ANH: In this series, I meet extraordinary Australians...
This is what I do. This is who I am.
It's so exciting to be here.
(BOTH LAUGH)
..who tell me their fascinating stories...
It was like someone had just given me gold.
..while I paint their portrait.
Like, I'd sleep with my bat as a kid.
My challenge is to capture their character...
That's not what you've got the power of the microphone to do.
..and put it on the canvas.
I was born this colour for a reason.
The portrait is theirs to keep, so I want them to like it.
Oh, my God! Heavens above!
Oh, my God! Wow!
That's incredible!
Wow! Oh, my God!
She's hot! (CACKLES)
Welcome to Anh's Brush With Fame.
Deborah Hutton is a style icon.
Her classic beauty was first spotted in her teens,
and while she has had a great modelling career,
it's her work in TV...
Presentation is everything.
..and as an editor of the Australian Women's Weekly
which has made her one of our most loved personalities.
But it could be worth a bit more now, even in these tough times.
What does it take to last four decades in such a tough industry?
For the fact that I've been photographed a thousand times
and a lot of them are always, sort of...
..you know, every image has to be, sort of, perfect,
I love the fact that this is just... it's me,
and it's how he sees me.
Deb possesses a natural charisma both on and off camera.
Which means she has a genuine connection with her audience.
I want to paint a portrait that engages the viewer
in the way she herself does.
I think this is gonna be my challenge today.
Hello, Deborah. Hello!
Welcome. Oh, my God!
So good to have you on the show. Such a good...
I want to give you a big squeeze! (LAUGHS)
Take a seat. I just adore you.
I'm so thrilled to be here. I can't tell you.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Really thrilled.
We're gonna have a great time. (LAUGHS)
Excellent. Can I take my shoes off?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah?
Yes. Make yourself comfortable.
Thank you.
I think, all those years of having to suffer in high heels,
I just live for comfort now. (LAUGHS)
You've been modelling for a long time.
You started at 16. Yes.
It was actually quite, a sort of, momentous time when you think back,
'cause I sort of left home and left school at 16
and I didn't quite know what I was gonna do.
I was gonna be a primary school teacher.
All my life, I wanted to be a primary school teacher.
Anyway, the guy I was seeing at the time said,
"You could be a model!"
I hadn't even thought about it.
So I went, "Well, might as well give that a whirl."
Yeah. So, we took some photographs.
And then I walked into Vivien's modelling agency
with those photographs
and she said, "Oh, I tell you what.
"That smile will make a million, but that name's never gonna work."
Oh! I said, "So, you don't like Debbie?"
She said, "No, I hate Haylock."
So she gets out, sort of, the White Pages
and opens up in the H section,
and then starts going through the book
and she's going, I don't know, "Hudson?" and, "Hamilton?"
and then she came up with Hutton,
and she looked at me and she said, "Are you happy with that?"
I went, "Whatever! Sounds good to me!"
So, I always say I, sort of, walked in Debbie Haylock
and I walked out Deborah Hutton.
It was literally done within an hour.
Amazing.
Let's go back to when you were Deborah Haylock.
Yes! And you were two years old.
And you've got two older brothers.
And your parents split.
That was pretty tough, because the court decided
that the boys should be with their father, so they split us up.
So my brothers grew up with my father in New South Wales
and I was in Brissie.
Like, it's not like we were around the corner.
You know, we're talking about two separate states.
Yeah. But it was...
Yeah. You don't think about it.
I think kids are... they're very durable. You don't...
You know, you just deal with whatever's in front of you.
Was that hard for your mum, to... Yeah.
..for the court to say... Yeah. Yeah, REALLY hard.
We're talking about the very early '60s,
and being a single mother at that time and a working mum
was just nigh on impossible
and you had very little support from government and welfare and...
So, she moved up there to be closer to the family.
And I think it's not until years later that you go,
"Wow, that was a pretty strange... pretty strange sort of upbringing,"
having a separation with your siblings like that.
Yeah.
And you can't really imagine what it's like,
'cause it wouldn't happen today.
How did you mum look after you back then?
She just did her best.
