Dancing With The Stars viewers absolutely stunned as Michael Usher reveals incredible talent and emerges as favourite to win: 'He can dance?!'
Micheal Usher has emerged as a surprise favourite after Sunday night's premiere episode of Dancing With The Stars.
The Channel Seven new anchor, 55, proved he has as much skill on the dance floor as he has behind the news desk as he scored big on his first round.
He stunned the judges and viewers alike as he soaring to the top of the leaderboard with 27 points for his foxtrot with his dance partner Natalie Lowe.
The panel was unanimous in its praise, highlighting Michael's musicality, footwork, and undeniable charisma.
Fans tuning in at home were amazed to see Micheal's twinkle toes in action.
'Michael Usher! Very nice for a first performance!' wrote one person on X while another said, 'BREAKING NEWS Michael Usher can dance?'
'Musher!! I'm shook! That was genuinely smooth as silk' commented someone else on Instagram with another writing, 'Still not over this!!!'
'Absolutely the best so far. Well done for getting out of your comfort zone' wrote another.
'Wow Mr Michael Usher that was one incredible dance and to top the leaderboard on the first day is remarkable you should be very proud' yet one more commented.
It was a dazzling night of celebrities and sequins as Dancing With The Stars returned to Channel 7 and 7plus, with hosts Sonia Kruger and Dr Chris Brown ushering in a fresh season of glitz, glamour and fierce competition.
After introducing the 12 celebrities competing for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy, the hosts split them into two groups – each set to hit the dance floor on alternate weeks – with six couples showcasing their moves in tonight's premiere episode.
AFL Champion Trent Cotchin and partner Jess Raffa opened the night with an assertive tango, earning a score of 21.
While judge Sharna Burgess praised it as a great start, Craig Revel Horwood thought it 'lacked any form of passion'.
Brittany Hockley, podcaster and radio host, performed a cha-cha-cha with Craig Monley, also scoring 21.
The judges acknowledged her nerves but saw clear potential, with Mark Wilson calling her 'vivacious', while Craig likened her to 'a drunk girl lost at a party'.
Olympic boxer Harry Garside and partner Siobhan Power delivered a dynamic jive, complete with impressive lifts that had judge Mark on his feet demanding an encore.
Despite a score of 21, opinions were split as Sharna saw promise but wanted more 'refinement', Craig described the performance as 'messy', while Helen Richey declared Harry might be 'the heavyweight in this competition'.
Susie O'Neill aka Madame Butterfly and Lyu Masuda took on the tango, scoring the night's lowest with 13. While the performance was shaky, the judges admired her courage and noticeable improvement from rehearsals to stage.
Closing the show, Australia's sweetheart Rebecca Gibney and partner Ian Waite delivered a cheeky cha-cha-cha, earning the second-highest score of 24.
While technically flawed, the performance charmed the judges. 'So wrong, it was right,' said Mark. Even Craig admitted it was 'technically rubbish' but added that he loved it.
