Sonia Melissa Kruger (born 28 August 1965) is an Australian television presenter, actress and media personality. She is best known for co-hosting the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars alongside Chris Brown, and for the role of Tina Sparkle in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom. Kruger was also the host of Big Brother Australia from 2012 to 2014 on Nine, and later returned as host during its revival on Channel 7, from 2020 to 2023.
During her time at the Seven Network, Kruger has reported for numerous other events, including the network's coverage of the Olympics, the Melbourne Cup and the Australian Open. In 2023, she was awarded the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television.
She has attracted criticism for her comments on immigrants and Muslims.
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Early life
Kruger was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, on 28 August 1965. She was raised in the south-east Queensland suburb of Waterford on the Gold Coast-Logan border and often spent weekends travelling to Gold Coast beaches in Burleigh Heads and Surfers Paradise when not competing in dance competitions. She completed her secondary education at Beenleigh State High School and graduated Year 12 in 1982. Following graduation, she moved to Sydney to complete an Arts Degree at the University of Technology, Sydney and taught dance at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
Career
In 1992, Kruger came to prominence in her acting debut as Tina Sparkle in the AFI Award-winning film Strictly Ballroom. She was also a ballroom adviser for the film. This remains her only acting role to date.
Following her film debut she hosted the children's variety show Wonder World! on the Nine Network.
Kruger has been an entertainment reporter for Seven Network shows Today Tonight, Sunrise and 11AM. She previously hosted the morning program on the Sydney-based radio station Mix 106.5 with Dancing with the Stars judges Todd McKenney and Andy Grace.
In 2004, Kruger joined the Seven Network reality dance competition series Dancing with the Stars, the Australian version of the UK BBC television series Strictly Come Dancing. She co-hosted the series with both Daryl Somers and Daniel MacPherson over the course of the eleven seasons in which she appeared. In September 2008, Kruger was confirmed to host the Seven Network makeover reality show 10 Years Younger in 10 Days. Despite high ratings for its series premiere, Seven Network did not renew the series for a second season.
In November 2011, Kruger announced she was leaving both Dancing with the Stars and the Seven Network to pursue other opportunities.
Kruger then signed a development deal with the Nine Network in November 2011. She was confirmed to host her own daytime talk show, Mornings, with singer and actor David Campbell. The series was designed to replace Kerri-Anne, which ended that same month. The series premiered on 6 February 2012 and continued into 2016 rebranded as Today Extra.
Kruger was announced to host the Nine Network's reboot of the competition reality series Big Brother Australia. Kruger replaced Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, who hosted the series on Network Ten in its eighth season, after which the show was cancelled in 2008.
Big Brother 9 premiered on 13 August 2012 to 1.6 million viewers, the franchise's highest ratings since the series' third season.
Personal life
Kruger was married for six years (2002 to 2008) to James Davie, a British-born banker.
After the marriage ended in September 2008, she began seeing her current partner, Craig McPherson, executive producer of Today Tonight. She and McPherson had been trying for a child for years, through both IVF and natural methods. She became pregnant several times, but they ended in miscarriages. In August 2014, she announced she was pregnant, having conceived via in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) using a donor egg. In 2015, Kruger gave birth to a daughter.
Controversies
In 2008, during an episode of Dancing with the Stars, Kruger made a comment about a "sweat shop of illegal immigrants" working on her wardrobe for the Melbourne Cup carnival before referring to Chong Lim, the show's Malaysian-born musical director, with the words "How's the family, Chong? All right?" Channel Seven later issued an apology for her statement.
On 18 July 2016, during an appearance on the morning show Today, Kruger called for a complete ban on Muslims entering Australia, in agreement with an opinion piece by commentator Andrew Bolt. Kruger defended her comments, saying: "I believe it's vital in a democratic society to be able to discuss these issues without being labelled racist." The firebombing of a Perth radio station initially linked by media reports to the presenters disagreeing with Kruger's views was later determined by police to be coincidental and to have "nothing to do with the Islam discussion".
A racial vilification complaint against Kruger was made to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal over her statement about Muslim immigration. The Nine Network applied to have the complaint dismissed without a hearing, but this was refused. The complaint was made by Sam Ekermawi, who was described by The Daily Telegraph as a "serial offence-taker". The tribunal heard that Ekermawi had been involved in thirty-two hearings before courts and tribunals. The matter proceeded for directions in June 2018. The Tribunal found that she had vilified Muslims in her comments, but that this was not racial vilification because Muslims are not a race.