After years of taking a backseat at home, Lydia Kamperos is finally stepping into the spotlight on MasterChef Australia.
“It wasn’t until MasterChef started that I realised I might have been a support act for everyone else,” Lydia tells TV WEEK. “I realised this is actually not for anyone but me, as opposed to helping my husband with the business or raising the kids. It felt a little bit selfish, but it also felt good.”
At 58, her age sometimes makes Lydia second-guess what might be possible post show, but she is determined to push through her inner doubts.
“I feel like I’m reinventing myself,” she declares. “I have to stop being concerned about my age, which I tend to do a lot. I have some issues with self-belief. One day I wake up thinking: ‘Come on, this is a world for the young ones. What do you think you’re trying to do?’ And the next, I’ll wake up and think: ‘Why can’t you just do it?’ That’s my battle at the moment.”
The NSW mother of two adult children has been a homemaker since marrying her husband, Sam, with the pair having been together for 38 years.
“We got married quite young – before my 21st,” Lydia explains. “He’s great; he’s a glass-half-full kind of person. But, you know, there are still some days I hate him, some days I like him, some days I tolerate him!” she laughs.
Being Greek, family is everything to Lydia, which is why becoming an empty nester has been especially challenging.
“The kids moving out happened during this MasterChef journey,” she explains. “That was very difficult. We were this little nuclear family and then, all of a sudden, I had less people to feed. I have struggled a lot with the whole thing.”
It’s also made her reflect on her relationship with her own parents.
“I lost my dad a while ago,” she says. “And my mum is not one to express herself but, when she watches me on the TV without criticism, that’s when I know she is happy!”
MasterChef Australia airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on 10 and 10Play.
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