Suaalii 'soft-launch' hits the gossip columns
Australia's star back Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is in the gossip columns after posting images of himself on Instagram , externalwith Audrey Little, who plays for Sydney-based Super Netball side the Giants.There is added rugby relevance to this pairing though.Little is the daughter of Wallabies' legendary centre Jason Little, who won 75 caps and two Rugby World Cup titles in a illustrious Test career.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
17 minutes ago
- The Sun
I had 14 miscarriages before finding a couple who promised to change my life, but it fell apart after my baby was born
A WOMAN has bravely shared how her dream of becoming a mother after losing 14 babies was brutally snatched away. Kirby Hood, 36, said she was blindsided when the woman she trusted to be her surrogate mother kicked her out from the hospital after changing her mind at the last moment - and deciding to keep the newborn. 2 2 Kirby, a photographer from Queensland, Australia, had battled infertility for more than a decade, enduring loss after loss, before the ''experienced surrogate'' offered her what she called ''the chance of a lifetime''. ''I trusted her, and she kept my baby after leading me on for nine months believing that the baby would be coming home with me,'' the devastated 36-year-old told Daily Mail Australia. ''My baby was born in February and I'm only just coming up for air. ''I have everything in writing - the card she gave me offering to be my surrogate, the paperwork from the lawyers, and all the texts.'' Kirby attended doctors' appointments regarding the pregnancy, and viewed ultrasounds - all with the encouragement of the surrogate - and covered all the medical costs throughout the process. Excited for the new chapter ahead, she threw a baby shower, held a gender reveal party and documented her journey to motherhood on social media. The birth mother even attended the gender reveal party and met all of Kirby's close friends and family who ''wanted to touch her tummy and fuss around her''. Kirby, a newborn photographer, first met the surrogate, who lived in her local area, in 2019. She was told that this would be the surrogate's "third and final child". In September 2021, the woman rebooked for some family photos, and in 2022 Kirby was booked again as the woman was entering her first surrogacy journey, and Kirby was hired as her photographer to capture the special moment. Katie Price reveals she's secured LOOKALIKE egg donors and American sperm donor in bid to have baby number six The Gold Coast photographer said that having witnessed the woman faithfully fulfil her surrogate role for someone else, she trusted her to do the same again. Meanwhile, Kirby continued with her own quest to become a mother and underwent an embryo transfer. Unfortunately, after meeting a family through an IVF group, she suffered a miscarriage in 2023. Uber Eats order that changed everything ''During the early days of my loss I made an Uber Eats order and the surrogate's sister was the Uber Eats driver. ''She said to her sister, 'Hey it's Kirby, your photographer friend - jump in the car and come for a run to drop this order off'.'' After opening the door, Kirby met the birth mum who had a package with chocolates, magazines, flowers and a card - and they hugged, as Kirby burst into tears. The card said: "When the time comes, you know I'm good for it. Love to be your surrogate.'' The two kept in touch about a potential surrogacy, but Kirby eventually came to the conclusion that she did not want to risk more potential heartbreak. However, a call out of the blue changed everything. Whilst at work, the photographer received a Facetime call from the surrogate - who announced she was having a baby. Confused, Kirby asked if the woman had transferred eggs without her knowing. She explained she had accidentally fallen pregnant with her partner, but they do not want another kid. ''At first I was cautious - how does this work? How does this happen? I'm pretty sure you can't just cook a baby for someone and just hand it over. ''Aren't there laws? I only knew of the laws of surrogacy [not adoption].'' In a state of shock, Kirby handed the phone to her mum who was at the photography studio at the time. ''Mum said: 'What does this mean?', and the surrogate said: 'It means Kirby is going to be a mama,' and I just bawled.'' What is surrogacy? Surrogacy is the name given for a type of pregnancy where a woman carries and gives birth to another person's baby. The surrogate mother is then expected to give up the baby at birth, so it can be raised by the couple who originally wanted the baby. Surrogacy is often an option for those unable to have children themselves, or for same sex couples. According to surrogacy charity Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy (COTS), there are two different types of surrogacy. Traditional surrogacy: When the surrogate uses her own egg fertilised with the intended father's sperm. Gestational surrogacy: The surrogate carries the intended parent's genetic child conceived through IVF, for which specialist doctors are needed. How are surrogate babies conceived? In traditional surrogacy procedures, the egg is artificially inseminated using a syringe. Gestational surrogacy is carried out through IVF. During this in vitro fertilisation process, the egg is removed from the woman's ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The embryo is then planted in the surrogate's womb to grow and develop. This procedure must be carried out by specialist doctors and the biological mother is required to still have working ovaries. The birth mother showed Kirby the living children on Facebook that she still followed and the families that were successful from her donations. However, given the situation had changed from a standard surrogacy to an agreement to hand over a baby that was both conceived and carried by the birthing mother, Kirby sought legal advice. Here, she was told that if the parents didn't want to keep the baby, the newborn had to go to foster care and would be assessed a fair order and placed with a registered family. Kirby then contacted the woman to pass on that disappointing news - but she already had an alternative plan. ''She told me that was rubbish and that I can be on the birth certificate as a same-sex couple, and so with a lawyer we drew up parentage orders,'' she said. As part of that, you can legally name [the baby] before birth so it's in the paperwork. Kirby decided to name her daughter-to-be Xanthe and the pair agreed she was going to be at the birth. Left all alone Then came another shock. Throughout the long process of trying to become a mum, Kirby's husband had been by her side, but just when it appeared imminent, he suddenly moved out. Up until then, he had been to the scans and even had the ultrasound photo made into a keyring he carried around. But he walked out the weekend after Father's Day. ''I have lost 14 babies and it was too much for him. ''He told me two IVF rounds before that he was done, but I didn't want to listen, I just wanted one more chance to try.'' Heartbroken Kirby called the surrogate and her partner to tell them her husband had left, but they said they had no issues with her being a single mum and assured her everything remained on course. Needing to generate enough money as a sole income earner to be able to support herself and a baby, Kirby threw herself into work. However, after she missed one of the scans as a birth shoot took 10 hours and overlapped with the appointment, the birth mother sent her a text questioning Kirby's priorities. Although she was feeling ''there were red flags'', Kirby ''didn't want to believe anything may be wrong''. A few weeks prior to the birth, Kirby was asked to meet the couple in a nearby park, where they told her that they no longer wanted her at the birth, explaining it was for minor medical reasons. It was at this point that she started to have serious doubts, wondering whether the couple had had a change of heart about handing the daughter over. On the birth day, she received a message that told her the baby had arrived, and she drove to the hospital - although, totally unsure what to expect when she got there. ''Things felt off, and I knew it wasn't happening,'' she admitted. Kirby asked for a social worker to be present, but was instead asked to leave. As if she ''was a danger'', the hospital went into lockdown and Kirby left before bawling in her car. Two days later, the birth mother called Kirby to notify her that Child Services were involved now and there's nothing she could do about it. Kirby spent long hours contacting authorities, trying to track the baby down so she could be considered as a legal parent. But it wasn't until weeks later that she found out the couple had not given the child up - and had instead made the decision to keep the little girl after all. ''Someone sent me a screenshot of the surrogate's Facebook where she had announced the birth of her little girl. ''I wasn't angry, just hurt. If they changed their minds, why didn't they just tell me? ''Of course, I would have been upset, but I would have understood. I know how hard it is to lose a baby. I would have understood.'' Kirby has not heard from the couple since March, and they have refused her requests that they refund the thousands of dollars she had forked out on medical costs and baby equipment. They said they they will her in court, Kirby told the publication. ''But I want people to know about it, about what happened and for legislation to be changed. ''I just don't want anyone else to ever feel like this.''
