Actress and radio star Kate Ritchie, 40, has revealed to The Australian Women’s Weekly that she hopes to have another baby with husband, former professional sportsman Stuart Webb.
“We would love to give Mae a little brother or sister one day,” Kate said. “That’s very much on the cards, even if I can’t tell when it might happen. That would be so lovely.”
Kate is very much at ease playing mum with “the little person who has had such a huge effect on our lives”.
In a wide-ranging interview about fame, family and the constant intrusion on her and her family’s privacy, Kate has also refuted the incessant reports that her marriage is on the rocks.
Kate, who grew up in the full glare of the public gaze on the set of Home and Away, and Stuart, a former professional rugby league player-turned-chef, first became parents four years ago when they welcomed daughter Mae.
The pair married in 2010, but the state of their relationship is frequently the subject of media speculation.
And Kate has this to say about the unfounded speculation.
“Yes, of course it is wrong,” Kate says. “Yes, of course it is baseless. But I don’t want to say any more about it because I know that if I do then it will breathe life into it again and I don’t want to do that.”
“I have had to learn not to let it affect. So I consciously refuse to let it affect me.”
The Gold Logie-winning actress opened up to The Weekly during an interview and photoshoot that was, ironically, captured by the prying lens of the paparazzi.
“Firstly, I think good luck to anybody who thinks that they know what is going on in my life because there are times when I am not sure – and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Kate says. “What I mean is that I am just putting one foot in front of the other and trying to live my life.
“I have given up letting those things into my life. It’s not just speculation about my marriage, it is about my career or my parenting or anything that I have ever done or been through.
“There comes a time when you must stop responding to deny oxygen to this speculation. I also think speculation, be it about somebody’s marriage or anything else, is just lazy journalism.
“It’s often just a cut and paste of what has been said before.”
Kate was far happier talking to The Weekly about her new children’s book, It’s Not Scribble to Me, which was inspired by Mae.
“She is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of my life,” Kate said about Mae. “I am most at ease with myself when I am with her.
“She is only four but she is only one year away from going to school. I can see that day when I have to hand her over to someone else getting closer all the time and I want to keep savouring this time as long as I can.
“Many, many people over the years have formed an idea of who they think I am long before they have even met me, so in that way she is challenging my ideas about myself. I can show her who I really am and not have any of that other baggage colour the relationship in any way. I think she is probably the first person who I have met who comes to me with a completely blank canvas.”
“Just recently, I have been reflecting on my life as an eight-year-old growing up on set and the life that comes with that. It’s taken me a long time to understand the impact that has had on me and having this little person in my life has helped me find some balance and understand about that.”
Read the full interview in this month’s edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
