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Deborah Knight set to make TV comeback with a Nine daytime news gig after 'quitting 2GB role'

Deborah Knight set to make TV comeback with a Nine daytime news gig after 'quitting 2GB role'

Daily Mail​8 hours ago

Deborah Knight is tipped to return to television after reportedly stepping away from her role on 2GB's Money News.
The seasoned journalist, who boasts a media career spanning three decades, is rumoured to be making a move back to TV to front Nine's daytime news bulletin.
It comes after the 52-year-old is believed to be wrapping up her tenure at 2GB, where she had been hosting Money News.
Knight has kept tight-lipped on her next move, and neither she nor Channel Nine responded to The Sunday Telegraph 's request for comment over the weekend.
However, TV insiders say Knight is among several well-known names being trialled for the role of permanent host of Nine's daytime news.
From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.
Should she take on the position, it would mark a full-circle return to the network where she previously co-hosted the Today show before being axed in 2020.
Her exit from 2GB will also leave the Sydney station without any female presenters during the weekday daytime lineup.
Knight first joined 2GB's afternoon program in 2020, reportedly on a $600,000 salary, before being moved off the role in late 2023 due to disappointing ratings.
At the time, the broadcaster was said to be 'shattered' by the decision.
Despite the shake-up, Knight quickly bounced back, taking over Money News in November 2023 in a revamped 7pm-8pm slot.
And it didn't take long for her to prove the doubters wrong.
Knight helped drive Money News to a 13.3 per cent share in the latest ratings survey -ranking her number one in the country for the timeslot, and more than doubling the show's audience in Queensland, where it's also broadcast on Brisbane's 4BC.
The program also recorded a 0.6 point increase in the latest survey, contributing to 2GB's strongest ratings result of the year.
Should she take on the position, it would mark a full-circle return to the network, where she previously co-hosted the Today show before being axed in 2020. Pictured with Karl Stefanovic
Taking to social media following the win, Knight paid tribute to her loyal listeners and executive producer Tom Storey.
'Heartfelt thanks to Money News listeners! Another strong survey result around the country,' she posted.
'Huge shout out to my EP Tom Storey for pulling together the little show that could.'
Knight's strong run on Money News came after a difficult few years that saw her unceremoniously dumped from the Today show in 2020.
She later took over Afternoons on 2GB, starting strong with an 11.4 per cent share, only to plummet to a record-low 6 per cent share in 2023 before being replaced.
At the time, Knight framed her new Money News role as a step forward, telling listeners: 'I am stepping back as host of Afternoons. I am not, however, leaving 2GB. In fact, I'm taking on a new broader network role.'

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EXCLUSIVE I sold my family home for £400,000 in a raffle so we could move to Australia - it was the biggest risk of my life and I'll NEVER do it again
EXCLUSIVE I sold my family home for £400,000 in a raffle so we could move to Australia - it was the biggest risk of my life and I'll NEVER do it again

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE I sold my family home for £400,000 in a raffle so we could move to Australia - it was the biggest risk of my life and I'll NEVER do it again

