BARBIE ROGERS AT 80 ‘IT'S GREAT TO BE ALIVE & IN LOVE'

TV’s ever-glamorous hostess is celebrating all that life has to offer

- Craig Bennett

Barbie Rogers bursts out laughing when asked if she’ll be celebrating her milestone birthday in great style and with a big party.

“I still can’t believe I’ll be 80 in July. That makes me sound absolutely ancient and, to be honest, I have no idea where the years have gone. When last I checked, I was 21,” chuckles the vivacious great-grandmother.

“I count my blessings, because it’s great to be alive, especially considering the alternative,” adds the two-time TV WEEK Logie award winner.

“My birthday plan is for a long lunch, kicking off with a glass of champagne. It’ll be a family get-together – my daughters Shane [60] and Yvette [55], their partners, my four grandkids, and my great-grandson Rio. Plus my fabulous Nev, of course.”

Barbie’s “fabulous Nev” is Neville Freney, 73, an ex-wharfie she met in 1988 at a singles night in Sydney.

“That was 34 years ago and we’re still so much in love,” says Barbie. “And to think I nearly didn’t go as I stupidly thought singles nights were not for me.

“Neville was with some mates. He came over and asked me to dance. What immediately struck me about Nev was the beautiful way he talked about his mother. I was so taken, I asked him out... and that was the start of our amazing love match.”

TRUE LOVE

Barbie, who began her career as a teenage model before becoming a hostess alongside Tony Barber on TV’s Great Temptation and Temptation in the 1970s, says what she loves about Neville is his honesty.