Emma Harrison shot to fame as the bubbly Joanna Hartman on Neighbours, before becoming a regular in men’s magazines. Her rising career then took her to the UK and the US, where she spent 12 years rubbing shoulders with A-listers, including George Clooney and Matthew McConaughey.
Watch: Bonnie Anderson sings the new Neighbours theme song
Emma acted with George in the 2003 rom-com, Intolerable Cruelty, and tells New Idea: “When George walks in the room, all the women melt. But, I’ll never forget meeting Matthew McConaughey. I was speechless when I met him … I was like a school girl.”
Emma, now 47, eventually returned home to Australia in 2011, where she appeared in local TV movie, Schapelle, before turning her back on the entertainment industry. She does admit to New Idea that she occasionally misses her time overseas.
“Those were really fun, exciting days and sometimes I miss them, but at this stage in my life, family and being a mum are more important to me,” she says. “I did have a fun time overseas and I don’t have any regrets by any means, but everything has a season, and that season ended.”
Emma – who is mum to 9-year-old daughter Jemima – is now happily working as a property manager on the Gold Coast and reveals that she is in a wonderful relationship.
“I have a lovely new partner, his name is Cade,” she says. “I also have a stepson, who is 8, and my little girl, so I am very busy with family and my business.”
But the journey to her happy relationship wasn’t a smooth one for Emma, who did some soul-searching after a bitter break-up.
“I really took time out to be by myself and work out what am I doing wrong and what do I need to do,” she says.
“I think the key is to love yourself and respect yourself and know that you are worth a loving partner, [and] I have that now. I have the most wonderful partner and I am in a really good place mentally, spiritually and emotionally.”
At the height of her fame, Emma was also a successful glamour model posing for Playboy, Maxim and even gracing the cover of FHM with fellow Aussie, Isla Fisher.
While she admits that she has no regrets, Emma certainly won’t be showing her raunchy magazine shoots to her daughter.
“Oh, it’s all hidden, it’s all locked away in the cupboards,” she laughs. “I probably won’t ever show her to be honest. I don’t display them, let’s just say that.”
As a self-described “reluctant celebrity”, Emma has spoken openly about struggling in the limelight at such a young age. While she is grateful for the opportunities it has afforded her, she hopes that Jemima won’t follow in her footsteps. “Look, I wouldn’t be pushing her into that industry.”
Read more in this week’s New Idea, on sale now.
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