Hi, Chrissy cast is welcome to the Christy Cast live from the Compound. Well, I asked you to ask me anything, and did you ever Sorry for the time I've taken to respond, but I've been thinking deeply about these questions and how to answer them with honesty and authenticity because those two things are very important to me. I'd like to introduce you to my external hard drive and new
best friend forever, Rachel. Hello Rachel, Hi Chrisy. We've come to the conclusion that the best way to do this is for you to be the voice of the ask me anythings, Yes, and You're going to ask the questions and I'm going to answer them to the best of my ability.
Let's do it.
Let's get cracking, all right.
I think this is a really important one to start with, Yeadris and Coe just wanted to know what has been happening going.
God, it has been a massive year for me, a massive year of change, And to be honest, I wasn't expecting it because you know, when I had my midlife crisis a few years ago. By the way, totally recommend a midlife crisis, I thought that was it. I thought I'd have one cracking open year and then that would see me out, as my grand would say, But apparently not.
This year has been massive, so many changes to my work, to my financial situation, to my family situation, to my mental situation, to my social situation, and I there has been times where I thought I wasn't going to make it, as in like I was going to survive it. But it did get very hard, which was also kind of exhilarating because I love a challenge and I love a problem to solve, and I feel like now I'm there, I feel like, you know, I've bunkered down and I've
sorted a lot of stuff. So thank you for asking. What's been going on a lot, a damn lot.
All right, Well, we're going to do a fun one run. NBC wants to know. They said you're my absolute favorite on Big Brother. How did that change your life?
It is so funny because Big Brother changed my life irrevocably forever and in the best way. So I applied to do Big Brother. And just in case you're of an age where you don't know what that phenomenon was, it was a TV show that everybody watched. Was twenty one years ago. I applied to be on that show, and the reason I applied was because I thought it would be funny for my friends to see me in there.
And I never expected to get through the application process, and yet I did, and in true Chrissy style, once I was offered the opportunity to go in, it was deeply inconvenient. I was running my own business at the time, and anybody that runs their own business knows that that is not the sort of thing that you can readily outsource. So I was writing copy for the real estate industry and working from home. It's heaven me and my cat. It's is perfect. But I just thought, oh gosh, this
is deeply inconvenient and very difficult. But I can't say no. I'm going to have to I can't live with regret. And I know absolutely that had I made what was probably the sensible choice at the time to stay on my path and you know, know my limitations, I would have deeply regretted it. Absolutely. So I packed everything up
and moved into dream world. Ha ha. We' like you know, fourteen strangers that you know I never would have met otherwise, and everything about it appealed to me, and you know, speaking of sort of opting out of my business for a while. The girl that I got to run at God, I can't remember her name now, Pip, I think her name was. I shall call her.
I'll add it to the list.
Yeah, please do. So she ran the business and I said to her, listen, I'll be two weeks, Max. I'll be two weeks, Max, because i am not everyone's cup of tea, and I'm an unusual person to be in the Big Brother House and no one's gonna like me or vote to keep me in there. But it's going to be a great joke for my friends. So I'll see you in two weeks. Just do what you can in that time. Anyway. Of course, three months later I came out of the house and my life was irrevocably changed.
It changed the course of my career. It injected so much fun and risk and new learnings in my life. And I've just you know, I've never regretted it for a second. And I'm also not one of these people that don't want to talk about it. I don't understand that there are some, you know, people that have been on the show that deeply want to distance themselves from it because they, I mean, this might be wrong. But my interpretation has always been that it's beneath them now
because they've got different careers or whatever. But I'm so thrilled to talk about it, acknowledge it, be grateful for it. You know, I'll answer any questions. And it's so weird. As I said, it's twenty one years since I've done that show, and since then, I've done so many radio shows, so many television shows, and yet I am stopped more often than any of the other shows or anything else I've ever done to talk about Big Brother because it
was so massive at the time. I mean, I don't know, you're much younger than me, Rachel, but do you remember the juggernaut of Big Brother? It was huge.
I do, And I remember getting in a lot of trouble for trying to vote and racking up my home phone bill.
Because it was expensive. Yeah, it was huge.
Do you think that when you finished the show, though, that you felt like this was going to be the prefaces prefer Oh my god, that word, you know, precipice for the rest of your life.
Absolutely not, No, absolutely not. You know, a guy that I met recently sort of said that I was very, very naive, and initially I was like, Oh, fine, that's what you think. But the truth is I am naive and I love that about myself because what it means is it keeps life interesting. And I get myself into precarious situations that I then have to get myself out of, and that's interesting to me. I had absolutely no concept that I could work in radio or television. I was
an advertising copywriter, and I absolutely loved it. The thing is, I'd tried many many courses and careers before kind of backing myself to be a copywriter because I always thought that's such a cool job and I'm deeply uncool and that's too groovy for me. And then I I gave it a go and I loved it, and I was so proud of myself for doing what I wanted to do. So I had no desire at all to change careers. And when I came out of the house and the opportunity to start in radio was given to me, my
initial reaction was, Oh, my god, absolutely not. I'm thirty years old. I've worked very hard to get where I am and I'm very happy and I'm just going to go back to my life. But the bottom line is very soon I sort of worked out that my old life didn't exist anymore, and everybody knew who I was, and the guy that gave me my break in radio would not take no for an answer. His name is Mike Perso and he's still on air on Smooth and Breakfast, and he hounded me. I knocked him back four times.
