This story is part of the July 7 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories . Daniel MacPherson is an actor and triathlete, best known for hosting Dancing with the Stars .
Here, the 44-year-old shares his memories of learning to bet on horses with his grandmother, how he juggles co-parenting and the key to a good relationship. “At 18, I was on the cover of Dolly and mobbed at shopping centre appearances.” Credit: Justin Aveling My maternal grandmother, Grace Hudson, of British and Irish descent and was wiry, with a quick, dry wit.
She smoked menthol cigarettes and was married to my grandfather, Don, for over 50 years — despite him being lost, feared dead, for 18 months in the Torres Strait during World War II. A severe stroke in her 50s slowed Grace down, but 2KY racing always played from kitchen radio. She took me to the TAB, aged four, and taught me how to fill in a betting slip.
Perhaps it was her early influence that started my lifelong passion for thoroughbred horses. My mother, Anne, is dynamic, optimistic and extroverted, which often serves as a mask for a very deep, sensitive, intuitive soul. She was a hands-on mum who discovered her passion for jewellery design and manufacture in her late 40s.
These days, she’s known as Annie Diamonds. Back in 1997, Mum answered the home phone one night. The call was from the acting manager I’d met a few weeks earlier and had never got back to.
Mum eventually negotiated for me to audition at the company’s offices in Glebe.