of magic’

By Nick McGrath

Born in Melbourne in 1968, Jason Donovan‘s first TV role was in Skyways with Kylie Minogue in 1980.

Six years later, the pair reunited in Neighbours and in January 1989 topped the charts with the duet Especially for You. A successful pop and musical theatre career followed until his momentum was derailed by a 1992 lawsuit against The Face magazine and addiction issues.

The birth of his first daughter Jemma in 2000 signalled the start of a career resurgence and he’s since juggled acting, reality shows and touring. As well as Jemma, 24, he has two other children with his wife Angela, Zac, 23, and 13-year-old Molly, and lives in Oxfordshire.

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Best childhood memory?

Bodyboarding on an inflatable bodyboard with my dad on the beaches on the North Shore of Sydney. My parents divorced when I was five and my dad got custody of me, which was quite unique for a male in 1972, so we spent a lot of time together.

I remember travelling up to Sydney together in the summer playing Abbey Road by The Beatles on a little cassette. I love water and I’m a massive sea fan and thinking about those days now helps me recollect the magic of childhood.

Best day of your life?

It would be plural, the best days: the births of my children. They’ve given me so much meaning and happiness. They p–s me off, keep me accountable, tell me the truth, build me up and tear me down. But they are the meaning of everything to me. And I have to also include my wife, because she’s played as big a part as a parent. It’s the greatest gift of life: my children and my wife are everything to me.

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Best moment on stage?

The opening night of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1991 at the London Palladium. It was the last moment of the show. The audience stood up and all I could see was my dad standing up first. And even thinking about it now makes me emotional.

I was 20, stressed out and in the West End in this huge production. And I delivered. My dad knew that I delivered and he’s a performer, so it was a big moment. Suddenly, I wasn’t just a Stock, Aitken and Waterman act. I was Jason Donovan, a proper performer.

Best co-star ever?

Of course, it has to be Kylie. The chemistry we had, the moment, the timing of what happened to us, the irony that in 1980 we appeared as brother and sister on a TV show called Skyways and then fast forward to 1986 and she walks into the wardrobe truck and says, “Do you remember me?”. And the next five years, we created history together. That chemistry is pure magic and timing. I don’t believe in luck. You create your own luck, but timing is everything in life. And it just worked.

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Best personality trait?

My work ethic. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. And focus; I have an ability to just push forward. I’ve never felt naturally gifted. Acting has come to me a lot easier than all the other entertainment stuff. Singing was always something that I was learning along the way. Hard work, persistence. I also very much believe in physical fitness and mental health. I’ve kept sharp by that balance.

Best decision you ever made?

I want to say giving up smoking, but that’s a boring answer. So professionally, taking Joseph in the 1990s. It’s a decision that I mightn’t have necessarily taken because I was a pop act going into musical theatre, which was sort of unique at the time. That has proven to give me a sort of career consistency over the years and been my bread and butter. Personally, though, it’s been having kids. It made me less selfish. It made me stop and think, “Be a better man. Be a better human”.

Best advice you’ve ever received?

My dad has always said, “Be versatile”. I think it’s one thing to think you can just be an actor or a singer, but to be able to learn and take on all of the things that give you options? That has kept me busy.

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Worst childhood memory?

Being separated from my dad was always a tough one for me. He was an actor and he would have to travel, so normally my grandmother, my dad’s mum, looked after me.

I would see my mum, but my grandmother played a massive part in my life. The biggest fear was fear itself, but, as a child, you don’t quite understand the meaning of that or how to navigate it. So psychologically not having both parents around was tough, but then seeing my dad having to go to work and not understanding was really difficult for me.

Dad would always come back but I was an only child, so the separation was even more difficult. It meant I grew up quicker. I was very independent. Maybe psychologically that’s why I became an actor because in my own life I felt a bit tortured, so performing was a way of gaining love.

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Worst moment of your life?

I flew from London to Australia and had a hellish 24 hours with horrendous food poisoning. It was really bad for me and my family didn’t cope very well either with me being that ill.

Navigating your way around Hong Kong Airport and going through various security checks while every orifice is on fire wasn’t ideal!

Worst moment on stage?

It was about 10 years ago at a festival in Wimbledon, and I hadn’t really prepared myself for what was a 50-minute show. Live performing requires real discipline and concentration. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. I just don’t think I was ready for that gig. I don’t think I quite understood the gravity of walking out to 1,500 people and having to deliver a show. I thought it was just a 20-minute set, and I just never got myself together.

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Worst thing that’s ever been written about you?

When I went to court with The Face magazine in 1991 the backlash that I got, particularly from the magazine itself, was fierce. And fair enough, they felt they hadn’t done anything wrong.

I took that case to court because it was suggesting that I was lying about myself. I wasn’t. But more importantly, I was standing up for people who wanted to keep their lives private and who were being manipulated by lobby groups to further this outing campaign. The whole thing was firmly shot at people like me to raise the profile, but ultimately was really about exposing politicians who were putting down legislation to infringe gay rights.

I’ve been brought up to be very open-minded; gay, straight, I felt an injustice. The press just went for me, and maybe they felt that was what they needed to do at the time, but it hurt. It really hurt.

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Worst personality trait?

I’ve got pretty bad OCD; my kids would say it’s on another scale. I’m someone who checks the door 16 times.

I’m someone that leaves a hotel room and has to take pictures of stuff so that I feel comfortable before I leave the room. I’m in a hotel at the moment: my passport is there, my keys are there and I will take a picture of that before I leave the room. It’s got worse over time. I check the gas is off; I check the water is off.

What it comes down to when I explain it to my kids is that the older I’ve got and the more responsibilities I have, it just feels like, “I’m the b—–d who is going to have to deal with the insurance company when the house burns down”.

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Worst decision you’ve ever made?

Taking cocaine. I don’t really regret the first time, but it became something that I leaned on, and I felt that I was having a good time. Then it just became a problem for me. I wasted a lot of time thinking about myself.

It wasn’t until I met my wife, and I had my children, that I woke up. I wish I hadn’t met cocaine. I think my life would have been fuller. Not that it isn’t full, but it would have had more paragraphs. My kids, thankfully, have made a choice, maybe because what they’ve seen has happened to me, to not go down that route and I’m very grateful for that. Maybe that’s one of the pluses as well.

There were some incredible moments along that journey but overall, I don’t think it was great for my health or my mental health. I don’t think it was great for my career, but when you rise above it, you become a better human. It brings character to you. It was wasted time. That’s the basic bottom line. The good news is… I’m certainly a better person and more conscious of my health.

Jason Donovan is touring the UK with his Doin’ Fine 25 tour. For tickets and more information go to jasondonovan.com.

If you or someone you know would like to talk to someone confidentially about addiction, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit Reach Out. In an emergency, call 000.

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