KAT STEWART ‘Mum's still always with me.'

They say the darkest hour comes before the dawn. The acclaimed actress opens up about learning to find the silver lining, no matter how tough the times.

- TIFFANY DUNK

In 2015, Kat Stewart should have been on top of the world. She was in the first flush of pregnancy with a much longed-for second child, a daughter she would call Gigi. Her marriage to fellow actor David Whiteley was going from strength to strength, the pair have successfully navigated their way from colleagues to friends to blissful lovers. And her career was still on an upward trajectory, with a comeback seventh season of Offspring soon to be announced, and several other projects in the works.

Yet behind closed doors, she was in the midst of unthinkable heartbreak. Five days after she’d learnt she was pregnant, her mother Kitty had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer – a disease that would claim her life four-and-a-half months later. Not only that, but David’s mother, Shirley, who had herself been battling cancer, would also lose her fight during this time.

There were endless hospital and hospice visits and many shed tears, all of which could have taken the gloss from her happiness. But Kat has never operated in that way. Instead, she embraced the positive, tapping into what we’ll learn during our time together is a glass-half-full attitude to life.

“The great thing was that I had such a strong bond with Mum and she was thrilled,” she says with a genuine smile. “Mum knew that Gigi was a little girl – she actually named her. I’m very close to [firstborn son] Archie and Mum was too, but obviously, she was very excited for me to be able to pass on that mother-daughter bond.

“Gigi is such a great, funny, strong, sassy little thing. And we all felt like – especially because my husband lost his mum just a few months before I lost mine – that she was this great surprise who came along to cheer us up. And she has – she’s endlessly entertaining.”