As Deborah Hutton admits she is “thrilled” to turn 60, the TV presenter confirms her new love and her relationship with Andrew Marsh for the first time, saying it has given her “peacefulness and joy”.
For years, one of Deborah Hutton’s closest friends had a secret nickname for her. Observing her madly busy life and the fact she was never without a project – whether building a house, hosting a TV show or designing a homewares range – her friend privately dubbed her “Frantic”.
“Until recently, she was never game enough to tell me,” says Hutton, laughing at the amusing yet accurate moniker.
“She was right, I was like a hamster on a wheel, trying to do too many things at once and always loading myself up. I’d say, ‘Yes, I can do that, or yes, I’ll do that.’ Always thinking that once I’d finished, I could relax.”
Then the pandemic struck, and Hutton found herself catapulted off the self-imposed treadmill she’d been on for nearly 45 years.
Lockdown brought the television show she was filming to a sudden halt; the demands of her corporate partnerships fell away and even her charitable work entered a hiatus.
The woman who hates being late and never leaves the house without checking the traffic app on her phone had finally been granted the sabbatical she’d long hankered for.
“It’s the first time I’ve had three months off since I started working at 16,” she told Stellar.
“Everything came to a standstill; email traffic went down, and I embraced the fact I could step out of my life for a minute and explore a bit of inner peace. There’s an energy and it’s quite beautiful when it’s not that frenetic kind of crazy we tend to live in.”
While the model-turned-magazine editor-turned-TV host is the first to acknowledge that Covid has been a challenge for many, it came at a pivotal moment in her own life. Caring for her mother through ill health, dealing with a second confronting episode with skin cancer and with her 60th birthday just a few months away, the style icon says lockdowns have led her to reconsider and reset.
“It’s been a life-changing experience,” she says via a Zoom call from her luxurious home – now up for sale – in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. As the computer screen frames her in front of soaring pitched ceilings and a sleek kitchen, it is difficult to imagine anyone wanting to give up such a beautiful home.
But Hutton wants to shake things up. She’d like to build another house, possibly closer to her mum in the Southern Highlands, and is keen to embrace a simpler, pared-back life.
“I feel much more enlightened about my path forward,” she says enthusiastically.
“Covid gave me more time after years of being insanely busy, and with that came a deep feeling of calm. I’m 60 in December and, it’s hilarious, but I feel better than I’ve ever felt.”
Having memorably marked her 50th birthday with a nude photo shoot, Hutton has no plans to strip off a decade on, even though she’s lost 6kg during the latest lockdown thanks to cutting out alcohol and sugar.
As well as focusing on her diet, she’s started meditating, has got her sleep-in check thanks to melatonin and has added a stationary bike to her usual routine of walking and playing golf.
“I’ve really focused on my health, and I feel so much stronger,” she says.
“I’m not really calorie counting, just making sure that I’m consuming less. I love cooking, so it’s really exciting making beautiful meals with lots of vegetables and spices. I’m drinking lots of water and then a couple of times a week I’ll have shakes with all those good probiotics and stuff.”
One of the nation’s best-known personalities since gracing the cover of Cosmopolitan at the age of 16, Hutton has in recent years epitomised a certain agelessness as she moved on from being an ambassador for Myer and an editor on the Australian Women’s Weekly to a portfolio-style career.
Alongside hosting multiple lifestyle programs – she was midway through filming Find Your Dream Home for Foxtel when lockdown struck – she launched an online platform, Balance by Deborah Hutton, and designed homeware ranges for both Kmart and MyHouse.
But even impeccable style and hair that defies the decades hasn’t protected her from the usual age-related deteriorations. Having torn a gluteal tendon earlier this year and with osteoarthritis developing in her knee, Hutton says she wanted to be in the best shape possible for what she considers may be the last 20 years of her life.
“I’m actually thrilled about turning 60,” she says.
“Fifty was something I had to really wrangle with in my head, but 60 is just a bloody gift. The body started to break down a bit this year, but I’m happy because it’s a real privilege to get to this age and be able to be very, very comfortable in yourself.”
