APRIL ROSE PENGILLY
THE FORMER NEIGHBOURS STAR ON ITS SAD DEMISE AND WHETHER SHE’LL SHED HER FAMOUS SURNAME AFTER HER “FAIRYTALE” WEDDING THIS MONTH
1 Even though actor April Rose Pengilly’s fiancé Adam Jones tried to keep his proposal plans a secret, she figured it out pretty quickly. The couple had been together just under two years when Jones popped the question on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in December 2023. “I had just bought my first property, and I had my first strata meeting on Zoom,” the former Neighbours star and model tells Stellar. “Adam was like, ‘Well, can’t you change it?’ Normally, he’s really understanding with work and things popping up. But because he was so panicked, I tried to get my dad to do the meeting instead.” There was still a catch: “Unbeknownst to me, Adam had arranged for my parents [INXS band member Kirk Pengilly and designer Karen Hutchinson] and some friends to come over and be part of the engagement.”
2 The wedding is set for later this month, in France.
“Even before we got engaged, we talked about where we would get married. Adam is English, and English people are really daunted by the flight to Australia,” Pengilly, 37, says with a laugh. “I had my heart set on Italy, but all the venues were really difficult because they had strict rules… We saw the chateau in France and it was so beautiful, a fairytale. Actually, there’s a castle in France that the castle in Beauty And The Beast is based on, and this chateau is called the mini version. So it really is a fairytale.”
3 When Pengilly started her modelling career at the age of 16, she chose to go simply by April Rose. “I didn’t want to be in [my dad’s] shadow. I kept travelling around and starting over again – I worked in Japan, New York, London,” she recalls. “But eventually people figured it out. I’m glad I did it though, because I basically proved to myself that I could make it work.” She admits it was difficult at times to have such a well-known last name. “Anything written about me, they’d usually bring my father into it. I’d see comments, and any success I had, it was, ‘Oh, it’s just because of her dad.’ That does play on your mind.” Even so, she is one “very proud daughter” after the INXS ballad ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ was voted Australia’s favourite song in Triple J’s special edition Hottest 100 poll last month. “I think Australia definitely voted
correctly, and it is well-deserved.”
4 It wasn’t until she had been on the soap opera Neighbours from 2018 to 2023 that Pengilly started seeing a shift. “A huge part of that fan base is British, so they were familiar with my dad and his band but they didn’t grow up seeing me and him and that connection. I was a new face to them. That’s when I felt taken seriously for my work.” In fact, some fans have recognised Pengilly rather than her famous father. “I had fans message me and say that they saw my dad somewhere, and they ran up to him and got excited because he was my dad,” she says. “So now it happens the other way around.” 5 While she may change her famous surname “down the track”, the model and actor has no plans to do so after getting married. “Adam really wants me to, but at this point, I will keep it,” she says. “I’ve had this name my whole life, so I do feel attached to it. It makes me feel close to my dad, that it’s his name. My mum has a different surname; they were never married. They were together for 10 years. But it never bothered me that I had a different surname to her.”
6 During Pengilly’s time on Neighbours, one of the most well-received storylines involved her character Chloe Brennan, who was bisexual, being attracted to Jodi Gordon’s Elly Conway. “Once it aired, things just went crazy. It blew up. None of us were expecting it,” Pengilly recalls. “We had this huge female fan base rise up. I still have fans messaging me, saying thank you so much, you helped me come out to my parents or you helped me realise I’m trans or queer. It’s humbling. I’m so grateful [this storyline] was given to me and that it meant so much to people.”
7 After saying her goodbyes to the series once – when it was cancelled in 2022 before being renewed – Pengilly admits it’s hard to see the show reach another end. ( Neighbours is set to air its final episodes in December.) “I’m trying not to think about it, because it’s just really sad,” she says. “I was always like, ‘Maybe I can go back someday and reprise that role’; knowing there is no way to revisit it now is really heartbreaking.” But she hasn’t given up all hope: “It’s already come back once. Maybe it will happen again...”