After more than 13 years, it’s time to say goodbye to The Project’s golden girl.
There will be tears when Carrie Bickmore signs off from The Project for the final time this week. Last month, when she announced she would be leaving, she couldn’t get the words out without crying.
”It’s no secret that this show has become a second home to me,” the 41-year-old told viewers.
The Project’s ”it girl” is stepping away from Aussie screens, at least for now.
(IMAGE: Channel 9)Carrie is the only member of the original line-up of The Project left on the desk.
When the show launched in July 2009 with the name The 7PM Project, her co-hosts were Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering, with James Mathison and Ruby Rose as reporters. MasterChef Australia winner Julie Goodwin was the show’s very first guest.
”I still remember the first episode,” Carrie revealed at the 2019 TV WEEK Logie Awards.
”It was terrible, and Hughesy remarked at the end of it that that was his career done. I remember thinking, ‘S**t – if that’s what Hughesy is saying, I have no hope!”’
But the potential was there, and after an uncertain start, the hosts settled in.
Carrie is the only member of the original line-up of The Project left on the desk.
(IMAGE: Getty)When the show launched, Carrie was 28, and her son Ollie, with husband Greg Lange, just a year old. Greg died of brain cancer in December 2010.
Accepting the TV WEEK Gold Logie Award five years later, Carrie – by then mum to baby Evie with new partner
Chris Walker – used the moment to raise awareness of the terrible disease that had claimed her husband’s life.
Pulling on a blue beanie, she declared, ”I want to get the nation talking about brain cancer. It receives next to no funding, which is ludicrous, because without funding more people are going to die.”
Since then, Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer initiative has raised more than $18 million for research.
There will be tears when Carrie Bickmore signs off from The Project for the final time this week.
(IMAGE: Getty)With Carrie announcing she’s leaving The Project, other TV hosts have paid tribute to her on Instagram, with Kylie Gillies calling her a ”superstar mum, presenter and woman”, Megan Gale saying she had ”navigated this role beautifully” and Melissa Doyle congratulating her on ”an incredible tenure”.
”We’re all going to miss you terribly,” The Project’s Lisa Wilkinson added.
Carrie, now also mum to daughter Addie, says she’s looking forward to being able to be at more family dinners ”and watching the show with my PJs on and a wine in hand”.
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