She’s been on our TV screen longer than any other star in Australia, so it’s easy to imagine that you know everything there is to know about Kerri-Anne Kennerley.
But you only have to delve a little beyond her perma-peppy on-screen persona to discover there are things about the so-called “queen of daytime TV” that most mortals would never guess at.
Like, for example, that she thinks she’s not very bright. That she’s always been dogged by a nagging desire for credibility. Or that she’s a self-confessed adrenaline junkie whose 30 years of live television have left her addicted to the spotlight.
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Now starring in Dancing with the Stars and preparing to launch a secret TV project, Kerri-Anne is back on top. But if 2012 marks yet another rebirth for Kerri-Anne, 2011 was her annus horribilis.
Sacked from the Nine Network in November and forced off the morning show she had spent nine years fronting, TV’s original sunshine girl found herself momentarily in career free-fall.
That the news of her impending demise was delivered by a journalist calling to ask how she felt about being replaced was, Kerri-Anne says, a body blow that took no small amount of grace to absorb.
But despite her ignominious dismissal, Kerri-Anne is adamant her decision to join rival Seven Network was not motivated by even the slightest desire for revenge.
“I’m not out for vengeance. Not in the slightest,” she tells the May issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. “I think it was Matisse who once said you shouldn’t carry around hatred and revenge, because it’s a poison in your body. And it’s so true.”
And so the Seven Network pounced with an offer Kerri-Anne couldn’t refuse. If she would agree to sliding into sequins every Sunday night (something she was fine with) and offer up her lack of dance skills for the nation’s amusement (something she was less fine with), they would give her a prime-time gig, a show she will only describe now as “an overseas format [Seven] bought from a production company”.
“Truth be known, I didn’t even really want to do Dancing With The Stars and I initially said no,” says Kerri-Anne. “But Seven really wanted me to do it and they dangled the carrot of another show in front of me and I got suckered in.”
As much as Kerri-Anne’s story is one of achievement, it’s also a tale of survival. How she has prevailed in an industry renowned for its fickle nature is a lesson in old-school showbiz doggedness.
Since the age of 13, when she pestered former kids’ TV personality Uncle Jim Iliffe until he relented and made her co-presenter of his afternoon show on Queensland telly, Kerri-Anne has hardly been a day out of work.
“I’ve never really spent time analysing how I survived, I was too busy surviving,” she says. “I guess I was always nervous I would never work again, which is a powerful motivator.
“I grew up in a middle class family with a strong work ethic. I am sure people think I have had a charmed life, but I haven’t. I’ve really had to apply myself.”
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Like many women of her generation who left school at 15, Kerri-Anne is convinced she’s not smart.
“I’m not a very bright person,” she says. “I don’t learn very quickly. I have street smarts and I am a plodder. Those are the cold hard facts of my life.
“I honestly think one of the reasons I have survived is because I am not that bright. As a result, I’ve always been prepared to just put my head down and put the work in. Plus, I really don’t have seriously high expectations.”
Read more of this story and see our photo shoot with Kerri-Anne in the May issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: Do you have any words of encouragement for Kerri-Anne as she moves into the next phase of her career?
Video: Celebrating Kerri-Anne’s nine years on Nine
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