Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia has earned himself a hoard of dedicated followers for his witty one-liners and impressive guns. But unfortunately for some, he is no eligible bachelor.
In fact, JLP has been hitched since 1998 and while we don’t know too much about his leading lady, here’s what we do know about the TV personality and actor’s wife.
Jonathan LaPaglia has been married to Ursula Brooks since 1998.
As an actress, Ursula has starred in films including the 2009 black comedy Happy in the Valley and the film adaptation of the Dan Brown novel, Angels and Demons. Ursula has also written two TV movies, Enough About You and How Divine!
Like her husband, Ursula was born in Australia and while she was born in Sydney, Jonathan originally hails from Adelaide.
Jonathan and Ursula have been married since 1998.
(Image: Getty)The couple are proud parents to one daughter, Tilly born in 1999. And during 2007, back when season two of Australian Survivor was approaching the finale, Jonathan was keen to impress Tilly and her pals.
“I now have some street cred with her buddies at soccer,” Jonathan told TV WEEK in 2017.
“A couple of girls on her team are huge Survivor nuts,” he grinned. “I think I need to take the snuffer [the item used to extinguish a contestant’s torch when voted out] from the set and give it to her!”
The family of three, plus their puppy who joined the family in 2018, reside in California.
“New puppy this week. Love at first sight,” JLP captioned this snap of Tilly and their family pooch.
(Image: Instagram @jonathanlapaglia)He may not be the frequent poster on Instagram, but both Ursula and Tilly make the odd appearance on JLP’s account.
In a sweet tribute to his wife back in 2017, the Survivor host shared a snap of Ursula and daughter smiling sweetly at the camera.
“Big congrats to Ursula Brooks for winning 1st Prize TV Comedy Pilot at LA Comedy Festival @lacomedyfest Now all we need to do is get it made #helpmefindaproducer 🤑,” he captioned it.
JLP is one proud husband and dad.
(Image: Instagram @jonathanlapaglia)Ursula and Tilly aren’t too far away when Jonathan is filming Survivor either.
In 2017 when the reality show was filmed in Samoa, the show’s host shared a photo of the pair in their swimmers walking hand-in-hand down the beach.
Let’s just hope they didn’t have to survive on rice and beans!
Jonathan brought his own tribe to Samoa.
(Image: Instagram @jonathanlapaglia)JLP shares photos on Instagram showing that his daughter Tilly is all grown up, like when she got her driver’s permit.
Taking to social media with a snap of the now 18-year-old, the proud dad said she totally “crushed it”.
“Secretly I was hoping she wouldn’t pass her Drivers Test today so we could do a couple more years of lessons. Nope….she #crushedit 👊🏻 One and done @tilly.lapaglia (The grey hairs are coming in already) #prouddad 🤓,” his caption read.
Tilly passed her driving test in the US and her dad shared this proud photo.
Speaking to TV Week in 2023, Jonathan said that him and his family had no plans to move back to Australia anytime soon.
”At this stage, we’re pretty entrenched,” he said.
Speaking of Tilly moving out of home, the Survivor host said he felt ”very strange.”
She’s probably going to the East Coast for college, so she’ll be as far away from us as possible, which I think she’s looking forward to,” he explained with a laugh.
“I’m happy that she wants that independence, and I encourage it, but, like most parents, there’s a part of me that would like to freeze time when Tilly was a little chunky bubba…she was so damned cute! But there’s a bigger part of me that’s proud of the fine young adult she’s become.”
Jonathan is the younger brother of fellow actor Anthony LaPaglia.
(Image: Getty)Jonathan LaPaglia is the younger brother of fellow actor Anthony LaPaglia, who married his third wife Alexandra Henkel in a lavish wedding in April 2018.
Though her Instagram is now on private, the blushing bride shared some sweet snaps three months after tying the knot and wrote alongside a picture of her in a wedding dress: “28.4.2018. The day I married the love of my life.”
