Neighbours star hits back after being labelled a nepo-baby – can you guess her 90s rock legend dad?
The 37-year-old actress and model had a five-year stint on the Australian soap, playing Chloe Brennan from 2018 to 2023.
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Starting off her career by modelling in her teens, her proud parents have been seen cheering her on.
While she admits her famous rocker dad's famous lineage does 'play on her mind' she insists she made a name for herself on her own merit and doesn't appreciate the term.
Her parents? Iconic rocker, INXS guitarist and saxophonist Kirk Pengilly, and accessories designer Karen Hutchinson.
In a new interview with Stellar magazine this weekend, April says she doesn't want to live in her famous dad's shadow.
Revealing when she started her career at 16, she immediately hit the road without using her family's name.
'Eventually people figured it out. I'm glad I did it though, because I basically proved to myself that I could make it work,' she said.
'Anything written about me, they'd usually bring my father into it. I'd see comments, and any success I had, it was, 'Oh, it's just because of her dad.',' she added.
'That does play on your mind.'
She credits her role in Neighbours for being taken seriously as an actress, particularly thanks to UK viewers – where the soap had a devoted fanbase – not realising the connection.
However, she became so beloved on the show that she joked fans approach her father and call him 'April's dad' instead of her being considered just 'Kirk's daughter'.
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Now, as she prepares to marry fiancé Adam Paul in a 'fairytale' French wedding next month, she's vowed not to give up her surname.
'I've had this name my whole life, so I do feel attached to it. It makes me feel close to my dad, that it's his name,' she explained.
Parents Kirk and Karen were together for 10 years, with April – born in 1988 – their only child.
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