The House Rules judge talks about his daughter and adding to his family
- by
Zoe Burrell
After 12 years of splitting his time between Australia and the United States, where he worked with Oprah Winfrey and hosted several hit lifestyle programs, Jamie’s feet are firmly back on the ground in Oz as he takes on his latest role as a judge on House Rules.
Channel 7
While our favourite designer is thrilled to be back on home soil, returning Down Under has also been bittersweet for Jamie because it meant leaving his daughter, Taylor, who is based in the US.
“I do [miss her], I really do,” he tells New Idea. “But we communicate all the time on Instagram and she sends me funny little titbits every couple of days and I send her stuff back. It’s fun.”
Plus, Taylor stills loves to visit Dad in Australia. “She does come home quite often,” beams Jamie.
Despite still being his little girl, Taylor is all grown up and is following in her dad’s gardening footsteps.
“She is now in floral design which is really quite great,” gushes Jamie. “So we actually get to work together these days which is really fun.”
In fact, for the last 15 years Jamie has been designing furniture for his company Durie Design, and he regularly asks his daughter to help him out. “She helped me with a couple of my launches,” Jamie reveals.
“She came over and she did the flowers for my Pottery Barn launch in New York and San Francisco.”
It’s clear that Jamie’s daughter means the world to him and when asked if he would want to do it all over again and have another kid, Jamie doesn’t hesitate. “Oh yeah, absolutely!”
But, when it comes to his dating life, Jamie is tight-lipped, preferring to keep his personal life on the down low.
Although babies could be on the cards in the future, Jamie is currently keeping busy in his new role as a judge on the latest season of House Rules.
“It’s really exciting and nice to be back with the Channel Seven family,” says Jamie. “I spent many years working with them and did a lot of great shows.”
For our full interview with Jamie, check out this week's issue of New Idea.