Musician. Actress. Performer. Natalie Bassingthwaighte has worn many hats during her enviable career.
Add to this her roles as wife and mum to two kids, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Aussie showbiz icon has a charmed existence.
But away from the fame and fanfare, things were far from perfect for her. In a recent, heartfelt revelation,
Nat, 49, made headlines across the country by coming out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s hard – it’s really hard to be in authenticity,” she tells Woman’s Day about her decision to come out later in life.
“It can feel almost ‘selfish’. And I think often we think, ‘Oh, I’d better not do that,’ but, in reality, you’re not serving anyone – not yourself or those around you – by not being authentic… at the end of the day, you have to be true to yourself.”
After splitting from her drummer husband of 12 years, Cameron McGlinchey, 49, who she met while part of Rogue Traders, quietly in late 2022, Natalie went public with her new partner, Pip Loth, on Instagram last November.
Sharing brief details of her newfound love, the performer said, “I’m in a beautiful relationship with a woman who makes my heart smile and makes me really happy.”
And now, in a case of art imitating life, the triple threat has taken on the title role of an iconic play, which details one woman’s journey of self-discovery and second chances: Shirley Valentine.
Telling the story of an unassuming, middle-aged, working class British housewife, Shirley Valentine takes a bold leap into the unknown when she accepts an invitation to join her friend on a spontaneous holiday to Greece.
With humour and grit, she is forced to make the choice of returning to her humdrum old ways, or finally being her true self.
“I was ready to tell that story at this particular point,” says Natalie. “I feel like it landed on my lap at exactly the right time – like the universe wanted me to have it.
“Shirley talks about ‘losing yourself’ and ‘coming back to yourself’. We can all lose ourselves – we do what we’re told to do, we get married, we have kids, get a steady job… life becomes rigid.
We do need to come back to ourselves and to question who we are and what we’re doing. It’s just such a powerful story, in so many different ways.”
While Natalie has shared a jolt of perspective with the fictional stage character, her own life – in contrast to Shirley’s – has been very full.
“I love to challenge myself,” she says, smiling. “I mean, I’m about to do a one-woman play with 40-plus pages of dialogue, in a different accent! So it’s not something I shy away from. But I think all of us can get stuck in a rut sometimes.”
Her glowing skin belies the fact that Nat is one year shy of the big 5-0, but navigating her fifth decade doesn’t faze the straight-talker.
“I’m excited about it,” she enthuses. “I feel like I’m living my most authentic life now. And that feels very empowering.”
