From addiction to fatherhood: Jason Donovan on the letter that changed his life

Happy Mum Happy Baby

Giovanna Fletcher

Kids & Family

4.8 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Everybody needs good Neighbours — and this week, Gi’s joined by the ultimate one! Singer, actor, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat LEGEND Jason Donovan opens up about the highs and lows of fame, his struggle with addiction, and the life-changing decision he made after becoming a dad for the first time.

Plus, he opens up about the challenges and rewards of watching his three children grow up and what they've taught him about trusting the process.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You've been doing this podcast for how long?
0:02.4	Eight years.
0:03.8	Wow.
0:04.5	Yeah. Fuck, that's insane, man. Yeah. That's cool. It's great. It's amazing. Yeah. Right. We are ready to crack on. You ready. You need to get back home and... No, no. Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of Happy Mom, Happy Baby, the podcast.
0:28.7	Today's guest is an actor and a singer who I grew up with watching on my TV in Neighbors.
0:32.5	It was honestly the highlight of every single day.
0:34.1	I'm going to admit this now.
0:36.4	I did have a little picture of him by my bed. That makes me feel warm. Warm. Encourage. I'm going to open this now. I did have a little picture of him by my bed.
0:38.2	Today's guest. That makes me feel warm.
0:39.9	Warm.
0:40.6	Encouraged.
0:41.6	I'm on the right side of the table here.
0:46.6	He's also the father of three children, adults, really, two of them are adults.
0:51.4	Today's guest is Jason Donovan.
0:53.0	Hello.
1:11.0	Lovely to meet you. Have we met before? Yes, when you've worked with Carrie. Well, was that at, was that a War of the World? Yeah, War of the World's thing, yeah. Yes. Okay. I remember that. Yes, don't you worry. I mean, you know, lots of people coming in and out. But we are, our parts have crossed. And we've got a lot of friends in common. Yes, we do. With the Willis and everyone like that. But yes, I did have a little picture of you on my wall. We had a Kylie and a Jason. Okay. And me and my sister used to share a room. And we used to trade our frames. So it wasn't even like a crush thing. it was a we love these two people thing. Sure. Well, I think, I mean, I think that, you know, neighbors probably sort of transcended crush. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was like a sort of, you know, friendship. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like a sort of a friendship rather than just sort of a pop obsession. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? That was probably a bit later on with songs and stuff like that. But, yeah, wow. Can I ask how old you are? 40. 40. So that's about right. Yeah. You would have been young. Yeah. You would have been very young. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you were a big part of my childhood, Jason. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be part of many, many, many people's childhoods and neighbors has been a gift for me. Yeah. It's an absolute gift and something to celebrate and be proud of. Yeah, absolutely. I'm very proud of it.
2:17.5	Even the mullet, the double denim.
2:19.9	What is back now?
2:21.0	All the face back now.
2:22.5	Big time, yeah.
2:23.7	I reckon you're, an image of you back then is probably flowing around Pinterest.
2:27.4	It's kind of like a look that people want to recreate.
	...

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