A mother-of-three who sold off her family home in a raffle to facilitate a dream move to Australia has revealed how she achieved the feat - and made £90,000 in profit. Natalie Rowcroft, 38, set out to sell her semi-detached home in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2021 to pursue a better life for her family down under - but when the UK entered the Covid lockdown, it seemed an 'impossible' task. So instead of keeping her £290,000 house listed with estate agents and waiting for prospective buyers to make an offer, she took matters into her own hands and decided to offer the four-bedroom property up as a raffle prize. Natalie jumped on a trend growing in popularity in the UK with the help of competitions run by organisations like Omaze - the charity which offers luxury houses in dreamy locations around the country to lucky raffle winners. In recent years the UK has seen an explosion in property raffles after homeowners found their properties languishing on estate agent portfolios owing to Covid 19 and its subsequent lockdown. With tickets selling for as little as £1 in some cases, thousands of people around the UK take a punt on winning a home for the price of a packet of crisps - but while Natalie and her family managed to make money on their family home, she has revealed it's not something she'll do again in a hurry. Property raffles sell like hot cakes for the likes of Omaze, Raffle House, Elite Competitions and Raffall - the latter a platform that helped Natalie Rowcroft raffle her home off in a little over a month. The teaching assistant told MailOnline that when Covid struck she thought the 'world was going to end' and along with it, her dreams of selling up and emigrating to Australia. 'The lockdown made it impossible to sell our home, estate agents couldn't even bring anyone around [to view it]' said Natalie. And so she took the wild plunge to sell her family home in a raffle. After doing a little web research, she and her reluctant husband Bradley, also 38, put their home up for a £2 raffle at legal raffling company, Raffall. To sweeten the deal they threw in the family's BMW. In 45 days they sold £360,000 worth of tickets and waved goodbye to their home. But Natalie insists the process wasn't nearly as smooth as it reads. It all began with a 'crazy idea' she told MailOnline. 'I literally set it up online. Within the first day we sold 10,000 tickets. 'From then it just went absolutely crazy... it sort of blew up from then'. But Bradley wasn't convinced by his wife's plan, and told Natalie she had 'lost the plot' for wanting to sell their beloved family home in this way. Natalie admitted she too had some initial reservations as she had never raffled something worth hundreds of thousands of pounds before. But at a time when most people were left with nothing to do than watch TV and trawl the internet, Natalie saw a golden opportunity and reached out to strangers urging them to buy raffle tickets. In a matter of days she became a one-woman PR machine, employing her family of five - including three kids Bradley, 19, Aiden, 17 and Rhys, 12 - to plug tickets in a series of fun social media videos. Local media caught wind first before the Rowcrofts became a national internet sensation. 'The Manchester Evening News contacted us and then we had friends that were helping us share [our story]. We weren't that great with social media [back then] so a couple of friends helped us set up our Facebook page. 'I just needed to get it [the raffle] out there. We were in a pandemic, in a lockdown - we needed to get it out as far as we can'. The campaign snowballed and their faces were soon plastered across the BBC, ITV and even social media funnyman Tiny Tim wanted a piece of the action. Though grateful for the growing spotlight, Natalie said she couldn't keep up and lamented how a plan to sell their family home somehow became a 'full time job'. 'We did Facebook challenges, lives, TikTok videos... I was going through my Instagram inboxing every single person' she recalled. 'It was a full time job times two. It was literally from 4 o'clock in the morning 'til gone midnight. During those hours I was still answering messages. I just couldn't sleep because I was like 'I need to succeed'.' 'It was the school holidays so I was lucky that I was off during that period. I wouldn't have been able to work [otherwise]... it would've been impossible'. She fondly remembered sometimes selling up to 4,000 raffle tickets per live video thanks to the Rowcrofts' growing tight-knit online community: 'We were like the face of the raffle. People were invested in buying raffles because they wanted to see us succeed'. 'But it's a lot harder than you would ever imagine,' she continued. 'After four days in it was literally so much hard work and full on. People think "oh you're going to sell tickets instantly or it's a no brainer". 'If I was to rewind or if I knew how much work I would have to put into it I may have not have done it. But we had no option or choice'. Natalie can't put a price on the physical and mental strain the project caused her - but she can on the PR campaign, which she estimated to be a whopping £6,000. 'It costs you a lot of money to promote... it cost us a lot of money to boost posts on Facebook, all the printing, spending hours driving around' she explained. When she put up their home for a 90-day raffle, she expected to sell enough tickets to cover the cost of their home, solicitors fees and the mandatory 10 per cent owed to Raffall. But nothing more. But when she crunched the numbers, Natalie was pleasantly surprised to realise she had reached her goal within half the time frame, and still took home £90,000 in profit. She reflected on how brave she was to transform the idea into reality, particularly when her partner was unsure if it was the right thing to do. 'You've lost the plot,' he told her when she called him at work to propose her plan. Luckily a friend she consulted at the time reassured her it was worth a go and it all paid off. Natalie spoke on the 'crazy' number of people who constantly drove past the couple's home and wanted to confirm it wasn't a 'scam'. 'For the people that were saying it was too good to be true - I would send my address and say come to my house,' said Natalie. Natalie speaks to MailOnline from her new home in Brisbane, Australia where the family has lived happily for the last four years. She acknowledged that the move is a dream come true but remained adamant that anyone inspired to follow suit should get clued up on the weight of the task. 'It was a massive risk and never in a million years would I do it again. The amount of work it took. My life was on hold for 45 days. 'It was probably the biggest risk I've ever taken in my life, there was so much pressure on me because I had taken it on and had decided to do this. 'If we didn't meet the amount of ticket sales to sell our property we get to keep the property but we'd lose our time and the money we spent on our marketing. The winner would get a cash prize instead of our house but then we would get nothing.' As a mother of three, Natalie vividly remembers fearing for the safety of her family after having to welcome strangers into their lives in order to sell raffle tickets. The work of matriarch, businesswoman and PR machine at times became too much to bear. She said: 'I had to stay up and get back to everyone and message everyone and reply back. If I didn't people would say it's a scam.... it was scary. We gave our address to everyone. 'If one person calls me a scammer... with anything like that once you put your name to something and it gets that big you will get trolls and haters'. Speaking about why she'll never repeat the experience, she said: 'You get worried because you're putting your family out there and people know where your address is. Just all of that and the no sleep'. For anyone else who wants to raffle off their homes, Natalie's advice is to remain dedicated. Ultimately, one has to 'live and breathe' the raffle if they want it to be a success, she said. 'People started setting up their raffle accounts and contacting me saying "oh well we've not even sold any tickets". They were like "well how did you do it?" 'I'm like, 'scroll through my Facebook page',' she joked. 'I'm like for us it was literally day and night - you've got to breathe it. You've got to be fun, you've got to be active. 'If you've got a full time job and you're not on it [the property raffle] all the time tickets aren't going to sell. 'You have to physically put it out there and make people buy your tickets - they're not going to buy it just by putting a link online. It's not going to happen'.

