{"id":867450,"date":"2026-08-25T04:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867450\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T04:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:22:16","slug":"front-row-tina-arenas-tearful-confession-and-a-listers-mysterious-interview-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867450\/","title":{"rendered":"Front Row: Tina Arena\u2019s tearful confession and A-lister\u2019s mysterious interview exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Front Row is a new weekly column on nine.com.au bringing you behind the scenes of some of the Aussie entertainment industry\u2019s biggest parties, premieres, and more.\u00a0Got a tip? Email us at frontrow@nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

This week,\u00a0Front Row<\/a>\u00a0took a seat at Tina Arena\u2019s 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…<\/p>\n

Tina Arena comes to town <\/p>\n

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

\"Tina<\/p>\n

Tina Arena sat down for a Q&A in Sydney\u00a0Instagram\/@TinaArena<\/p>\n

Front Row caught the third and final event of the day at Cremorne\u2019s Hayden Orpheum, and it was packed to the rafters.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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\u2019d expect from someone who had spent the entire day talking about herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019ve had a couple of really surreal weeks where I kind of don\u2019t have a f–king clue what\u2019s going on,\u201d she told the crowd to a sea of applause.<\/p>\n

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

Instead, she spoke fondly of Young Talent Time host Johnny Young<\/a>, who passed away recently following a battle with cancer. The documentary \u2013 which features what is believed to be his final recorded interview \u2013 is dedicated entirely to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me a bit sad that people sort of looked at him as a little bit daggy and he was kind of discarded\u2026\u201d she said, pausing to honour her mentor. \u201cSo I always made sure I paid tribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 45-minute chat was emotional. Arena\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"Tina<\/p>\n

Tina Arena paid tribute to Johnny Young, the man that launched her career on Young Talent Time. \u00a0Instagram\/@Tinaarena<\/p>\n

\":<\/p>\n

Tina Arena at the opening night of the Cartier exhibition.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Her parents are her whole world, though they couldn\u2019t protect her from everything growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up an ethnic in the 1970s \u2013 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,\u201d she shared. \u201cI\u2019d be like …. what have I done?\u201d<\/p>\n

She refused to stoop to their level in response, and she says that\u2019s because of the way she was raised. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents always said, \u2018Treat people the way you want to be treated.\u2019 I was raised by two of the most exquisite humans, whom I\u2019m still privileged to have with us today. All we ever wanted to do was make them proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to pick up your phone, darl?\u201d she cracked with a laugh, completely losing her spot.<\/p>\n

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

A-lister\u2019s mysterious exit <\/p>\n

It takes serious stamina to front the media when your personal life is making headlines \u2013 and one star decided she simply wasn\u2019t playing ball at a recent junket.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

By nightfall, she was back on duty without missing a beat, leaving everyone wondering just how much went on behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

Surely, celebrities are allowed to chuck sickies just like the rest of us, right?<\/p>\n

A brush with some Real Housewives<\/p>\n

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\u2019s come to their upcoming seasons, others were happier to throw people under the bus.<\/p>\n

Aussie star of the Real Housewives of London Juliet Mayhew was paired with Below Deck\u2019s Captain Jason Chambers, and she was quick to remind him of one of his worst days at work.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

\"Juliet<\/p>\n

Juliet Mayhew couldn\u2019t resist taking a swipe at Jason Chambers.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

Well, he was stumped on that one and Mayhew jumped into offer a suggestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI may sail a ship, but I certainly won\u2019t \u2026 ground a ship into a port in Cairns,\u201d she said with a devilish laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had to bring that up didn\u2019t you?\u201d he snapped back.<\/p>\n

The cheeky dig was in reference to a super yacht crash back in 2019, when Chambers was steering the ship up in North Queensland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saved the ship,\u201d he quickly reiterated.<\/p>\n

Safe to say, crashing multi-million dollar boats will not be the line he\u2019s leading with\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Front Row is a new weekly column on nine.com.au bringing you behind the scenes of some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-867450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}