It’s hard to remember a time when broadcaster Kevin Milne hasn’t been a part of our media landscape. He was in our homes for many years on Fair Go, but these days he’s keeping us up to date with all his latest thoughts and activities through his column in the Weekly and a comment spot on Jack Tame’s NewstalkZB show every Saturday.
This has meant his daughter Tommie has been in the media with him since she was born on July 21, 2001. Much to Kevin’s surprise, she has now turned that magical and very adult age of 21.
Her birth was on the cover of the Weekly and her 13th birthday was also celebrated in our pages.
“It’s interesting that Tommie has never minded being put out in the spot-light,” says Kevin. “When I told her that the Weekly was interested in doing a piece about her turning 21, she said ‘cool’. I’m not sure many people would feel that relaxed.”
Kevin says that as a family, they’ve always regarded the magazine stories they do as a bit of fun.
“We were always very clear that they were nothing to be worried about and I suppose that comes through now with her attitude to the media.”
While the family might be relaxed about sharing their lives in the pages of the Weekly, throwing a 21st birthday party for Tommie was a different matter.
“I hate hosting parties,” Kevin shares. “I don’t know whether there’s actually a name for that condition. It’s not that I don’t mind being at parties. I love going to other people’s. But I have this panic that nobody’s going to turn up to my own.
“I hate the weeks leading up to it. I find it difficult to get involved, but luckily nobody wants me to be involved anyway, mainly because I get so grumpy about everything,” he laughs.
Anyone who meets Kevin realises pretty soon into the conversation that this man has the gift of the gab and is hilarious with it. So why the trepidation about parties when it’s quite obvious Kevin could happily be the life and soul with his outgoing personality?
“It might be because when our eldest son Alex had a party when he was a kid, nobody turned up,” muses Kevin. “It turned out after some investigation that he had been too cool about the whole thing and didn’t put much effort into the invitations, like when it was or where it was or what time it was.
“It was entirely his fault, but I was so upset because I thought his friends had let him down.”
At Tommie’s 21st party, which was held in “some dark nightclub in Wellington that Tommie knew all about”, Kevin says he turned up and admits that for the first half an hour he was on edge because no one had arrived.
“But as always happens at parties, people are a little bit late and then they all pour in. We had a big crowd and I was delighted. Tommie was the star of the night – she looked gorgeous and the party was great.”
Eventually, Kevin was given the chance to give a speech, which he admits was lengthy.
“It was far too long,” he admits. “The first story would have been enough – the one about Tommie’s conception. Everyone but Tommie and Linda thought it was a cracker.”
It’s a story he’s not keen to share with the Weekly readers, but according to Kevin, the whole party laughed their heads off.
Furry pal Freddy loves the limelight too!
Tommie is in her last year of a Bachelor of Science degree at Otago University.
“She’s going to take off next year to earn a bit of money, and the current plan is to do a Master’s in dietetics and become a dietitian,” tells her proud father.
Tommie has three older brothers, Alex, 39, Rory, 36, and Jake, 32. Kevin says Alex has always thought Tommie was born just for him and is very close to her.
“It’s no surprise he came all the way out from the UK to be at her celebrations,” says Kevin. “They adore each other.”
The birthday girl was joined by her siblings Alex (left) and Rory, and his partner Emma.
With all four children having left the nest, Kevin and Linda recently sold up their family home on the shores of the Waikanae river in Kāpiti and moved into a house by the sea at Raumati Beach.
“We bought this little cottage right on the water-front,” he tells. “Well, I say on the waterfront, but it’s up a hill and the property goes down to the water.
“I’ve been wanting to live oceanside for years, but Linda loves animals and we had all sorts of animals on our lifestyle block. She misses them but she’s still got her horse, which we keep on someone else’s land.”
Meanwhile, Kevin has taken on doing work with Mary Potter Hospice as a companion. This means he visits someone who is dying to keep them company so that their main caregiver can get a break. They can pop out for a coffee or visit friends,
or just take a rest at home if they wish.
“We talk about all sorts of stuff and I’m sure I get more from our meetings than they do,” he confides. “Every time I leave with lots to think about. Not that we talk about death much. In fact, we have a lot of laughs. Life’s pretty funny when you look back on it.”
Kevin became a Hospice companion after he had been away from his TV job for about 10 years.
“I realised I hadn’t done enough charity work and I thought what could I do other than just fundraising, shaking a box with coins in it. Then I read about companioning and I thought that would be something quite special. It would be a different way of helping in the community.”
Kevin says since he read the best-selling memoir Tuesdays With Morrie, about a dying university professor, he’s been interested in how people face death. “So it’s rewarding to be of help over that time.”
In recent years, Kevin has had a few health issues himself. He had open-heart surgery 15 years ago and then had a benign tumour in his pituitary gland removed.
Last year, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer but was told it was the kind that wouldn’t travel.
“My specialist told me that as long as it stays where it should, I’ll see it out before it sees me out,” says Kevin.
At 73, Kevin says he feels young but probably looks old to others.
“I go to the gym three times a week and try to stay moderately in tone. It helps my heart but not my waistline. I eat and drink more than I should!”
Recently, Kevin has been working with the charity Share My Super. It encourages pensioners to share some or all of their superannuation with well-known charities, in particular those helping children.
“I think there must be quite a few over-65s like me who are reasonably well off and feel they don’t need all their pension, maybe none of it,” he explains. “Share My Super offers convenient ways they can divert some of their pension to support worthy causes involving children. I think it’s a terrific idea, so I’ve made a TV ad with them.”
One thing Kevin does know is that he has never worried about sharing his life with the public.
“Some things I’m obviously unwilling to talk about, but sharing even difficult personal experiences may sometimes help others.
“I think the best column I’ve written for the Weekly was earlier this year when we had to have one of Linda’s horses put down. It was a piece about the practicalities of putting an animal down at a time of considerable sadness. It’s awful no matter what the animal, but horses are particularly tricky. I think that column told the story pretty well.”
Kevin describes his life at the moment as being a man who has a million small interests.
“I don’t sit around much wondering what to do till Linda gets home,” he asserts. “I do the ads and am an ambassador for Carpet Mill. I have scripts to write for the Weekly and for radio, there’s the charity work, and if there’s time, I might be watching sport on TV, messing around in my shed with an endless array of collectables, or walking Freddy our border collie.”
Now that the stress of Tommie’s 21st birthday is over, Kevin is musing on his favourite times in her childhood.
Tommie has given her dad many proud moments.
“Tommie was a very good swimmer and we went to the National Champs together,” he recounts. “There was this incident where just before her race, she went outside the pool complex to get some fresh air. Because she’d already taken her ID off, she couldn’t get back into the pool area. I’m waiting high up in the stand for the race to start and there’s a tap on my shoulder. It’s Tommie, really distressed.
“I grabbed her and we raced down, straight past the guy at the door to poolside. Her race was about to start but her chances seemed shot. I shoved her cap down on her head, gave her a big hug and sent her towards the starting blocks. Tommie went out and smashed it. She won her first national medal, which she wasn’t at all expecting. And she swam the fastest time she’d ever swum. My heart nearly exploded with pride.”
