Front Row: Tina Arena’s tearful confession and A-lister’s mysterious interview exit

Front Row is a new weekly column on nine.com.au bringing you behind the scenes of some of the Aussie entertainment industry’s biggest parties, premieres, and more. Got a tip? Email us at frontrow@nine.com.au.

This week, Front Row took a seat at Tina Arena’s emotional Q&A in Sydney, saw what some of the Real Housewives cast were really like and spotted an A-lister making a swift exit in the middle of a full day of press interviews...

Tina Arena comes to town

A scorching Sunday in Sydney could never stop the diehards catching a sit-down Tina Arena, who was in town for three live Q&As and back-to-back screenings of her new documentary, Tina Arena: Unravel Me.

Front Row caught the third and final event of the day at Cremorne’s Hayden Orpheum, and it was packed to the rafters.

The doco laid bare the darker side of fame, from constant public scrutiny to failed ventures across her five-decade career. Fans clapped and cheered, before the woman of the hour stepped out for a live Q&A hosted by comedian Mary Coustas (aka Effie).

When hit with the generic question of how it felt to finally put the film out into the world, Arena answered with all the candour you’d expect from someone who had spent the entire day talking about herself.

“Look, I’ve had a couple of really surreal weeks where I kind of don’t have a f--king clue what’s going on,” she told the crowd to a sea of applause.

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Surreal might be an understatement. Days earlier, a long-standing suppression order was lifted, unmasking her ex-husband, Ralph Carr, as a convicted rapist. While Carr is referenced in the documentary, Arena refused to give him a single second of airtime during the Q&A session.

Instead, she spoke fondly of Young Talent Time host Johnny Young, who passed away recently following a battle with cancer. The documentary – which features what is believed to be his final recorded interview – is dedicated entirely to him.

“It made me a bit sad that people sort of looked at him as a little bit daggy and he was kind of discarded…” she said, pausing to honour her mentor. “So I always made sure I paid tribute.”

The 45-minute chat was emotional. Arena’s voice cracked whenever she spoke about her parents, who migrated to Melbourne from Valguarnera, Italy, in the 1950s to raise Tina and her two sisters.

Her parents are her whole world, though they couldn’t protect her from everything growing up.

“I grew up an ethnic in the 1970s – I was bullied to within an inch of my life. I used to have people waiting for me outside the school so they could bash me up,” she shared. “I’d be like .... what have I done?”

She refused to stoop to their level in response, and she says that’s because of the way she was raised.

“My parents always said, ‘Treat people the way you want to be treated.’ I was raised by two of the most exquisite humans, whom I’m still privileged to have with us today. All we ever wanted to do was make them proud.”

It was raw, unfiltered, and delightfully off-the-cuff. At one point, right in the middle of a passionate train of thought about sisterhood, she caught a fan looking at their screen.

“Do you want to pick up your phone, darl?” she cracked with a laugh, completely losing her spot.

Tina Arena is quite the icon, and spending an afternoon in her presence made it clear why her reign has lasted 50 years.

A-lister’s mysterious exit

It takes serious stamina to front the media when your personal life is making headlines – and one star decided she simply wasn’t playing ball at a recent junket.

After a tense morning of duty, she quietly pulled the plug on the rest of her daytime schedule, leaving handlers to smooth over the sudden gap.

By nightfall, she was back on duty without missing a beat, leaving everyone wondering just how much went on behind closed doors.

Surely, celebrities are allowed to chuck sickies just like the rest of us, right?

A brush with some Real Housewives

Front Row got to sit down with Housewives royalty ahead of the recent Hayu FanFest in Sydney and while some of the stars were keen to spill on what’s come to their upcoming seasons, others were happier to throw people under the bus.

Aussie star of the Real Housewives of London Juliet Mayhew was paired with Below Deck’s Captain Jason Chambers, and she was quick to remind him of one of his worst days at work.

The hunky and very single boat captain has spent his fair share of time around the Housewives, so we asked him the obvious question, if he was a housewife, what would his tagline be?

Well, he was stumped on that one and Mayhew jumped into offer a suggestion.

“I may sail a ship, but I certainly won’t … ground a ship into a port in Cairns,” she said with a devilish laugh.

“You had to bring that up didn’t you?” he snapped back.

The cheeky dig was in reference to a super yacht crash back in 2019, when Chambers was steering the ship up in North Queensland.

“I saved the ship,” he quickly reiterated.

Safe to say, crashing multi-million dollar boats will not be the line he’s leading with…