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The Sun
18 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
30 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.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
My mini gap year in (probably) the most extraordinary place on Earth
It's day four of the gap-year-in-one-week I'm sharing with my 18-year-old son, Rider, in Queensland and we're getting into our groove. Take two flights before lunch and you start feeling like blasé musicians on tour: 'Hello Brisbane, again! Oh hi, Hamilton Island — lookin' good!' We're in the southern hemisphere's largest island resort, 550 miles north of Brisbane, in the Whitsundays — the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. It's hard to decide which Madonna banger best fits the bill: Into the Groove or La Isla Bonita: 'All of nature wild and free/ This is where I long to be…' We're staying at the Sundays, a stylish boutique hotel that has just been fully refurbished to the tune of £16.9 million and has been open again for precisely 24 hours. Our twin room, home for two nights, is a lovely airy space with a big balcony overlooking the glorious Catseye Beach, an even larger bathroom and a Balearic vibe, despite the fact that Ibiza and Hamilton Island are more than 10,000 miles apart. My 'on-tour' stresses start to melt away and though we've missed the hotel's lunch window we eat a couple of burgers over the road at the Hamilton Island Resort Centre, where Rider confronts his first chip-stealing flock of laughing kookaburras; like a cheeky bunch of seagulls, in drag. Fortified, we head off to collect a golf buggy — one of the only methods of transport on the car-free island — while kangaroos hop across our path. By the time we've done an island recce (it's gorgeous from every angle, a cross between The Prisoner-era Portmeirion and an animated Disney movie) the sun is slipping away. It's the perfect moment to arrive at One Tree Hill, on the island's northern tip, where buggies cluster nightly for chillaxed live music and sundowners, until a semi-acoustic cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall ('Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!') gives me and a similarly aged couple (on a mini-break from Melbourne, we've bonded while sharing a table) the collective giggles. So much so, indeed, that Rider escapes us to take sunset selfies for Snapchat, leaving the retro hits behind. Back at the hotel dinner is a wow. The chef Josh Niland is an Aussie superstar — the 'fish butcher' and his wife, Julie, run Saint Peter, a Sydney restaurant widely regarded by critics as one of the country's best, while his CV also includes a stint at the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's three-Michelin-starred restaurant. At the Sundays' Catseye Pool Club, Rider says Niland's tasting menu is 'basically the best thing, ever'. From the batter fried wild fish tacos to the crumbed white Pyrenees lamb cutlets and their accompanying sides (grilled beans and pecorino polenta with the lamb, fermented pineapple hot sauce with the tacos) every dish sings. It's a great evening, with another early night for an early start. We're getting used to these. • The ultimate guide to the Great Barrier Reef: everything you need to know At the time of writing, two months later, our fifth day now feels like a fever dream. I had known for weeks that we would be joining Cruise Whitsundays' 'outer reef day cruise' and that if the weather was optimal we'd also take a 15-minute helicopter ride over the heart-shaped coral cluster at Hardy Reef. I had also known for weeks that, after the flight, we would be snorkelling and discovering the reef up close. Yeah, I knew all of this in theory, however, it wasn't until we were halfway through the two-hour boat trip from Hamilton Island to the reef that I thought, 'Hang on — where precisely are we headed? What will we see when we arrive?!' The answer: Reefworld, a permanently moored pontoon 45 miles away from the Whitsundays. At this shimmering reef-side oasis, the weather is perfect for choppers and three soon appear on the horizon, landing on their own pontoons. I'm suddenly glad I haven't spent any time contemplating being in a helicopter above the Pacific, 45 miles from dry land, because once our Hamilton Island Air pilot, Luke, is swooping us over Heart Reef, breathtaking doesn't come close to describing being a human drone, observing the contrast between the endless expanse of ocean and the reef ecosystem directly below us. This high-definition ride is one of the greatest things I've experienced. I'm thrilled that Rider — 'co-piloting' in the chopper's front seat, next to Luke — has done this at just 18; doubly delighted to be sharing it with him. Yet soon after we put on 'stinger' suits, flippers and snorkels and launch ourselves off the pontoon and into the reef, that amazing helicopter ride is memory-holed. While it remains one of the most extraordinary things I've done, being underwater in the Great Barrier Reef turns out to be at the next level. We've swum a couple of hundred metres away from the pontoon, mesmerised, punctuating the silence with an occasional 'wow!', when Rider turns to me and says: 'This is as good a place as any, right?' • 10 amazing ways to see the Great Barrier Reef I agree, so we slip below the surface, back into our parallel underwater world teeming with brilliant fluorescent fish and glistening coral. Here, Rider deftly unscrews the lid of the small container we've brought with us — and will take away with us too — while behind my mask tears flow; crying underwater is yet another new experience. My eldest son, Jackson, was about to embark on his post-graduation gap year when he died in an accident in September 2023 and now, as we set a tiny amount of his ashes free at one of the most extraordinary places on earth, Jackson's gap afterlife is just beginning. Kathryn Flett is spending a month travelling in Australia. She was a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland ( The Sundays has B&B doubles from £430 ( • Kathryn Flett: Should I crash my son's gap year?• Kathryn Flett: Yes… I crashed my son's gap year. Here's what happened• Kathryn Flett: Me, my son and the gap year I crashed: what's working (and what's not) Read Kathryn's final column next week
