Photography: Getty Images / Raine & Horne Double Bay
The time has come for Todd McKenney to move on from the Pymble home he’s owned for the past 15 years. He purchased it in 2009 for $2.285 million when he was a judge on Dancing With The Stars. Along with living in it himself, he’s also famously hosted high teas for the public on the property for the past decade. The last of those wrapped up recently and the home is now for sale, with a price guide of $5 million.
It was Todd McKenney’s great mate Sonia Kruger who “dragged” the Australian entertainer to the northern suburbs of Sydney. The pair were working on the morning radio shift at Mix 106.5, searching real estate sites while songs played, when Sonia suddenly “swung her computer around and said, ‘Toddy, look!’,” he recalls. “We finished the show and drove to the front verge and literally looked over the fence. Sonia just said: ‘You’ve found your house.’ I’d bought it in my mind before I even went inside.”
At the time, Todd was looking for extra space. With this sprawling 1918 heritage home, on around 2200 square metres of land with a glorious garden, he certainly got it. “I’ve never even had a garden and look what I have now,” he told Home Beautiful when we visited, pointing out different species of plants and trees that are more than a century old.
Step inside the delightfully warm home with grand proportions and it’s obvious Todd’s got a natural talent for interior decorating. Each space sings with personal style and a great story or three. In one spot there’s a chair bought at a charity auction he MC’d, while here there’s a piece picked up outside a Chinese restaurant in inner-city Newtown, and over there are some fantastic old theatre signs the entertainer managed to nab from a theatre mechanist in exchange for a bottle of vodka and a six-pack.
A dramatic artwork by Tim Maguire serves as a striking centrepiece in the living area, which is all about low-maintenance style. “This isn’t precious, this is lived in,” says Todd. “I had lovely rugs here, but the dogs came and peed on them straight away, so now I have carpet offcuts,” he says with a smile.
Over the years, Todd has spent many Sunday mornings with the papers or belting out a show tune on the home’s grounds. With a private lap pool spanning the width of the house and a sunny side garden, Todd’s outdoor oasis is an endless source of inspiration – and hedging fun. “Jason Hodges from Better Homes and Gardens taught me how to hedge, and his brother Keith is now my gardener,” Todd told Home Beautiful during our tour of the place.
The perfectly manicured garden is full of surprises. “I lived here for two years not knowing what the garden did, as I was always on tour,” he explains. “I came home from the Gold Coast, turned the corner and my garden was in full bloom. I rang up Mum and said, ‘You should see what the garden does!’”
After enjoying the home to its fullest, Todd has decided to make the move to Melbourne, where his daughter Charlotte, lives to support her during her last year of high school.
The home has been listed for sale through Paul and Ben Langsam at Raine & Horne Double Bay. Expressions of interest are open until September 26.
