Tucked away in a quiet, semirural suburb on the NSW Central Coast, Sophie Monk and husband Joshua Gross have created their own little slice of paradise, far removed from the chaos of the outside world.
And while Sophie spends her working life surrounded by sun-kissed singles searching for romance – and drama – on Nine’s Love Island Australia, at home she’s happily living out her own real-life and blissfully uncomplicated love story.
“We love it here,” Sophie, 46, says as she kicks back on the lounge following a rare at-home photoshoot with Woman’s Day. “It’s quiet. I’m not much of a city person. Cities give everyone anxiety, I’m sure.”
Indeed, Sophie and Josh have found their happy place at home surrounded by lush greenery, wildlife and, of course, their two fur babies, five-year-old golden retrievers Billie and Bluey.
In fact, they’re so enamoured with the property that they even chose it as the location for their intimate wedding in 2022.
“It was just a really nice night. I loved it,” she says, adding she enjoys walking around the property and being reminded of memories from that day.
“I loved it because we did it just by ourselves. It was so chill, there was no pressure. We just focused on each other and it was so relaxed.”
COMPETITIVE GAMERS
When they’re not working, Sophie says she and Josh – who call themselves “massive homebodies” – can be found walking the dogs around their sprawling property and, perhaps surprisingly, gaming!
“Oh we’re big gamers,” Sophie confirms. “We love Call Of Duty, anything virtual reality. And we love a board game. Our favourite is Sequence. We get hardcore into it. We take it so seriously.
“Sometimes Josh gets so fired up during a game I have to remind him to calm down, that it’s only a game.”
They also love to make videos together for Sophie’s 700,000 plus Instagram followers, and the star credits their success to her shared sense of humour with Josh.
“He just gets my vibe completely, and my humour,” she says.
EIGHT YEARS STRONG
It’s a partnership that has grown alongside Sophie’s career, with the pair first meeting on a flight when she was returning home from filming the inaugural season of Love Island Australia in 2018.
And now, as she returns to host season eight, it’s a milestone that feels particularly special.
“It doesn’t feel like eight years,” she says of their relationship. “It feels fresh. I still feel like it’s just the beginning.”
Sophie notes she loves returning to host Love Island Australia each year as it gives her a dose of messy and unpredictable drama that’s so different to her own reality.
“I just love how primal it is,” she says. “We all want love, don’t we, really?
“And I’ve got so protective of [the cast] too because you’ve got to give so much trust and vulnerability to do a show like that,” she reveals.
CHASING HAPPINESS
That trust and vulnerability has been something Sophie herself has had to harness as she steered her career from her days performing as Marilyn Monroe at Warner Bros Movie World, to overnight pop superstardom on 2000’s reality TV juggernaut Popstars to a sought-after actress in Hollywood.
And while she says she’s loved every part of her two-decades long journey, she knows she’s exactly where she’s meant to be now.
“Oh my god, I’m so much happier here,” she enthuses. “Hollywood versus here – it’s like chalk and cheese!”
Touching on the next chapter of her career, Sophie says she’s happy hosting Love Island for “as long as they’ll have me”, but she’d be open to exploring new territories, too.
“I’d love to be on The Traitors,” she says, while hinting that a return to music could also be in the pipeline. “I’m kind of talking about it at the moment,” she teases.
For now though, Sophie is just content with the life she and Josh have built together.
“I think if my younger self could see me now, she’d just be happy that I’m happy.
“I think that’s all I’ve been chasing since forever.”
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