Jack Vidgen: ‘MUM HASN'T ALWAYS APPROVED OF THE FILLER!'

A decade after winning Australia’s Got Talent, the polarising popstar and his mum talk to us about fame, rehab and surgery

- Wade Sellers

As Jack Vidgen and his mother Rachel Hayton sit down on the couch, their bond is palpable. And when Woman’s Day comments on this, Jack agrees. “We’ve always been best friends,” he says.

“Mum and Dad divorced when I was two and he moved away, so she’s been raising me by herself since.”

Rachel, 52, who now works in disability care, often worked three jobs at a time in order to keep her family afloat. “I did anything that would keep a roof over our heads,” she says. “I worked in supermarkets, cleaning jobs, backpacker joints – whatever I had to do, I did it.”

Rachel’s hard work enabled Jack to compete in singing competitions at RSL clubs around Australia.

“He’d sit in the back of the car in his cradle chair and sing Beyonce at the top of his lungs,” she laughs. “He could do all the high notes! I knew he had a really good tone even back then.”

‘OVERNIGHT’ FAME

At 14, Jack would enter the biggest competition of his life, Australia’s Got Talent, and walk away with the winning prize of $250,000. “That moment was extraordinary,” says Rachel. “Having been to all the RSLs, I was so proud. I just knew that he belonged on that stage. It was like it was written in the stars for me.”