There’s a reason why Chrissie Swan is one of our most loved celebrities: she’s funny, open, relatable, and warm.
Swan first shot to fame in Australia as a contestant on Big Brother in 2003 (she lost to Tasmanian fish and chip shop owner Reggie Bird, but we’d say that worked out pretty well for her).
Swan lights up our screens every week as host of Channel Ten’s Can of Worms, she also co-hosts a radio show, and writes a column for Fairfax publication Sunday Life.
Chrissie is a role model for many women not only because of her professional success and her balancing of work and family life, but because of her attitude to her body.
In 2o12 she addressed her weight in an interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly: “I never bought into that ‘I am fat, and therefore I am bad’ way of thinking.”
Swam’s popularity has meant her actions are now subject to intense media scrutiny, made apparent over the past year with two separate scandals.
There was a furore after the Australian Women’s Weekly interview was published, as the accompanying photo – of Chrissie and her two sons, Kit and Leo – showed Leo, then four, to be overweight.
Swan was accused of being irresponsible and a bad parent. Forced to address the issue, Chrissie wrote in her Sunday column that she was consulting a paediatric dietician and that, rather than eating unhealthy foods, Leo had simply been eating too much of good foods such as bananas.
Like it was any of Australia’s business what Chrissie’s son was eating, anyway.
It was judgement time for Swan again after she was photographed by the paparazzi smoking in her car earlier this year while pregnant with her third child.
After Swan’s management failed to win the bid for the photos (tabloid mag Woman’s Day won with a bid of $55,000) she confessed all on her radio show, telling listeners through tears that she had “struggled terribly” with completely giving up cigarettes.
Although many of the public were outraged, Swan also found a lot of support in the community for being brave enough to admit to her addiction – a testament to how loved she is by Australians.
