Dancing over the ditch - CANDY'S LEAVING FOR LOVE

The Weekly darling is headed for a sweet new life on the Gold Coast

- Rebekah Hebenton

She’s been an icon of New Zealand dancing and one of the country’s favourite TV stars for years. But Candy Lane is about to make the leap across the Tasman.

“If there is anything we’ve learned during lockdown, it’s that we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, so we’ve really got to live for the day,” Candy tells the Weekly at her home in Auckland’s Mt Eden.

“With my career, I haven’t spent as much time with my family as I would have liked to, so there’s no time like the present to do that.”

For Candy, that means packing up her villa, complete with splashes of whimsy like her leopard-print carpet, and moving to the Gold Coast to be closer to her daughter Jaz and her three-year-old grandson August.

This house on the city’s fringe certainly holds a lifetime of memories for Candy. Among the pictures of old Hollywood greats that decorate the walls are pieces of memorabilia from her impressive career, including a wall dedicated to her many Weekly covers, celebrating important milestones throughout the years.

Upstairs, we sit in a room that once served as the nursery when Jaz, now 28, and her son Zak, 25, were born. Looking out across her sunny back garden where her kids used to play, Candy is at once emotional and excited as she tells us about her decision to pack up and move to Australia.

In the end, it all came down to embracing the changes that have swept through her life in the past 12 months.