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She started the year by being crowned Queen of the Jungle on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, and ended it having released her own music, being seen in ubiquitous grocery ads, and feeling great after losing more than 36kg.
For 29-year-old Casey Donovan, 2017 “has been full-on,” the singer concedes to WHO as one of the magazine’s stars of the year, “but it’s been awesome.”
Q: You are doing the New Year’s Eve countdown this year with Jimmy Barnes, Marcia Hines and more. Excited?
A: I am. Look, it’s going to a great night. It’s going to be a fun night. The lineup is absolutely amazing and finishing the year with a bang.
Q: You got to release your EP, Off the Grid. Good to finally get that out there?
A: It’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been promising the world new music for 11 years so to finally have it out there where people can purchase it, it’s an amazing feeling. It’s a great accomplishment. It all started from me putting everything on the line and getting a Kickstarter campaign happening, and getting the money and then going into the jungle and not thinking that entirely through, and then coming out the other side and winning and having my whole life turned around and then to have a product that is mine, that has been crowd-funded with everyday Australians helping me out, it’s an amazing feeling, an amazing accomplishment, and to have had a tour this year, taking the songs around Australia and sharing them with my fans has been an absolute highlight of this year.
Q: And you did finally get to spend time with Kris Smith in June.
A: [Laughs] We did go for one walk, yeah! It was nice. Our schedules let us have that day. But I love my jungle family. I just spent a weekend down in Melbourne with Ash [Pollard] and caught up with Ash. They are friendships like no other. You are put in certain circumstances, situations where you have to befriend people and find them out very quickly and you kind of shoot through the ones you didn’t really have much in common with, which happens, it’s just life in general, but the friends I have made out of that show are just, we got to go through something special together and now we’re back in the real world and it’s even bigger and better.
Q: What’s coming up in 2018?
A: I’m going on a holiday. Yes! I finally get a holiday. I’ve never been to the States so I was looking up flights the other day and I just booked them. My mum is coming up, and there are a lot of exciting things and more meetings to reassess if Australia is where I need to be or if I need to piss off overseas. I’m hopefully going to be able to catch up with Carson [Kressley] in New York and, you know, just have fun. Live a little! I always feel like being in the public eye since I was 16. There’s that little bit of me that goes, ‘Ah, I feel like I’ve missed out on a section of my life,’ so hopefully I’ll get the travel bug and just experience things.
Q: You also mentioned that romance could be on the cards?
A: Look, I love romance and it’s one thing I always come back to. It’s so tricky. I was talking to my mate just before and I was like, I feel like there is something wrong with my emotions? Like sometimes I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’d love a boyfriend and I’d love someone to come home to’ but then I’m like, ‘But then I couldn’t stay down in Melbourne for a few days and I don’t have to answer to anyone.’ I just need to find someone to feed my cat. I love the single life, but then I get home and I’m like, aw! Aw. I can’t have my cake and eat it too. It will happen when it happens and I’ve just got to stop being impatient.
To hear more from Casey and to see the Best and Worst in news and celebrity in 2017, pick up the bumper special issue of WHO on newsstands today.
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