Christie Brinkley reveals ex-husband Billy Joel was dating Aussie model Elle Macpherson when she met him
Christie Brinkley reveals ex-husband Billy Joel was dating Aussie model Elle Macpherson when she met him

Daily Mail​

time2 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Christie Brinkley reveals ex-husband Billy Joel was dating Aussie model Elle Macpherson when she met him

Christie Brinkley has revealed a surprising detail about the early days of her romance with music legend Billy Joel - and it involves none other than Aussie supermodel Elle Macpherson. Speaking to Stellar Magazine this week, Christie recalled how Joel was casually still dating the statuesque Australian when she first met the Piano Man. 'We were at his apartment and he said, "I'm going to call Elle because I've been out with her a couple of times and I want to let her know that now I want to be exclusive with you",' Brinkley recounted. The stunning revelation offers a glimpse into the rock-and-roll love triangle that once quietly played out between two of the world's most recognisable models and one of America's most celebrated singers. In her memoir, Brinkley doesn't hold back, revealing a life filled with both dazzling success and private pain - from surviving a horrific helicopter crash to enduring domestic abuse and heartbreak from her high-profile marriages. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. But it's her relationship with Joel - and the genuine bond they continue to share - that remains a highlight. The pair married in 1985 and welcomed daughter Alexa Ray Joel the same year, eventually divorcing in 1994. Despite the split, they've remained close friends. Brinkley also revealed that the family is supporting Joel as he battles a rare brain disorder. 'Alexa just had a long conversation with him and she said he sounded good. We're all just cheering him on,' she said. Brinkley also touched on how the industry has changed since her modelling heyday, recalling the 'magic' of film photography and lamenting the overly curated, digital-driven world of today's image-making. 'Now there are so many cooks in the kitchen, you don't have that same kind of magic,' she explained. And when it comes to ageing, the model has no time for outdated stereotypes. While she embraces modern beauty options, she believes true vitality comes from within. 'Energy and curiosity are more useful than any cream you can buy in a jar,' she said. Reflecting on their time together, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit alum, who has been married four times, she previously said their marriage was 'really wonderful,' per Page Six. She called the Piano Man her 'soulmate' but said that they started having marriage problems when he would disappear for days while he was on a bender. 'If there wasn't that issue,' she said about his addiction. 'I do think that we were probably really soulmates. It was an amazing time of my life.' She continued: 'I had so much fun. We were such nomads, gypsies — just between his job and mine, we were seeing the world. It was wonderful, really wonderful.' Brinkley claimed that once he left their daughter Alexa Ray's fifth birthday party and was missing for two days. She said she had 'visions of his car wrapped around a tree' and she experienced a 'panic I couldn't shake.' She also recalled how he once vanished during Thanksgiving dinner and another time she saw photos of him out with an Australian actress after a separate disappearance.

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