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Hi-5's Kathleen de Leon Jones barely recognisable in rare TV appearance
The former children's entertainer recently moved back to Australia after living in the US.
Original Hi-5 member Kathleen de Leon Jones surprised viewers on Wednesday morning when she made her first appearance on Australian TV in over a decade.
Kathleen, who shares two children with her husband, Savage Garden’s Daniel Jones, looked barely recognisable with her signature dark brown hair dyed a much lighter colour.
The former children’s entertainer told The Morning Show hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies that her family had recently relocated from Las Vegas to the Gold Coast.
“We’re loving life at the moment. We’ve been here for a few years now, we were in the States for 10 years,” she said. “We just love it here. It feels like we’re on holiday.”
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She also shared that her daughter Keira, 12, has followed in her parents' footsteps and will soon make her stage debut in a production of Billy Elliot at The Star Gold Coast.
“I didn’t know they were going to go down this path, to be honest,” Kathleen said. “I mean, they always showed signs. It’s a fantastic medium to express yourself and it’s so fun.
“So when my daughters are actually in the performing arts, it’s music to both our ears. We’re very proud that they’re kind of following in our footsteps and they found a love for performing.”
Kathleen was one of the founding members of Hi-5, performing alongside Kellie Crawford, Nathan Foley, Tim Harding and Charli Robinson from 1998 until her departure in 2006. She was the first of the original members to leave the group and was replaced by Sun Park.
Kathleen and her now-husband Daniel met at the Logie Awards in 2000 and walked down the aisle five years later, and have since welcomed two children together: Mikayla, 17, and Keira, 12.
Charli Robinson teases Hi-5 reunion
Kathleen’s return to TV comes after fellow Hi-5 star Charli Robinson told Yahoo Lifestyle in September 2022 she’d love to do a reunion concert with the original line-up.
“Nathan and Tim originally contacted me [to do a reunion] and I was pregnant, so I couldn’t do it - unless I was going to do it as a cow costume or something,” she laughed.
“It just wasn’t going to work. But it’s funny because now my girls want to go to a Hi-5 concert. So I’ve been chatting a lot with Nathan and he’s really up for it, I’m really up for it, and we’re like, ‘Let’s do it’. Because my girls want to see the concert now I’m really behind it, and it definitely could work!”
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She continued: “So I’ve spoken to a lot of people and we can make it work. I really do think it could happen, and I’m pretty sure Tim is on board as well. So we’ll just make sure the girls are right now because I think they were before. Maybe for next year or something, but I absolutely think that this could happen.”
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