Twenty years ago, the stars aligned for Aussie sweetheart Johanna Griggs. In 2005, the former swim champion not only took over as host of Better Homes and Gardens but also realised she’d finally met the love of her life.
Down-to-earth builder Todd Huggins, who Johanna wed the following year, taught the single mum to trust again, after her painfully brief, high-profile marriage to actor Gary Sweet.
“Failure is the greatest lesson in the world,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly in a wide-ranging interview.
“The greatest opportunities in my life, the greatest lessons I’ve learnt, and the greatest pivot points where you totally change direction, have come from my failures. And that’s not a bad thing.”

Johanna readily admits she’s faced her share of struggles, from divorce to chronic fatigue syndrome and cruel criticism of her first efforts as a TV presenter. More recently, Todd was hospitalised with a scary infection following surgery to remove skin cancer. Luckily, he pulled through and was fighting fit to celebrate his 50th last June with a family trip to NSW’s Hunter Valley organised by Johanna’s sons Joe and Jesse Sweet.
It was “total chaos, madness, and endless laughs”, Johanna wrote on Instagram.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the boys.”
At the age of 24, it was a very different story for Johanna. She was single, broke, and devastated after being fired by fax while on maternity leave from her first job at Channel Seven. Left alone with two toddlers to support, she moved back in with her parents and set out to turn her life around.

Today at 51, the youthful grandmother is blissfully happy both personally and professionally. With BH&G marking its 30th year on air in the coming weeks (it premiered on January 24, 1995), it’s a great chance to look back with its evergreen star.
“We don’t ever try and find a negative angle on anyone,” Johanna has said of the multi-award-winning lifestyle juggernaut.
“You realise what a privilege it is to work on a show that has been part of people’s lives.
“We go to things with three, sometimes four, generations,” she gushed to TV Tonight. Johanna added that the BH&G team noticed “an upswing” during the COVID pandemic because “people wanted comfort, something positive”.

Survivor Johanna can find the bright side in almost anything, including, sadly, her unsuccessful attempts at IVF and adoption with Todd.
“He said, ‘I think it’s the universe telling us just to stop. It’s not going to happen for us,’” Johanna once shared.
Fast forward to March 2018 and a new baby entered the couple’s lives regardless, courtesy of Joe’s cute-as-a-button son Jax.
“He’s just the light of our lives,” self-styled ‘Joh-nanna’ told 7news.com.au. “It is so nice to have a little kid [around] again.”
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