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Glory and Fury to Devils and Dolphins: Australian team names come full circle
The naming trends for Australian professional sports teams have come full circle, as fans and officials overlook vibe-driven monikers like Glory and the plurally-challenged Power or Storm to return to animals that bite, some 30 years after one of the great sports marketing revolutions took hold. The three most recent expansion announcements in the NRL and AFL have revived classic animal mascots, through the Perth Bears, Tasmania Devils and Dolphins from Redcliffe. The Tasmania JackJumpers spearheaded this return to more conservative, fauna-driven naming conventions for their entry to the NBL in 2019, even if the creature selected left mainlanders scratching their heads. Paul Kind, chief executive of marketing agency Total Sport & Entertainment and a former NRL executive, says that announcement signalled a shift in Australian sport. 'My immediate reaction was, 'oh my god, what have they just done, how have they gone from a blank sheet of paper and come up with JackJumpers?',' he says. 'But I now give them a huge amount of credit for it. It's got to feel like something local fans are proud to associate with, and the fact that it was uniquely Tasmanian connected with their community in a way that anyone who wasn't from Tasmania could possibly imagine.' The JackJumpers' on and off-court success – selling out more than 50 home games in a row and winning the NBL title in 2024 – was closely observed by those working on the state's AFL expansion bid. 'When the name of the JackJumpers was announced, there was a lot of pushback about that,' says Kath McCann, executive director of the club now known as the Tasmania Devils. 'It's become incredibly powerful, not just because of the attributes of the creature, but the philosophy of how they play and the success that they've experienced.' While the NRL's Bears and Dolphins were decisions by officials to resuscitate older brands, the growing appetite from fans for animals was highlighted by the statewide fan survey for the new AFL club run at the end of 2023. Across 6,000 open-ended questionnaires, 68% of fans proposed the Devils. Critters also dominated the next most-backed options: 9% put forward the Turbo Chooks, otherwise known as the Tasmanian native hen and the subject of a lighthearted campaign, and 6% suggested the Tigers despite the existence of Richmond in the competition already. McCann says there was a 'long tail' of suggestions, but the state's distinctive range of native fauna was the source of most – but not all – options. 'The orange-bellied parrot definitely found its way into the list, the handfish – quite a few fish actually, the Trouts were in there,' she says. 'The one that I thought was really interesting was the Auroras.' In the race for NRL expansion during 2021, the Dolphins beat bids from entities dubbed the Firehawks – a bird that spreads fires to help it hunt – and the Bombers to become the NRL's 17th team in 2023. The Hunters has been mooted as a possible name for the NRL's PNG franchise joining in 2028, though a nationwide poll will help make the final decision. 'It must be a name that at least 50%, 60% or 70% of the country supports,' PNG prime minister James Marape said last week. 'It must not just be a name, there must be a motif behind the name.' These discussions are a long way from a trend kickstarted by Perth Glory 30 years ago which opened up less precise, more abstract concepts as sporting nicknames. At the time an advertising executive called Jim Davies was responsible for the development of the new football club's brand. According to WA's Football Hall of Fame, he received over 800 suggestions which were whittled down to five: Flyers, Storm, Predators, Red Backs and Glory. The latter was chosen to differentiate an entity wanted to be known as 'contemporary'. Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion Arguably, a more creative outlook to naming conventions began even earlier, when in 1992 Adelaide basketball officials proposed the Lightning, a term both singular and plural. Although it was a novel name in Australian sport, the Lightning was actually chosen for its connection to history. William Light was the colonial administrator who in 1836 had chosen the city's location, and the new WNBL side echoed the city's NBL team, the 36ers. 'We liked the connection and the history,' former Opal and Lightning legend Rachael Sporn says. 