Better Homes and Gardens star Adam Dovile says the Logie Awards are etched in his memory for many birthdays to come after he had to dash from the birth of his first child in hospital, straight to the stage to collect his first trophy.
Dovile recounted the mother of all hangovers and a nightmare predicament as his wife, House Rules star Lisa Lamond, delivered their first child Arabella in 2014 on the same day he was up for best new talent.
“I don’t know if people know. But that night was really special to me. My first child was born at 6am that morning. At 9 o’clock at night I was accepting a Logie off Eddie McGuire. How crazy life can be!” Dovile, whose team are up for most popular lifestyle category this month, said.
“Coming from being a guy in the building industry suddenly finding myself standing on stage of Australia’s night of nights accepting one of their awards and my baby girl born that morning, you can imagine what was going through my mind and how crazy that was.”
Detailing his mad dash and Lisa’s permission, he said, “She gave birth at 6am. She went into labour all the day before. She went into hospital at 10pm the night before. It started to get really hectic. I’d been up all of the day before, all of the night before and then we had our baby girl Arabella.”
He was happy to forsake his moment in the limelight to spend his daughter’s first day in the world together.
“I said to the publicist at the time I don’t think I can make it in to the Logies. You can imagine how that went down as I was nominated,” he said.
“I was sitting with Lisa and got to the afternoon and we were with our new baby. My wife goes ‘Let’s be honest Adam when are you ever going to be nominated for an individual Logie again in your life?’. She said, ‘I reckon you should just go in! I am fine in hospital, Arabella is doing fine and then you can come back.’ I ended up going in.”
The mad dash was on. “I went home, got ready and went in. Lucky I did, not one part of me thought I was going to win that Logie! I am tradie, I am tradie at heart. That’s where I came from so never in my mind did I think I could win a TV award,” Dovile, now a dad-of-two, said.
“For me every time I think of that Logie it brings back so many happy memories. It reminds me of Arabella coming into the world.”
As for how he celebrated? “I’m not going to lie! It would have been rude of me not to wet the baby’s head! I did have a cheeky couple, but I knew where Lisa was and I wanted to get back to the hospital and make sure everyone was still alright. I would have slept for a long time after that, just like Lisa but she went through a lot harder work than what I did!”
The 2023 TV WEEK Logie Awards comes to Channel 7 on Sunday, July 30.