Everything you need to know about Delta Goodrem

Born November 9, 1984, Delta Lea Goodrem is a chart-topping Australian singer, songwriter and actress.

She was signed to Sony Music at the tender age of 15 before finding fame as Nina Tucker on the popular Aussie soap, Neighbours, in 2002.

A year later, aged just 18, Goodrem launched a hugely successful singing career off the back of the show, her self-penned debut album Innocent Eyes going on to sell four million records worldwide, topping the ARIA Album charts for an astonishing 29 consecutive weeks.

Just a few months after releasing her debut album in 2003, in July of that year, Goodrem’s life took an unexpected turn when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Her shock cancer diagnosis forced her to take a hiatus to seek chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment for her illness.

By December that year, it was announced she was in remission and in the years that followed, Goodrem continued to build her career, releasing several albums that went straight to number one. She has had a total of nine number-one singles, 17 top-ten hits and sold over eight million albums globally. In 2012 she joined the Australian version of the hit reality singing series, The Voice, as a mentor, a role she’s continued to perform every year since except for 2014.

How old is Delta Goodrem?

Delta Goodrem is 35 years of age. She grew up in the Hills district of Sydney, to parents Lea and Dennis Goodrem, who have since divorced. Goodrem has one brother, Trent, who is married and has two small children with his wife, Carly. The siblings remain close — Goodrem regularly writes sweet Instagram posts featuring her adorable niece Emmy (born 2018) and nephew Nate (born 2016).

How did Delta Goodrem get discovered?

Delta Goodrem has been singing, dancing and acting since she was a small child. Her first paid job was for an American toy company — she starred in the advertisement alongside fellow soap star Bec Cartwright when she was just seven years old and the pair have remained friends ever since — check out this photo of them as teenagers from 2001!

Delta had guest roles in popular Australian series Hey Dad!, A Country Practice and Police Rescue and also starred in ads for Optus and Nesquik. She used the money from this work to fund a five-song demo CD, which she sent, aged 13, to famed Aussie music manager Glenn Wheatley (who also manages John Farnham), via the Sydney Swans football club, of which she is a lifelong supporter.

Wheatley signed the teenager to an artist development deal and Goodrem later recorded an album — though in 2004 she famously prevented it from ever being released via a court case, also dropping Wheatley as her manager around that time.

What was Delta’s biggest hit?

By the time Goodrem was 15, she had scored a record deal with Sony, releasing her first single, “I Don’t Care” in November 2001. It failed to launch, landing at a disappointing 64 on the ARIA singles charts.

Sony sidelined her while deciding on a new direction for the star, eventually pairing her with acclaimed writer/producer Audius Mtawarira. He helped her write the hit track “Born to Try”, which was showcased on Neighbours, kickstarting her career both here and the UK, and launching Goodrem into the music world.

When did Delta Goodrem get cancer?

Delta Goodrem was diagnosed with cancer on July 8, 2003, just months after releasing her debut album, aged 18. She first suspected something was wrong a few months earlier when in the gym she felt a lump appear on her neck.

“I was doing some sit-ups when I felt something pop in my neck,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly in 2004. “I reached down and felt a small lump at the base of my throat. It wasn’t sore, it wasn’t visible, but I could feel it...it started to get bigger. It was about the size of a 10-cent coin. The doctor said that it was a swollen gland.”

At the time “Innocent Eyes” was number one in Australia and number two in the UK, and Delta was due in New York for a promotional trip with her record label.

It was her mother who told her the news.

“The enormity of the moment, hearing those words from Mum, was overwhelming. In a matter of a few seconds, my whole world was turned upside down,” she said. “I was suddenly very cold. I couldn’t stop shaking. I felt like a little animal that had been backed into a corner. I kept thinking, ‘My god, I am only 18. I am only 18, this is not supposed to happen.’

“I remember Mum was walking with me to the car. She had her arm around me and I was sobbing. All the way to the hospital, I was shaking and it didn’t stop for the next 24 hours.”

She took time out for treatment, attending St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney for regular Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy treatments for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a malignant form of cancer that attacks the body's immune system.

In December of that year Goodrem announced she was in remission, but as she explained at the time, the experience changed her forever.

“I have this idea that people look at me and think that, aside from the short hair, I am the same person, the same Delta,” she said in 2004. “It’s as though they are just waiting for my hair to grow back and I will be the same again, as though nothing has happened. But you can’t go through something like this and be the same person at the end. It’s simply not possible.”

Is Delta Goodrem engaged?

She’s not, but has been in the past. Keep reading for the lowdown:

Who has Delta Goodrem dated?

Her first major boyfriend — whom she was rumoured to be engaged to at the time — was Australian tennis star, Mark Philippoussis. She met the professional player, who was then 27, while in the very early stages of her cancer recovery in 2004.