In fact, I always say to him, it's the most I've ever been pursued by a man, magically or otherwise. He just would take no. He wouldn't take no for an answer. So eventually they were opening a new launching a new radio station on the Sunshine Coast, and he just was certain that I was the person for the job. And it became very apparent that I couldn't really do what I was doing before because it involved going into
people's houses to inspect their properties. And I would turn up and I was always u surprised by people's reaction because they knew who I was already and I didn't know them, and they wanted to talk to me about everything, and I want to talk to everyone about everything. And anyway, I just eventually called Mike and I said, listen, if I can bring my dog and I can drink coffee
in the studio. Then you've got yourself a deal. And I packed up my car and my dog and I moved to the Sunshine Coast and the rest is history.
And the interesting thing is that the minute I got into that studio, I knew that fate had drawn me a wonderful card, because I have loved it since the minute I got there, and just really enjoyed also the opportunity to have a new career at thirty, because at thirty you feel like you're old and you're done, and at forty you feel like you're old and you're done, and at fifty you feel like you're old and you're done.
But I really thought that I was established, so to have this brand new adventure has been a great gift.
Well, you've made some pretty great choices and decisions in your life, but Heidi Bert wants to know, have you ever made a decision in your life that you regret?
Don't believe in regret. I really don't. The closest I've come to a regret is this to Europe this year for the very first time, and I couldn't believe how much I loved it. And anybody that's been to Europe. Of course, you know what I'm talking about. It's just magical, the food, the weather, the architecture, the history, the freedom, the relaxed life, the sort of lack of rules. And I got to London and I was like, oh my god, I think this feeling I'm feeling, apart from joy, is regret.
Regret that I didn't move here when all my friends did, you know, in their twenties and get a job and go to the pub and get an English boyfriend, and you know, all that sort of stuff. But then I thought, you know what, Chrissy, remember that you can't regret anything because every decision that you make lee leads to something else fantastic. And you know, let's say, for example, I
did move to London when I was twenty three. So many things, so many opportunities, so many elements of the life that I love now, so many experiences that I've enjoyed in those decades would have gone forever, like you know, meeting my first significant boyfriend who I'm still friends with, who I caught up with in London, that would have
gone by the wayside. If I was still in London, I wouldn't have done Big Brother, So it goes back to my deeply sure feeling that you really cannot regret any decision that you make because every decision refracts like light into other amazing things, so you just can't.
I love that. Now, speaking of love, everyone wants to know, Yeah, are you ready to find romantic love again? This question was asked by Julie Assol.
Julie, you you have caused me a lot of a lot of thinking, walking time a lot. In fact, this question, more than any of the others, has really made me stop down and think, because my initial reaction to that question are you open to finding love again? Is oh, no,
absolutely not. And I think that that is kind of bluster, my kind of line, And you know, I suppose humorous take on it is you know that I'm blackhearted, and I joke with my co host on air, Jack Charles, on The Chrissy Swan Show that we don't believe in relationships and we can't do them and all of that, But I don't believe that that is actually true. The truth of the matter is I am a really good person and I love loving people and I get a lot out of it. But I also see, Julie, I've
really thought about this. I know myself well enough to know that I can really only divide my pool of love three ways. That's my maximum And at the moment, those three ways are to my children and to my listeners and my podcasters and my viewers. And I know that that sounds that would sound strange to a lot of people, but honestly, the connection I have with you guys is really in my top three things that bring me joy along with my kids. I just love it and I care so deeply about it that I need
to have the capacity to give that love freely. And it is a bit selfish too, because I get so much back from it. So the three kind of avenues of love to my children, who are going through some changes in their life, and they need to be front of mind for me because they're the most important people in my life. End of story. Then you guys come second. It's very important for me to be able to have the capacity and the energy and the mental real estate I call it, to be there for you and to
make each other's days. That feels like a really lovely exchange that I have. And then the third pool of love has to go to myself. And when one of those lesson the need, the requiremate the essential nature of one of those avenues lessons, then I may be able to consider a relationship. In the meantime, I'll get my fix from friends, and I'm a really good friend and I have beautiful friends, and at the moment that is
enough for me. I also don't like to do things half fast, and I feel like a relationship now for me would be deeply disappointing for whoever I'm in the relationship with, because they have expectations and that is fair, and I know that I can't meet those expectations in a way that would make me happy and proud.
So no romantic love on the cards anytime soon.
No, and that's it for another episode of the Christy Cast Live from the Compound, that very special Ask Me Anything series. There is another one coming at you, but I'm going to need a little lie down in a cup of tea first