You know, she had to sort of find a job and got a little place,
and it was just really through the support of the family.
And then, yeah, she decided to get remarried.
So, she remarries your stepdad
and you guys move to Papua New Guinea!
We go... (LAUGHS) Like, why?!
(LAUGHS) Tell me why.
So, we went up there,
and Brian, who she married, he was going up
to sort of pursue some property development.
There was a lot of growth happening in New Guinea at the time,
in Moresby, and he saw that as an opportunity,
but it didn't work out,
so he ran, like, a movie cinema
with a hamburger joint attached to it.
So, for, like, decades later, I'm thinking,
"What the hell were we doing in New Guinea
"running a hamburger joint attached to a cinema?!"
(LAUGHS)
One of my memories that I have, which is really vivid -
it was 1969 and it was the lunar landing.
And I remember the local square in Moresby,
they found some projection screen,
and I just remember people's faces just gobsmacked.
'Cause they'd never seen moving images?
Never seen a moving image,
let alone comprehend that we were putting a man on the moon!
Wow! Yeah.
It's really funny what sticks with you.
And so, at 16, you start modelling
and you get onto a cover straightaway.
Yeah. So, the Cosmo cover.
Yeah, I was... Can I tell you, it was terrifying.
So, I rock up, and I'll never forget -
Judith Cook was the fashion editor at the time,
and she brought out
this beautiful sand-coloured linen jacket, this suit.
And she gives me this jacket
and she said, "No, we won't put anything underneath."
And I went, "What, like, nothing underneath?"
She said, "No, no, no. We'll just, you know..."
And I was like, "Like, nothing underneath?"
She's like, "That's right, nothing. Just pants and a jacket."
I'm like... Just the jacket!
.."OK! Just the jacket." I'm like, "Alright!"
So, anyway, I sit down...
You should see this cover. I look terrified.
The Cosmo covers at the time were the thing to do.
Like, if you got on the cover of Cosmo,
that was, like, big-time, that really sort of kicked you off.
And early on, you went to Italy for some modelling.
And you lived there for a while. I started off in New York.
I got a contract with Eileen Ford in New York. And I arrived there...
And I was never really stick-thin and that tall.
So, I get there and Eileen Ford goes,
you know, "Lovely to meet you, Deborah,"
and she'd stand back and made me do a 360
and said, "Lose 10 pounds and I'll see you in a week."
And I remember Sharon Stone, the actress,
she and I were together at the same time
and we were both told the same thing.
Wow.
So they sent me off to Italy.
They said, "Go and get some lovely shots from Europe
"and then just build your book up," and all that.
And I got really depressed.
And I started to eat.
And the more depressed I got, the more I ate... (LAUGHS)
..and the more I ate, the more depressed I got.
All of a sudden, I'm now buying, you know, parachute outfits
and anything that's got a bit of volume to it,
because I'm thinking, "I'm actually getting fat here!" (LAUGHS)
I got home, my mother picked me up from the airport
and walked straight past me!
I'm like, "Mum!" Over how long a period...
And she just went...
And she just walked... I'm like, "It's me!"
I think I had...$250 to my name.
That's all I had. When I came back.
I didn't tell my boyfriend at the time.
I didn't even tell Vivien I was back.
I hid out at Mum's place
and I went and I did an extreme diet
and I exercised and I ran six miles a day,
and I thought, "Just get your shit together, girl."
And I did, and I just hid out till I could get to the point
where I could go to Vivien and say, "Just back!
"Life's great!" (LAUGHS)
I don't even think she knows this!
Does that sort of thing give you body image issues?
You're a young 20-something... Oh, yeah.
I remember going out with my boyfriend at the time,
and he used to go down to Tamarama, and I refused to go down the beach.
I would never, ever be seen in a bikini.
And I'm talking about when I was... you know, 20, 21.
Just hated it. Hated getting my kit off in public.
And you're a model. Yeah.
So you'd probably look alright. Yeah.
Well, yeah, but I thought I looked terrible.
Don't mind putting clothes on and covering it up,
but just hated the idea of wearing a bikini
and being around all these other cool people,
'cause I just thought, "I just don't... I don't fit into that."
