How Chrissie got her groove back

Between work, raising a family and pandemic homeschooling, Chrissie Swan realised one day that she’d forgotten how to have fun. And so she blazed a fresh trail – and found opportunities opening up right in front of her …

- TIFFANY DUNK

It was lunchtime on her first day at a new school and 10-year-old Rebecca Thompson was cowering under a table. She’d just started fifth grade, and to her horror realised the bully from her previous school was also there, ready to repeat the cycle. Alone and frightened, she was unsure of what to do next.

And that’s when a hand reached out, drawing her up and offering a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry about her,” said the smiling classmate who had stepped in for the new girl in distress. “Come and play with us.”

“It was beautiful and that was it,” Rebecca says today of meeting her best friend close to 40 years ago – a woman she says is the kindest and smartest human she knows. “That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. She was a force. I remember my mum meeting her for the first time and literally saying to me, ‘That girl is going to be someone’.”

“That girl” is Chrissie Swan. And it’s unsurprising to hear this tale, given Chrissie, 48, has built a successful media career on being a friendly face with a ready laugh, the woman you are sure you’d get on with like a house on fire, a kind and nurturing soul.

“I’m not sure I remember that story,” Chrissie herself tells The Weekly while reflecting on the long-ago incident. “But [Rebecca] told me and I believe her. It sounds like the sort of thing I would do, I guess. That’s the thing, you never forget when people are kind to you.”