'Then obviously, with lightning, you think of energy and power, so we loved the name right from the start.' Not long afterwards, Melbourne Storm and Port Adelaide Power both appeared, debuting non-traditional, singular nouns in Australia's most popular sporting competitions. Port Adelaide – known as the Magpies in the SANFL – were forced to look at creative solutions given the presence of Collingwood in the AFL, while the Melbourne NRL franchise launched a competition for suggestions. Young fan Cameron Duncan was pronounced the winner. However, Duncan revealed on a Melbourne Storm online forum last year his entry was simply the first one picked out that matched the named already chosen by club officials. Duncan wasn't able to attend the promotion where he was to be awarded his prize because he was watching the preliminary final defeat of his beloved Footscray in the AFL, now – for geographic marketing reasons – known as the Western Bulldogs. WNBL club Townsville Fire and later Bendigo Spirit, A-League clubs Melbourne Victory, Brisbane Roar and North Queensland Fury, along with Super Rugby club Western Force, leaned into this fresh approach, which reached its zenith during the conception of the BBL. Cricket Australia was desperate to distance the new T20 competition from the sport's conservative roots, and adopted eight radical names, two of which were vaguely singular – Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder. Another two were weather-inspired – Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers. The Sydney Sixers echoed naming trends in basketball, but demanded some logical generosity in cricket. Kind, who was working at the NRL in this period, says those unorthodox names reflected a specific marketing requirement. 'The BBL teams had permission to be a bit off-the-cuff and a bit more 'out there', because they were trying to present cricket differently at the time, they were trying to tip cricket on its head,' he says. At around the same time, NRL expansion side Gold Coast was finding its feet in the NRL. Their name the Titans had been selected ahead of the Stingers and Pirates, part of a brief theme of mythical beings like the GWS Giants and SE Melbourne Phoenix. 'The Titans were never going to be the Dolphins,' Kind says. 'They could have easily resonated with the Gold Coast community, but it wasn't cool to be an animal back then.'
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The moment I knew: I declined his proposal, then something clicked
It was the day before my 25th birthday, 2005. I was living alone in a flat in Sydney and getting ready for a friend-of-a-friend's 30th that night. I wanted to look vengefully hot for the occasion – someone who had recently dumped me was going to be there. But later that night I forgot all about my ex. As I was sitting in the back garden at the party, making balloon animals, I looked up and saw a man wearing a bright blue floral 80s outfit – a dress and matching jacket – with fishnet stockings and a floppy hat. It was a circus freaks-themed party and he was one of only a handful of other guests who had dressed up, the only Bearded Lady among us. His humour and confidence glowed as brightly as his pearl choker and matching clip-on earrings. I instantly sensed a very strong connection. Drew and I followed each other around all evening, trying not to let the other realise it. A few days later I sent him some pictures from the party and we wasted an entire week of our respective employers' time emailing all day every day, each trying to flirtatiously out-funny the other. Finally, I asked him out for a drink. We started dating and suddenly we'd been together for eight months. Before our first Christmas as a couple, I got wind that he was planning to buy me a kitten. Feeling headstrong about my independence, I gazumped him by buying a kitten for myself. I wasn't ready to share a pet. We slotted easily into each other's lives, sharing eclectic circles of friends, love for our close families and travel. After a year, he moved from the Central Coast to be closer to me in Sydney; after two, he moved into the flat with me and my cat. Three years later, alone on a beach in Borneo except for the three men fixing a generator just behind us, Drew proposed to me. I was taken aback. I didn't feel ready to settle down and I said no immediately. 'I'm not ready,' I uttered. Drew simply kissed me and said: 'I'll wait until you are'. When he said that, something clicked. I realised that whether I was ready was immaterial. I'd never felt ready for anything I've done that was exciting and wonderful and worthwhile. I was ready to not let that stop me. After a few moments I said 'yes'. It was the best decision I've ever made. We got married in 2009. We've faced many challenges since – the terminal illness and death of Drew's father, fertility hurdles, the births of two babies who could stay awake for Australia, postpartum depression, and much more – and Drew has been exactly the right balance of strong, brave, funny, sad, vulnerable, supportive, clever, kind and loving. With Drew as my champion, I said yes to a whole lot more in life too, including writing my first book. In return, it has been the best thing ever to watch as he has thrived in his own life, as an artist. Seeing Drew's work on gallery walls and in people's homes thrills me every time, and there's no one who deserves it more. As for my kitten, Gusto, she's about to turn 20. Our now-shared cat has always, quite rightly, loved Drew the most. Jessica Dettmann's new book Your Friend and Mine (Atlantic Books, $32.99) is out on 1 July. Do you have a romantic realisation you'd like to share? From quiet domestic scenes to dramatic revelations, Guardian Australia wants to hear about the moment you knew you were in love. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian.
