Kylie Gillies is staring down the end of an era as her youngest son, Archie, prepares to complete his HSC and wrap up his final year of high school.
With her eldest, Gus, already studying at university, the 54-year-old starts to gets emotional speaking about how far her boys have come.
“I see the finish line of schooling in sight, and that makes me both very excited and very sad. Oh my God, it’s going to be the end of an era,” she tells Now To Love exclusively.
Kylie with her eldest son, Gus, and her mother with Archie, Kylie’s youngest.
(Image: Instagram)The Morning Show host is currently helping Archie plan his schoolies trip with other parents from the boys school he attends, but even now Kylie finds herself worrying that she’s not ready for the next stage of motherhood.
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With both of her boys out of school and finding their own ways in the world, Kylie’s going to have a lot more time on her hands; even more when her sons move out and she becomes an empty nester.
Her long-time role on Channel Seven will keep her busy enough, but perhaps without the school runs and weekend sport she’ll have more time for reality TV appearances? “I never say no to anything.”
Kylie just completed a successful stint on Dancing With The Stars, only narrowly missing out on the finale, and says the experience was a “joy” even though it was painful at times.
“Oh, the blisters. My feet were like a mess, I could barely walk,” she laughs, quickly adding, “But it’s fabulous. It’s so much fun.”
WATCH: Dancing With The Stars: All Stars 2022 trailer. Story continues after video.
Despite decades of TV experience, Kylie was “really scared” of making a fool of herself on the show and had to overcome “weird” stage fright to get out on the dancefloor – though she made it all look pretty effortless.
Now she’s packed away her dance shoes and is open to any other reality TV invitations, bar one; SAS Australia.
The brutal military-style reality challenge is one of the only shows she routinely sits down to watch with her sons – “which in this day and age is pretty rare” – but no amount of money could convince Kylie, who grew up in Tamworth with a rural Australian “can-do” attitude, to sign up.
Kylie poses on The Morning Show with Rob Mills and SAS Australia Chief Officer Ant Middleton.
(Image: Instagram)“Larry [Emdur] and I sit there and we watch it [on The Morning Show] and we have contestants on from SAS on we go, ‘we could ever do that’,” she reveals.
“I never say no to anything, but I could tell you that would be just a hard, no, I wouldn’t even think about that one … Are you kidding me? It’s insane.”
Kylie will also be spending plenty of time on causes close to her heart, like this year’s Witchery White Shirt Campaign fundraising for ovarian cancer research.
Recognised as the most lethal gynaecological cancer in Australia, it kills one woman every eight hours and Kylie is adamant about spreading awareness and pushing for early detection tests.
Kylie is lending her voice to the Witchery White Shirt Campaign in 2022.
(Image: Supplied)Though women’s health isn’t a topic she regularly dissects with her sons, they’ve always had a very open and honest relationship, especially when it comes to women’s issues.
“There’s lots of talk about respect and that kind of thing … my boys have a beautiful respect for women,” she says.
Kylie Gillies is a 2022 Witchery White Shirt Campaign Ambassador. The White Shirt, designed in collaboration with Michael Lo Sordo, is available online and in Witchery stores from 19th April – 8th May.
100% of gross proceeds will be donated to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation to raise funds for the research to develop an early detection test.