Really? Wow. Yeah.
Right from her early teens,
Deb embraced life with intensity and vigour,
so getting married young felt an obvious step.
Dennis was his name.
And when we got married, I think I was 26.
Anyway, we bought a house and had a picket fence.
He put in a Blue Haven pool, and he wanted two kids,
and that was it - that was what his life would have been!
And I went... I think the Blue Haven pool did me and I wanted...
(BOTH LAUGH)
So the marriage only lasted two years?
Yeah.
What did Dennis do for a living?
He was an opal merchant. Phwoar!
So, we used to go up to the mines, sleep under the stars.
Yeah. So it would have been a BIG Blue Haven pool.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Or maybe not. I... (LAUGHS)
"Opal merchant"! It just has a ring to it.
Well, he was an opal... like, a miner, and he used to cut...
So, he'd get... he'd get the rough material.
So, opals, I know a lot about opals. (LAUGHS)
You were famous very early.
How does that affect you?
You know what it was that created the initial fame?
I mean, modelling was one thing,
but then I became the Grace Bros girl,
and that was all about big sale campaigns.
So, then you had massive advertising across TV, radio, you know, print.
So, the face, the red jacket, that got out there.
That really got out there.
At Grace Bros, we only have two sales a year,
so they've got to be good.
The Winter Sale will be one you can't afford to miss.
Even today, and we are talking about, you know, 35 years later,
I still... I'll jump into a taxi
and I'll have some guy going, "I loved you.
"You were the Grace Bros girl. I loved you.
"My mother... my mother loved you, I loved you!"
(LAUGHS)
And those people just pop out of nowhere
going, "Oh, I remember those Grace Bros days."
I'm going, "Are you really that old?"
Deb's relationship with Myer Grace Bros
as their national brand ambassador
would continue for the next 10 years.
But by the late 1980s, a new relationship
would take her professional and personal life to the next level.
There was a nightclub at the Cross called the Cauldron,
and my best friend was going out with the guy who was running that,
so I just used to spend my life at the Cauldron,
and model during the day
and then just go and hang out at the nightclub all night.
And I remember he came up to me,
and I met him and I was like, "Ooh, that's Harry M. Miller."
And he came up and said, "Oh, I think you've got..."
(NASAL VOICE) You know, he's kind of talking like that -
"I think you've got a real future.
"I reckon you should come and have a chat to me and, uh...
"Anyway, yeah, pop into the office
"and, you know, we'll have a chat about it.
"What do you reckon?"
And I'm like, "Ooh. That's a really good idea." You know.
So, how long was he your agent before you guys become partners?
About a year... about a year or so.
He was quite a bit older.
28 years or something? Yeah.
My mother struggled with it, 'cause they're about the same age, so...
But we just got along like a house on fire. So the age to me...
I think when I started going out with him, he was in his 50s,
and I don't know, it wasn't a gap to me, it was...
'Cause it was a meeting of the minds, in a way.
We just kind of... we just got on.
He really did guide me, and also, I think, allowed me to...
..perhaps see something in myself that I couldn't.
We were together for 10 years... 11 years altogether.
So, that's a long time. Mmm.
We didn't live together, though.
So, we had this, sort of, separate arrangement
where we'd come together at a farm on the weekends.
I think that's why it lasted so long,
'cause we were both very strong personalities,
and you could each go and have your sort of life,
and then come together and it sort of...
We used to spend a lot of time together,
but I think having that little separation just...
..I think it really helped our relationship.
And what happened when it ended?
Well... (SIGHS)
Heartbreak always happens when things end.
Doesn't it? Yeah.
It just came a time where we just had to go sort of separate ways.
You've spoken in the past about a little bit of sadness
in regards to not having children.
Was that a conscious decision, or...? Yeah, uh...
No, it wasn't a conscious decision at all.
It's what happens when you're making plans... (LAUGHS)
You know that whole thing. It's like...
I remember the time -
Harry and I were together, but I remember it was around this time -
it was a year or so when I was in my mid-30s
that I really felt that pang to have children.
You know, I always thought I would have kids.
I honestly thought I would have children.
