How Chrissie Swan and Chris Saville make family life work for their kids, no matter what

Chrissie Swan was an unknown copywriter before she rose to fame on Big Brother in 2003 as runner-up to Reggie Bird.

By that time the beloved TV and radio personality had already built a beautiful life with then-partner and father of her three children, carpenter Chris Saville.

Chrissie and Chris never married, and in 2021 it was reported that they had quietly ended their relationship but continued to live together and co-parent.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Chrissie addressed the rumours but kept the details private, something she values for her family.

“It’s not my story to tell … but we are very good friends. We like each other very much. We still live together. We talk all the time. So it’s not really that different,” she said.

“People are like, ‘Oh, I thought you were going to be together forever.’ And we are, absolutely. We are both so family-oriented and we are 100 per cent committed to those kids.

“There is nothing we like more than parenting. So it’s working beautifully. In fact, we still haven’t had a fight in 15 years! We are a really great unit, the five of us together, so it’s a great set-up and a good scenario for all of us.”

In the same interview, Chrissie revealed that parenting her three kids is her biggest focus at the moment and that they inherited and unlikely trait from her and Chris.

“My kids have inherited my inability to lie. Chris is a terrible liar too, so they’re purebreds,” she told the magazine.

Chrissie echoed her own statements in an exclusive interview with TV WEEK in February 2022, saying: “I’ve always been able to tell when they’re trying to lie, so we have a very honest policy at home, because there’s just no point. We’re terrible.”

But the 48-year-old likes to play things close to the chest when it comes to her kids, saying that their lives aren’t hers to share with the world.

In fact, her family’s privacy is something she has valued for years now, ever since she rose to fame back in 2003 and shot into the spotlight.

“I met someone, had three kids, went from completely unknown copywriter living in a flat in Hawthorn to covers of magazines and five jobs at a time, plus all the kids in there,” she told the Daily Telegraph in 2020.

It’s rare for breakthrough celebrities plucked from normal lives to maintain the structure of their relationships as they rocket to fame, and it wasn’t always easy for Chrissie, Chris and their three children; Kit, Peggy, and Leo.

WATCH: Chrissie Swan talks family on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Story continues after video.

During her time on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2015, Chrissie learned that she needed to start saying “no” more often and spend more time at home.

“I never stopped working. I never had more than five weeks’ maternity leave,” she admitted to the Daily Telegraph.

“Those years had been complete chaos. I don’t know how I did it.”

She confessed that going on the show was “really hard but also life-changing”, adding that she finally “untangled” what she wanted out of life.

“I do one job. And I parent. And that is actually enough. My kids were little then, they’re all at school now, so that changes things again, but I was so busy. What for?”

In honour of Chrissie’s incredible bond with her children and Chris, we’re looking back on some of their best family moments.