Nikki Osborne is one step closer to getting her paws on the Dancing with the Stars Mirror Ball Trophy – and her husband and children are her biggest supporters.
Taking out top honours would mean the world to the comedienne, who had long wanted to take part in the show. Even though she had something of a “tomboy upbringing”, Nikki, 43, says she still had a “passion for dresses, sequins and putting on dances” for her “poor parents”.
New Idea is catching up with the competition’s dark horse at her home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. She’s been busy rehearsing with her partner, long-time DWTS alum Aric Yegudkin.
It is thanks to Aric that Nikki’s initial nerves about taking to the dance floor are very much a thing of the past.
“I was terrified! But I’ve been beaten into shape,” she tells us. “There was one day where I went from having to keep my leg straight to having to bend my knees for everything because there’s all different rules across all the different dances. So, I kept keeping them straight and Aric would come behind me and kick them!”
The first dance Nikki tackled was the cha-cha-cha. The judges advised she needed to “dance her height” after Nikki constantly looked down.
“I was taller than Aric and as a result, I wasn’t ‘standing proud like a ballerina’,” she says.
The judges did balance out that critique by complimenting Nikki and Aric’s “ambitious moves”.
“Particularly in the cha-cha … I still don’t understand the mechanics of it,” she says. “I earned a lot of bruises during that number!”
When it comes to Nikki’s cheerleaders, they don’t come much louder than her husband Jeremy, their sons Will, 16, and Teddy, 12, and Whisky, the family’s beloved red golden retriever. Nikki says that Jeremy has been “playing Mr Mum” while she “goes hard” with DWTS and her career for the next little while.
“I packed my bags and ran away into the sunset!” she says with a laugh. “I’ve worked out that he is way better at parenting, and the kids are more level-headed with him around than me.
“I think the whole time it was just me that was stirring them up!”
When it comes to their mum being famous, Nikki says her boys “hated it briefly”, but that DWTS is something they approved of her doing.
“It’s my social media that drives my eldest, Will, crazy because I still behave like I’m a proper person, not a mum!” she explains. “I’m not posting about Thermomix or dog memes, instead I’m still out there causing trouble. And that does drive them a little bit nuts.”
Win or lose, once the DWTS finale airs Nikki tells us she’ll be heading to a quiet island with her family before tackling her next big project. On top of being a mum and comedienne, she is also an actress, writer, and national columnist.
It it will be a “phones down” holiday, with Nikki planning on doing “absolutely nothing. I’m just going to sit, eat, drink, and roll around to the next room.”
She might, however, put her new, DWTS-acquired strength to use.
“Normally, carrying my suitcase is a nightmare! But now I can carry everyone’s suitcases like it’s nothing,” Nikki tells us with one final laugh. “Honestly, I’m just in it for the dresses and to get a tight butt – and I’ve started to get a great one!”
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