Harry's an amazing man, but he's also married three times,
with five children from three marriages.
And I thought, "Do I really want to be part of this dynasty?
"I don't really want to have children with YOU.
"It's just... it's not gonna happen."
'Cause I just... You've got to choose the right partner.
And I was never one of those women that wanted to have children
just because I needed to have children.
Mum basically... I watched my mother become a single working mother,
and that is a seriously difficult job,
and I thought, "I don't want to take that on either."
But then you look around and you see it
and there's a beauty in family units
and perfect little families and kids and all that,
and I'll never experience that,
and I'll never know what that feels like.
But then you just get through that
and then you are thankful for what you do have.
Which is there's a freedom attached to not having children.
So I just look at the things that I CAN embrace,
that I am really happy to have and grateful for,
that aren't children.
But I've sort of moved through that now.
In 1988, Deb made the leap from brand ambassador to TV host...
Well, it really is the biggest fashion parade
that's ever been staged in history.
..in time becoming a Nine Network favourite.
Interest rate rises are making buyers very nervous indeed.
But there was always more to Deb that just good looks.
In the mid-'90s, Deb rose through the ranks
to editor-at-large at the Australian Women's Weekly.
She was to become an important voice to a generation of women.
I worked under an extraordinary woman called Nene King.
And Nene King, infamous at the time
for being a very tough but very switched on editor-in-chief,
and it was the time of Princess Di.
So, I was working at the magazine when I saw that absolute growth
and that thing where it was the paparazzi
really in the face of celebrity.
She was on the cover all the time. All the time.
I'll never forget the day I was in the office
and Nene sort of rang a bell and she said,
"We've just hit the million mark in circulation."
A million in circulation. That's unheard of today.
Raised to be strong and independent, clearly Deb can make a success
of just about anything she sets her mind to.
She's so engaging and graceful,
two qualities I have to capture in this painting.
You've been very fortunate in your working life,
but personally, there's been some sadness.
Your brother Rod was only 50 when he passed away.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, um... yeah, my brother had a brain injury when he was 27.
Yeah, it was an accident.
A really bad accident. Uh... a train accident.
And how was that for Dad, to see his 27-year-old boy...
..have this brain injury? Yeah. Just tough.
When something like that happens, you have no power.
Do you? As a parent.
All you can do is be there and pick up the pieces
and support where you can.
And we had enormous grief and loss around losing him,
but then the boy that we got back after his recuperation
was a different Rod.
But he was the most beautiful boy.
And did you mum care for Rod all that time?
He had to have carers.
A side effect of his brain injury was epilepsy,
and he had carers looking after him,
but he had an epileptic fit and they didn't hear when he fell out of bed,
and he... he passed away.
And it was just a shock,
and he was such a beautiful, beautiful man.
'Cause he was, you know, doing a little bit of work in the workshop,
and he had a life and he could spend time with Mum.
And then to lose it like that, it was just awful.
'Cause he wasn't supposed to. You know, he wasn't supposed...
We... He wasn't supposed to die. He wasn't...
And then a short time after that, your other brother...
Yeah, we'd just got through what happened to Rod,
and then David was diagnosed with liver cancer.
So, it was in that year that we lost him,
and he had two beautiful boys - he'd only just had a baby.
It was just... just awful.
Oh, it must have been a tough time for David's wife.
Terrible! And Mum!
And your mum. You know? Losing two boys.
Mmm. Yeah.
She's been through hell. Absolute hell.
So... yeah. Yeah.
Awful. Awful.
I miss them. I really miss them. Yeah.
To see her through this difficult time,
Deb found comfort from a new companion.
Tell me about Billie.
I had the most extraordinary dog called Billie.
And she's just, um... it's about... actually, 12 months now,
but she was, uh... yeah, she was run over.
But because... I think because I hadn't had children before...
..that she was... she was my world.
She was my little girl. And I took her...
You would have loved her. She would have been here today.
She went everywhere with me.
Every shoot, every voiceover, she'd come to the office.
She was with me pretty much...
Outside of being on a golf course, she would be with me all the time.
And she was just the cutest, cutest, cutest little thing.