Philippoussis sent her flowers and a message of support when she was sick — his own dad had beaten the same kind of cancer three times and the pair bonded over their shared experiences.

Goodrem’s mother Lea said at the time that Mark helped Delta enormously.

“She was at her lowest and she wasn’t feeling physically attractive — there wasn’t a lot of hair under that cap — and he didn’t see any of that,” she told The Australian Woman’s Weekly. “He didn’t even notice it. He made her take her hat off all the time. She would wear wigs and he would ask her what she was doing.”

The pair dated until late 2004, when they announced their breakup, reportedly to both focus on their respective careers.

Brian McFadden dated Delta Goodrem

Delta’s next big relationship was with ex-Westlife boy band singer, Brian McFadden, who she met after recording the duet “Almost Here” together in 2004 (the song went to number one in Australia and Brian’s native Ireland).

The pair went on to have an on-off relationship for close to seven years. McFadden, who has two children with his ex-wife Kerry Katona, relocated to Australia to be with Goodrem, but their tumultuous relationship — which saw an engagement in 2007, and the pair relocate together to the States in 2010 — ended in 2011.

“There is so much I'd like to say. I was really unhappy and I didn't know how to get out,” she told Vogue in 2011. “I learnt. I got there in the end.”

Nick Jonas dated Delta Goodrem

When Goodrem and McFadden broke up, Delta was living in Los Angeles full time, recording music. It was there she met boy band star Nick Jonas (of Jonas Brothers fame) while working together in 2011. The pair made headlines at the time for their eight-year age difference.

They dated for 10 months, before amicably parting ways in February 2012. The two remain friends to this day, a good thing — in 2018 Goodrem co-starred with Nick’s older brother Joe Jonas on The Voice! Jonas has said he considers the star to be like “a sister”.

Does Delta Goodrem have a boyfriend right now?

She does! And, by all accounts, it’s all going super well. Delta has been dating her current boyfriend, musician Matthew Copley, for around two years (though they are rumoured to have broken up at one point).

She made it ‘Insta-official’ back in January 2019, sharing a sweet snap of them together on a deck chair. Since then, Goodrem has remained fairly private, but in recent weeks her relationship has taken centre stage once more after the singer revealed they were self-isolating together at her apartment during the Coronavirus lockdown.

Copley, a talented musician and guitarist, has been accompanying Goodrem on her weekly live Instagram performances. Rumours have been swirling in recent weeks that the pair are about to announce an engagement — and possibly even a baby! — though nothing has been officially confirmed.

Goodrem broke her usual code of silence to talk about her boyfriend in a recent magazine article, in which she discussed how much she’d been enjoying making music from her home during lockdown.

“I am pretty consistent with saying to people that my private life is my private life, but we are spending isolation together and, in our household, we’re both performers,” she recently told Stellar magazine. “Music is how we met, it’s what we both do, so it’s really about just being creative in the household.”

Where does Delta Goodrem live?

Delta Goodrem has lived on and off in LA over the past decade, but in recent years Australia has been her preferred home base. In 2019 she purchased a $AU4.825million luxury apartment in Sydney’s trendy inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst, where she currently lives with her boyfriend — she reportedly sold her Hollywood Hills home to fund the purchase.

The building boasts communal wine storage, a 20m lap pool, gym, spa, sauna, steam room and 24-hour concierge, and her 7th-floor apartment has extensive views of nearby Hyde Park. Her neighbours include Fairfax chief Greg Hywood, the former chief executive of McDonald’s Australia Stephen Jermyn and the Bell Financial Group chief Alastair Provan.

“Home will always be Australia,” she told Richard Wilkins in 2016.

Does Delta Goodrem have kids?

Not yet, but she’s frequently chatted about her desire to one day become a mum, telling TV Week magazine in 2016 she was “beyond excited” when she found out her brother Trent and wife Carly were expecting for the first time.

“I cried my eyes out when I found out they were having a baby,” she told the magazine replying: “Absolutely! I'd love to have a family,” when quizzed as to whether she’d like to start a family one day too.

“If it's meant to be, then one day it will,” she said. “I look forward to that time, but it's not right now. I'm enjoying getting into music and being really empowered in what I'm getting to do... I know when I do, I will give it my everything.”

What is Delta Goodrem’s net worth?

According to website Celebrity Net Worth, Delta Goodrem is worth around $16million dollars, a result of both her successful recording career, appearances on The Voice, and her property portfolio, which includes her multi-million dollar Sydney apartment, and previous properties in the Hollywood Hills (which she bought for $US3million — take a look at the photos on Realtor here) and Wooloomooloo’s exclusive fingerwharf development.

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