"I WAS unemployed, living in a foreign country and paying rent out of my savings when The Bachelor Australia hosting job appeared two years ago.
Stephen Tate, the network executive who gave me my job on Australian Idol, asked if I would like to do it. And so for the second time in my career hes put me on prime-time TV and given me a career again. 
Lightning doesnt strike twice in my industry, so to have a second shot in a completely different format is amazing. Im so lucky.
I first met Stephen in a strange little meeting room at Channel 10 in 2003. At the time I was blond and crazy and hadnt shaved in a week, Id turned up in a T-shirt.
Greg Burness, who was the executive producer on Australian Idol, remembers that first meeting. Apparently I walked in there, put my feet on the desk and said, So, why should I come and be on your show?
At the time, [Idol co-host] James Mathison and I were on Channel [V]. This was before YouTube. We were the coolest of the cool kids. We were running around the world with AAA passes on our neck at every festival on the planet. We had bands phone numbers, we were getting invited to private parties. That was the reality of our world.
I guess you could say I was kind of arrogant back then but at the time it didnt occur to me as anything horrible. It was more like, How could I possibly be doing a job that is cooler than the job Ive got now?
The launch of Idol was completely bonkers. Thankfully Id had a bit of a warm up to getting recognised on the street, but for Idol it was just a whole other world. How did I deal with it? I just kind of held on with both hands.
It got a bit weird around 2006 when people would start to tackle me in the street. About one in 40 guys would come over and try to start a fi ght. I never knew what was coming my way. It got a bit frightening at that point.
But I have to say with that, a lot of it was my own attitude towards it. I projected that energy on to people and so thats what I got back.
Now, Ive had a lot of stuff go on in my life so I try very hard to see it as a compliment and thats what it is. Plus people tend not to run at me anymore which is nice."
THE BACHELOR
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY, 7.30PM, TEN