The Wiggles' lead singer makes heartbreaking family confession in new documentary
Topics: Music, Film and TV, Amazon Prime
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images/Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
Topics: Music, Film and TV, Amazon Prime
A highly anticipated new documentary about The Wiggles will reveal aspects of the band's lives that no one knew about.
Titled Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles, the programme looks into the fame behind the popular band that first formed in the 90s.
The documentary is described as 'a backstage pass to one of the world's greatest entertainment stories, and features decades of personal archive footage and intimate access to their sold-out shows'.
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The synopsis continues: "It's the story of a life of music, friendship, joy, and the enduring power of the child in all of us."
Anthony Field speaks about his battle with depression on the programme, which is set for release on Amazon Prime, and shared that he'd sometimes burst into tears backstage of their shows.
But, as mental health wasn't as talked about 30 years ago, people were left baffled about Field's illness.
He recalls in the documentary: "Talking to one of my brothers, I told him I felt sad all the time and he said, 'What have you got to be sad about? You're successful, you have got all the comforts - what's wrong with you?'"
Elsewhere, Murray Cook discusses how touring affected his family life.
Cook is father to two kids, Georgia Munro-Cook and son Hamish Cook, and apparently Hamish in particular struggled when his dad had to leave to go on tour.
Cook recalled a heartbreaking comment made by his son.
Apparently Hamish said: "I don't like music because it takes Daddy away."
No, you're crying.
The band also took a toll on Greg Page's family life, with him going on to divorce his wife Michelle Charlton in 2008.
He left the band in 2006, and returned for a special reunion in 2020.
But the night ended in disaster as Page suffered a heart attack on stage.
"First I thought he'd just overdone it, but then his eyes started rolling back," Cook recalled.
"Then first aid people were saying he'd stopped breathing. I thought he was dead. It was horrible to see... It was pretty distressing."
The 'Rock-A-Bye Your Bear' hitmaker was later diagnosed with orthostatic intolerance.
Meanwhile Cook had open-heart surgery in 2021.
Jeff Fatt has also had health issues in the years that followed his fame in The Wiggles, and after ongoing heart issues, Fatt had a triple bypass and a pacemaker fitted in 2011.
Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles drops on Amazon Prime on Tuesday (October 24).