So, she was probably the greatest love of my life.
And I don't know when I'll quite get over that.
Yeah. Maybe when I get another dog.
Are you thinking about it?
Yeah, well, I'm just building my house at the moment,
and I put a dog door in the laundry.
So, that's in there. Yeah.
So I think, when I'm brave enough to do it again, the dog door's there.
Yeah.
After spending the majority of her modelling career
feeling insecure about her body,
on the eve of turning 50,
Deb agreed to something she never thought she would.
Helen McCabe was the editor at the time,
and February was always the body issue, it was always...
Like, everyone's come back from their Chrissie holidays,
you want to, you know, lose weight, get healthy.
So, she says to me, "You're turning 50.
"How would you feel if we did a naked cover?"
I'm like, "Don't be so ridiculous! Like, what...
"Like, don't be so rid...! Why would you want to do that?!"
She said, "I don't know. Just...
"We could just mix it up a little bit."
And I was like, "It's the body issue.
"You could talk about all your... you know, issues and da-da-da-da."
And I went, "Ooh, I don't know about that."
So, I said, "Well, leave it with me."
So, I go home and I stand in front of a full-length mirror
and I... you know, I take all my clothes off,
I've got my G-string on, I'm standing there going,
"Now, how am I gonna... how am I gonna do this?
"How do I... how do I do..." (LAUGHS) "How do I do this?!"
And I like the fact that there was a story behind it
about the body and getting over and...
..you know, the whole thing about acceptance.
I thought, why not, right?
It's the same thing - just say yes and figure it out later.
And then I sat down almost like this,
and I was like... and I wrapped myself around.
I went, "Actually, I think I can cover up all my bits."
So I sat myself on the floor... (LAUGHS)
..and I went, "I think I can do this!"
But that's the shot. I actually got the shot in my mind.
Right.
And I went, "Yeah, I think we can make this work."
And with all magazine covers, there is photoshopping.
Was there some backlash with that? Oh, yeah!
So, I was in Mexico, celebrating my birthday,
and it comes out, and I remember Mia Freedman - Mamamia -
wrote a really, really lovely, supportive piece
saying, "This is a great cover, there's a really good story,
"you know, it's about embracing everything,
"all the good bits and the bad bits and everything."
And then I started to see the reaction to what she'd written,
and people were saying, "Yes, well, it's all fine,
"but I'm sure it's photoshopped to death and da-da-da-da-da."
And I started writing back, saying,
"Look, definitely, this, my whole chest area,"
I said, "absolutely cleaned up,"
'cause I've got such sun damage
and, you know, I've got a really wrinkly...
I said, "Yeah, absolutely, definitely did that,"
but one of the things I wanted to make sure - that the face...
'Cause my face is my face.
And I actually quite like my face, and I like my lines, and it's...
..you know, I've laughed a lot, and it's all there
and I want to hang on to it.
But it was... yeah, it was... it really created a huge conversation.
It really was about acceptance
and I really wasn't a complete photoshop.
You've talked about getting close to your 50s
and, you know, the contracts aren't getting renewed,
and going through a period of soul-searching.
I had a lot of things that just all sort of fell away at once,
and I was like, "What's gonna happen to me and...
.. "What's gonna happen to me?"
Because I... I've always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder
'cause I've never been to uni and I don't have a degree in anything.
I just have this.
And this. You know? (LAUGHS)
And sort of hidden skills in a way.
And I'm thinking, "What happens when you start getting older
"and nobody wants that face and that voice?
"What happens to me then?"
And the absolute insecurity around that.
How did you get through that?
Well, I have very good, supportive friends around me,
and one of them was a woman who's my business partner, Sonya,
and she said, "Listen.
"You've got great skills around being on camera, talking to people.
"Why don't we do something and build something together
"and let's embrace the future, which is digital?"
And you've since built a couple of websites.
Yeah. So, she said, "You've got a voice.
"You can be the voice of women in their 50s.
"Talk about the things that are important to them."
So, that's... that was... Balance by Deborah Hutton was born out of it.
What's the greatest life lesson you've learnt so far?
