Birds of paradise also grow older
Ross Antony celebrates a whole month
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Ross Antony is probably the most popular Brit in German show business – and one of the most dazzling figures in the entertainment industry. His CV includes pop star, jungle king and restaurateur. Now he is celebrating his 50th birthday.
When Ross Antony Catterall was born on July 9, 1974 in Bridgnorth, England, it was already clear that he would become a star. Even his grandmother loved singing, “my mom made theater costumes, dad sang in a choir and my sister was a costume designer,” he once told the “Kurier” in an interview. So it's no wonder that little Ross was on the theater stage for the first time at the age of three. Shortly afterwards, he began singing and dancing lessons.
After graduating from school, Antony turned his hobby into a career with a three-year course at the Guildford School of Acting. Musical engagements in Great Britain followed before the world premiere of the musical “Catharine” brought him to Germany in 1997. Here he played leading roles in “Mozart!” and “Hair”.
“Great years” with Bro'Sis
Ross Antony, Hila Bronstein, Faiz Mangat, Indira Weis, Shaham Joyce and Giovanni Zarrella (lr) prevailed among 11,000 applicants in 2001 and are now Bro'Sis.
(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)
From the musical stage, the young Ross Antony went to the “Popstars” casting. In 2001, he won a place in the band Bro'Sis in the RTLZWEI talent show. Together with his bandmates Giovanni Zarrella, Indira Weis, Hila Bronstein, Shaham Joyce and Faiz Mangat, Antony took off. The first single “I Believe” sold over a million copies, and the band sold a total of four million records. Live performances sent fans into hysteria for years before Bro'Sis split up in 2006 due to “musical differences”.
“We had five great years together, partly because we were so different, but it still worked really well. And nobody expected that we would stay together for so long,” said Ross Antony in an interview with the magazine “Bunte” about his time in the casting band. But he has definitely ruled out a comeback. And instead of pop, he now prefers to sing hits.
Jungle camp as a springboard
Ross Antony (with Daniel Hartwich) is crowned RTL Jungle King in 2008.
(Photo: picture-alliance/dpa)
After the end of his pop star career, Antony moved into the RTL jungle camp in 2008. Initially laughed at by viewers as a crybaby, he was chosen for jungle tests five times. Antony overcame his fears, mutated into “Rambo Ross” at the end of the season and won “I'm a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!” – despite his many phobias. “I was afraid of rats, snakes, spiders, everything and I thought that if I confronted everything directly, it would help me enormously and it did,” he summed up in an interview with “Bunte”.
Antony now sees his participation in the jungle camp as the “springboard” to his success and doesn't regret it for a second. The jungle was the best decision of his life “after Bro'Sis”: “I benefited a lot from it.”
Visiting Ross Antony
In his private life, Ross Antony has been in a relationship with opera singer Paul Reeves since 2006. Together, the couple has two children, whom they adopted in 2015 and 2017. The couple keep their offspring strictly out of the public eye, so neither the gender nor the names of the children are known.
In addition to singing, dancing, acting and presenting, Antony is also an enthusiastic host. In 2014 he opened the “Chillax” café in his hometown of Siegburg, where he also worked from time to time. Together with his husband he also ran a bed and breakfast in Wallingford, England, which they sold again because of Brexit. Today Antony and Reeves are once again renting out accommodation in the county of Cornwall. They have two holiday homes there, some of which they live in with their family.
In keeping with his gastronomy career, Ross Antony's favorite hobby is baking. Since he made it to the finals of “The Great Celebrity Bake Off” in 2020, his enthusiasm for sweet pastries has been sparked. He has now published three baking books in which he presents his best German and British recipes with his mother Vivien, among others.
Grateful that he is turning 50
Great love: Ross Antony and his husband Paul Reeves.
(Photo: picture alliance / ABBfoto)
Antony already has big plans for the special day, as he will be celebrating it in the houses in Cornwall for a whole month. “My friends and family will be coming to visit in stages throughout July so that we can celebrate my birthday together. It will be great fun for everyone,” the birthday boy told the women's magazine “Woche heute”.
The birthday girl is now looking forward to the new phase of her life with a relaxed attitude: “I was a little scared of turning 50, but my mother told me something very wise: I should be grateful that I am even allowed to turn 50. That is not a given.”
