Celebrity Masterchef has certainly pulled out some high-calibre celebs for its 2021 season, featuring the likes of Rebecca Gibney, Matt Le Nevez and Ian Thorpe.
However, no one expected the cast would contain one Collette Dinnigan, the famous Australian interior and fashion designer.
Collette seems to live a rather quiet life these days, and before COVID-19, was living happily in Italy with her entrepreneur husband, Bradley Cocks, and their son, Hunter.
The small family came home last November and settled into a home in Bowral in the NSW’ Southern Highlands.
While she’s had a high-profile career, Collette’s latest ventures have involved writing children’s books and launching a new ceramics line – Collette Dinnigan Ceramica.
Here, we’re taking a look at Collette’s idyllic-seeming family life.
Collette was born in South Africa in the 1960s, and emigrated to New Zealand with her family in the 1970s.
She would eventually move again to Australia, where she briefly worked for the ABC in their costume department before her design career began and quickly took off.
Her first line was lingerie, which saw great success, and was then followed up by a ready-to-wear collection in 1995.
Collette was actually the first Australian to launch a ready-to-wear collection in Paris, where she was asked to be in a ‘ready-to-wear’ parade.
After that success, she opened her first store in Paddington, in Sydney, but exported her clothes overseas as well. She worked with a number of high-profile retailers to create and sell her products, but ultimately decided to scale back her work in 2013.
Collette closed her stores and stopped production on her bridal and evening wear collections, citing that she wanted to spend more time with her family.
At the time, Collette had separated from her partner, Richard Wilkins.
Collette and Richard dated briefly in the early 2000s, and Collette gave birth to the youngest of Richard’s five kids, Estella Dinnigan Wilkins, in 2004.
To this day, they continue to co-parent Estella, who is now 17.
“I think for all children the most important thing is to know they are loved by both parents and that they are a priority in each of our lives, and that’s the case,” Collette said of her co-parenting relationship in 2015.
“There’s no right or wrong way, as long as your priorities are right.”
Collette gave birth to her and Bradley’s son, Hunter, in 2015. She was 47 at the time, and Bradley was 38.
“We are thrilled,” she said of the experience.
“You can’t expect to have a child at this age. We’re blessed.”
The family of three then went to live in Italy, where they split time between an apartment in Rome and a 500-year-old farmhouse in Puglia.
However, their return to Bowral was well-managed; the pair bought their house from Italy in 2018 and have spent the three years in the interim renovating it via FaceTime.
“I always look for comfort, that has to be instinctive when you walk in. For me, it’s about getting the colours and artwork right,” Collette told The Sydney Morning Herald of her new home.
As for Celebrity MasterChef, it wasn’t really in Collette’s plans.
“I actually said no a few times before I said yes. I have been told I am a good cook and I love cooking for friends and family,” she revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald.
“My passion is food, and when I gave it further thought, I figured I had nothing to lose.
“I decided to put myself out of my comfort zone and go for it. As you get older … you don’t take as many risks. I decided to change it up.”
We can’t wait to see Collette’s cooking on Celebrity MasterChef.
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