Since he started reading the news on-screen at 19, the key to Larry Emdur’s phenomenal – and enduring – success has been his joyful disposition.
In fact, it’s what earned him the title of cheeriest star on Australian TV.
WATCH BELOW: Larry Edmur starts hilarious rumour Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have separated.
It’s a quality that Larry, 57, credits to his beautiful mum Faye, who joined her son for an exclusive photo shoot with New Idea at his Sydney Harbour apartment.
“Mum always sees the positive side of everyone and every story. It’s made me who I am today,” The Morning Show host tells us.
Faye, however, thinks her dashing boy was just born that way.
“We’d picked out the name Michael, after my husband’s father who’d recently passed away,” Faye explains.
“But as soon as I saw him, I knew it didn’t suit. Even as a newborn he was so happy – happy as Larry. It just stuck.
“When I told my dad what we chose, he said Larry was a name for a man who was going places and that’s sure turned out to be true.”
Born a star
Larry concedes to being somewhat of a reluctant celebrity, confessing he only took his first overnight job at a newspaper so his days were free to pursue his dream of becoming a pro surfer.
Yet Faye knows it was his destiny.
“Larry was born yelling and screaming. He’s stayed centre stage his whole life,” she says with a hearty laugh.
Alongside Larry’s dad Dave, who died in 2004, Faye has raised three highly successful kids: Larry and his sisters Nicki, a psychologist, and talented artist Martine.
Faye’s secret to raising a trio of high achievers is “plenty of chicken soup, loving everyone equally and raising them without a lot of loud voices in the house.”
While Larry recalls some “epic battles” in his youth, as he and his sisters vied to show off their achievements on Mum’s cork board, he uses one word to sum up his childhood – “happy”.
“It was spent doing simple things … heading to the beach for a swim and having fish and chips together,” he recalls.
“Happiness back then didn’t mean having 100,000 likes on Instagram.”
Memory lane
It was while visiting the pools in Bondi – the old stomping ground of his carefree youth – that Larry first got the idea for his new memoir, Happy As.
“I was drinking a coffee and watching a family sitting on the benches. The parents and kids were all glued to their phones – tapping away on their phones and iPads,” he explains.
“It was the same spot where my parents would have sat hundreds of times watching us play – it made me nostalgic for the past and grateful that I grew up when I did.”
Perfect match
On top of helping him develop the chirpy TV persona that has made him one of our favourite stars, Larry’s family have been instrumental in other areas of his life, like finding his true love.
Larry wed wife Sylvie in 1994 and the pair share two kids – daughter Tia, 23, and son Jye, 28.
“Larry came home one day and said that night he was going to introduce us to the girl he was going to marry,” recalls Faye.
“I warned his sisters to be on their best behaviour but everything that could have gone wrong did – I thought we’d never see her again.”
Years later, the Emdurs discovered it was their chaos that actually won Larry’s beautiful date over.
“Sylvie’s mum, Ella, told me after that night she’d called to say, ‘I’ve met a real family!”’
Watch Below: Larry Birkhead and Dannielynn’s ADORABLE daddy-daughter dance.
Ups and downs
During his almost-four decades in the public eye, Larry has had some surreal experiences.
He counts interviewing comedians Robin Williams and Joan Rivers among his biggest highlights.
That being said, it hasn’t always been a bed of roses.
“From a very early age I knew I needed to move on from hard news,” Larry confesses. “I didn’t want to be the person telling the country about all the bad stuff.”
After a stint as an evening newsreader for Channel Seven, Larry found his sweet spot when he switched to hosting popular game shows including The Price is Right.
In 2007 he teamed up with Kylie Gillies to co-host The Morning Show. “It’s very much my forte, getting to be the upbeat clown guy of Australian TV,” he says with a laugh.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Larry has struggled with the depressing news cycle.
“It’s been two years of reporting COVID numbers and COVID deaths,” he says.
But commencing work on Happy As turned out to be very therapeutic.
“I look back over my life and I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been,” he says. “Though there are a few stories about what I got up to in panel vans I’d rather mum not read!”
For more, pick up a copy of New Idea. On sale now!
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