Casually dressed in a navy T-shirt, white jeans, and sneakers, she certainly looks both energetic and peaceful as she contemplates the lifestyle changes ahead.
“There’s an acceptance and joy in not pretending to be something for other people,” she says.
“Over the years I’ve had to be a certain way for work and others but there’s a great freedom in really liking who you are and knowing that while there are imperfections, it’s about accepting and understanding where you’ve come in life.”
Hutton’s Surgery
It was that ethos that prompted her to share the confronting images of her facial scars following life-saving surgery to remove aggressive skin cancers in 2020. Hutton’s Instagram post, which showed the large raw scars criss-crossed with stitches, was accompanied by a caption in which she expressed her relief and gratitude that her surgeon had managed to get all the diseased cells.
While her face is central to her work, instead of feeling sorry for herself, she decided to turn the experience into something positive. She urged followers to get their skin checked, pointing out that her cancers – which reappeared on the site of a previous basal cell carcinoma – weren’t visible to the naked eye.
Yet more than a year later, she still shudders when she recalls the diagnosis.
“It was horrifying, and I was in shock about it. They took such a chunk the first time, so I didn’t know what I was going to end up with. They just keep cutting until they get the margins [around the cancer] and you just have to hope it hasn’t spread halfway across your face.”
Afterwards she was told the cancers had been caught just in time, a realisation that prompted her to become an advocate for skin-cancer awareness.
“It’s funny how life works out,” she says.
“Through that experience of having a second significant skin cancer, I’ve been able to turn that into something that’s really helped others, so I go, ‘Wow, what a gift.’”
Among the thousands who responded to her Instagram image was a specialist sunhat company called Rigon Headwear, which pointed out that so many of the hats we wear don’t give adequate protection. Hutton, a keen golfer, had no idea.
“I had just assumed that any hat gave you full protection from the sun,” she says.
Determined to spread the message, she began working with the family-owned company to produce a range of sophisticated hats made with UPF50+ material, including some that are
crush-resistant, water-friendly and perfect for travelling. Among the styles, which include the fedora-shaped “Bonville” and the trilby-style “Paros”, is a wide-brimmed hat designed in honour of Hutton’s late friend, Carla Zampatti.
“I wanted to acknowledge her enormous contribution to Australian fashion and felt this was a suitable way to remember her, having known her since I started modelling in the early ’80s,” she says.
Losing friends and family members, including her two brothers – one from liver cancer and the other from epilepsy following an accident – along with caring for her mum through a small stroke last year, has concentrated Hutton’s mind on making the most of the years ahead.
She has missed seeing her mum during lockdown, but says she is surrounded by friends and confirms she is in a relationship. Hutton, who was in a relationship with PR supremo Harry M Miller for 11 years, has been guarded about her private life since former boyfriend Robert Dulhunty was in 2019 convicted of stalking and intimidation after staging a break-in at her home.
Her relationship with meditation teacher Andrew Marsh also made headlines when he was convicted of cocaine possession in 2020, but all she will say about the romance is that it has brought her happiness.
“It’s something that’s really lovely in my life,” she said.
“I not only share that with him but also with some very, very close friends.”
Asked what the relationship brings to her life, she says it has given her “peacefulness and joy” and that she feels “anchored”.
Indeed, having recently read through some of the diaries she’s kept since she started working in October 1978, she’s finally considering writing a book.
“I’ve not ever lived a conventional life and I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but it’s something I needed time and space to do,” she says.
And so, with an autobiography to pen and plans to build a new house – though she’ll keep a bolthole in Sydney – the woman once dubbed “Frantic” sounds like she’ll be returning to her old ways before too long. She laughs at the suggestion, insisting that the simpler lifestyle is here to stay.
“I’m very open and excited about where nature is going to take me,” she says.
“I was walking with a mate the other day and I found myself smiling and I turned and said, ‘I couldn’t be happier right now.’ I don’t want to grow up, I still want to be the 16-year-old rebel. But there’s a lot of love in my life, and I’m just very happy.”
