Naughty but nice

Back in the spotlight once more as co-host of the latest series of Dancing with the Stars, the funny, flirty Sonia Kruger has a very full dance card, finds Larry Writer.

Sonia Kruger was barely minutes into her first TV broadcast when she did a Bridget Jones and almost killed her career before it had begun. “It was a live cross and the cameraman and I were in a jet boat on Sydney Harbour on a blazing summer day,” recalls Sonia, laughing at the memory of her first day as an entertainment and weather reporter on the Seven Network’s 11AM.

“[Host] Anne Fulwood’s voice came over my earpiece. ‘How’s it going, Krugy?’ Now Anne only called me ‘Krugy’ off-air, so I assumed we were in a commercial break. I yawned and replied, ‘Aww, not bad, thanks, Anne.’ She said, ‘What’s going on out there?’ I said, ‘Not a lot.’ She said, ‘How’s the weather?’ I said, ‘Bloody hot.’ Suddenly, the director’s voice bellowed in my earpiece, ‘WE ARE LIVE! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?’ First thing I thought was, ‘Good job I only said “bloody”. “The second, ‘My TV career is over’.”

Funny, flirty, foot-in-mouth former champion ballroom dancer Sonia Kruger has had her fair share of Bridget Jones moments since that awful day back in 1997. In fact, she’s turned them into an art form during her star turn as the co-host of Seven’s Dancing with the Stars, which begins its latest season in September.

Who can forget her saucy quips, such as “the map of Tamsyn”, or the “crack of Dawn”, or telling guest dancer Jamie Durie, who had been criticised by the judges, “Jamie, they’re the judges, you’re the Durie!”).