Believe that you're good enough.
Just believe in yourself more
and not try to be what other people want you to be.
Mmm.
There is a part of me that's very much the... the ambassador
and, you know, do your lines and say your thing,
but there's also underneath it,
there's the all-singing, all-dancing Deb
who just loves to get out there and be the life of the party,
you know, she's got a potty mouth,
you know, she loves her golf, she loves her AFL Sydney Swans,
she's a football chick who loves a beer, you know,
and I... and I just think...
..I couldn't really bring that out as a kid,
or I didn't know that that was really what was in me.
I just had to be this person for those people.
Yeah. That's what I would say.
Just believe that you're good enough.
Wonderful.
Alright, Deborah, I'm nearly done.
I am just finishing off your hair - and you have great hair.
You know that, though. Oh, yeah, I'm very, very lucky.
(LAUGHS) Very, very lucky.
A little bit grey underneath now, but, you know, that's OK.
I'm nearly done.
I just need another 20 minutes, half an hour to really finish this off...
Wow. ..and make it fantastic.
God love you. Alright. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
OK.
That was exhausting! (LAUGHS)
He says to me, "Oh, it'll be really relaxed."
I was like, wow! The... I've just...
My mind has just traversed my life
and gone to places I had completely forgotten about.
It is a blank canvas,
and so I'm really excited to see where he's gonna take it.
I'm always smiling -
I like to think
that maybe he might see the humour and the smile within me.
I'm hoping so.
Deb's strength of character
has enabled her to build a stellar career with a very successful brand,
and she has a presence and warmth that I tried to convey today.
Let's see what she thinks.
Deborah. I'm all done!
Oh, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Here we are.
I so enjoyed our chat. I loved it!
Very much. I loved it.
I could talk to you for hours. (LAUGHS)
You've just got... You draw things out of people.
Oh, thank you. You're amazing.
You know what I get talking to you? The joy.
There's so much joy that emanates from inside you,
and so I wanted the painting to glow a little bit.
Ooh, I like that! I like that! (LAUGHS)
I have no idea what to expect, by the way. I'm like...
And I also love what you shared with me near the end there
about how you're now free to be Deborah, fun Deborah, you know?
So, I've gone for... with your hair a little bit wild.
Just to represent that, OK? Oh, good! (LAUGHS)
That's what it's normally like anyway. Oh, good. Yeah.
I want you to close your eyes.
OK. Oh, right! OK. Yeah. OK.
Close your eyes. Alright. Yep.
Keep them closed. Oh, this is fun!
(LAUGHS)
Alright, Deborah. Go for it. Yeah? Can I open now?
Oh, wow!
Wow! You've got my eyes!
You... Wow!
That's great!
Oh, God! Look at that!
That's so cool!
You've got my hair nailed! (LAUGHS)
My eyes, the eyebrows, the lips, everything.
Is it what you expected?
There's a lot of lightness there,
which I suppose is reflective of our conversation.
Yes. Yes, yes.
You exude happiness and where you're at,
and so I wanted it to be quite a...
Wow! ..an uplifting sort of painting.
It is! It is. It's brilliant! (LAUGHS)
My hairdresser will be thrilled. You've got the streaks just right.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Hey, thanks for coming. Oh, my goodness!
Thanks for coming on the show. Oh! Bless you! I loved it.
I am just so mad about you. I think you're amazing.
And I'm so thrilled just to be a part of this.
It's such an amazing experience.
I love that. You're so bloody clever! (LAUGHS)
When I first opened my eyes, I was really surprised, actually.
It's prettier than I imagined.
So, yeah, I just was, like, pleasantly surprised
that there's a beautiful lightness to it.
So, I was like, "Wow!"
Deborah's lived such a rich, full life
and emerged with a strong sense of self
and a desire to impart that quality to others.
I wish her every success.
Next time.
Alan Jones is Australia's most influential broadcaster.
From humble beginnings,
he's passionate
and never far from controversy.
The polls swung and Malcolm Fraser's won the election.
Wow.
It's a touch dishonest, don't you think?
And I've got to capture him on canvas.
It's beautiful. It's marvellous. It's me.