First Photos At Their New York Home

by Ian Woodward

'Being so much in love I don't notice I'm kissing him all the time. We're like two little squirrels who have to keep cuddling.'

Dannii Minogue and Julian McMahon moved into their luxury Manhattan apartment a year and a half ago in readiness for their fairy tale marriage last January. Now the glamorous singer and her soap star husband confess that they have been together for only half that time.

"I still can't come to terms with the fact that we're living apart for about 50 percent of our lives," worries Dannii. "I long to be with Julian all the time but the reality is that most of my work is in England. Our good-byes are terrible...I'm inconsolable when we have a parting hug."

"The worst part for me," says Julian, "is returning home at night from the studio and walking into our New York apartment - and there's only me there. Knowing that the woman I love is halfway round the world tears me apart sometimes."

It means that the times when the Australian couple are together are heightened to the point of being super charged. Their love affair, which began three years after their departure from Home and Away, where they first met, has lost none of its ardor.

During the New York photo-shoot they constantly snuggle up to each other and steal kisses. One of Dannii's friends, said: "I sometimes felt as if I was intruding on something private because they seemed to be so much in love, hugging all the time."

Dannii is ecstatic when told of the observation. "It's really nice to hear a friend say that because, being so much in love, I don't notice that I'm running over and kissing Julian all the time. We're like two little squirrels who have to keep cuddling."

Julian, recently voted sexiest man in US daytime soaps for his role in the New York produced, five days a week Another World, is still trying to deal with the emotional chasm which opens up whenever Dannii is on the other side of the Atlantic promoting new singles like Get Into You or standing in for Gaby Roslyn as co-presenter of the Big Breakfast.

"The long separations are getting more difficult to live with," laments the 25 year old son of former Australian Prime Minister Sir William McMahon.

Julian is halfway through a three year contract with Another World, which has made him one of the hottest young talents on American television. He receives around 3000 letters a week from adoring fans, almost all of them female. He is besieged by women wherever he goes. "I'm flattered," he says simply.

Pop princess Dannii, 23 this month, has never been busier. On Tuesday at 4:30pm she co-presents BBCI's teen show Fan TC. She is recording a new album, producing an hour long TV documentary about Australia and planning a UK launch of her own range of 'Dannii' clothes which have already been a big hit in Oz.

Along the way, she has enrolled for acting lessons at New York's prestigious Sandra Lee school. It is just a ten minute stroll from their roof top eyrie on the 43rd floor, with its spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty, the Twin Towers and Hudson River.

"When I leave London and come here," she says glancing round the airy, cream-walled apartment, "it's really to see Julian. even so, I've always wanted to study acting and I do believe the great drama schools are in New York. I'm trying like mad to perfect a standard American accent, not a New York accent, because you can't audition here with an Australian accent." says the 'veteran' showbiz trouper who has acted in TV series like The Sullivans and All the Way since the age of seven and starred in Australian movies like Secrets.

"I go through all these up and down periods when I'm not sure if I've got what it takes. So it's great to have Julian there to talk about it. In the past I got a lot of acting off the back of my singing work, which I'd done originally in Australia on the Young Talent Time TV series. I went from there into dramas and soaps and movies.

"What's great about New York is that nobody knows who I am. I'm just some Australian singer to them. I'm not given any special treatment. To be in this tough, competitive environment really inspires me not to take anything for granted."

Julian, a one time model famous for his Levi jeans and Pepsi commercials before achieving fame as Italian heartthrob Ben in Home and Away, is equally enthusiastic. "Dannii's never had to put herself through those sort of raw, exposed feelings before. The classes are giving her acting a new excitement, enjoyment and confidence.

Although she stays tight lipped on film offers that have come her way, it is no secret that Hollywood directors have been wining and dining her. It is the couple's ultimate dream to make a film together in Tinsel Town?

"It is and it isn't," she answers quickly. "On paper it sounds a great idea, but I think it would bring a lot of unwanted pressures to our marriage."

"I'd like to give it a try, darling," says a more confident husband. "Dannii's a wonderfully intuitive actress and I know we'd have a great time doing scenes together."

But, before then, Dannii intends to have more acting lessons. "I've been up for a few auditions," explains the younger sister of Kylie. "But my record company keep saying, 'Come back, you've got an album to make!'

"So we're spending half our time living separate lives. I try to deal with the loneliness as best I can, but it gets really hard."

So American soap's premier sex symbol and the diminutive singer actress with Top Ten hits like Jump To the Beat and This Is It have made an amazing pact. They reveal that, if necessary, one of them will give up their career to console the other.

"We live a really good lifestyle, but that's because we work very hard to earn the money to make that lifestyle possible," reasons Dannii, who shares homes with Julian in Sydney and Melbourne as well as London and New York. "But if my records became really big in America, or if her got a really big movie deal in America - he's already made Exchange Lifeguards with Elliot Gould - the one of us would give up our career. Probably not forever but certainly for a while."

"We'd love to do that - certainly would," adds Julian. "At the moment work is a big part of our lives and we both enjoy it. But we'd eventually like to arrive at a situation where one of us will have time off."

Dannii, who shot to fame as pop star in 1991 with Love And Kisses, has just signed up with UK-based Mushroom Records. Her new album will be released early next year.

She says," I've worked long and hard for this career and it would be tough for me to leave it and step back into a kind of domesticity. But my need to be with Julian is stronger than my need to be on Top Of the Pops.

"I know," she ponders, "Julian would be quite upset if I abandoned my career, because I've been working since I was a child. Of course," she then smiles, "he'd like me to be in New York as well!"

New York City appeals to Julian for quite another reason, too. "I've been a lot more motivated, and a lot more driven, since I've been living here and making five one-hour episodes of Another World a week," he says. "I feel very nearly full, but not quite. That completeness would only happen if Dannii were here all the time."

It means that their time together in New York tends to be a hectic one as they try to catch up on their weeks apart. Their new passion is rollar blading. "We love skating on Brooklyn Bridge and round Central Park." They ride everywhere on their mountain bikes and have long weekend breaks in the Hamptons.

Their New York 'other life' began only after they had spent a solid two weeks searching for their dream home. Dannii was attracted to the 13ft ceilings, which reminded her of the Georgian and Victorian houses she had been brought up in Australia. Julian was drawn to the floor to ceiling windows leading on to the balcony with it's magnificent views.

"Being on the top floor," says Dannii, "we have a bird's eye view of everything. We feel we're away from all the madness of the cramped, bustling, noisy city. All we had when we moved in was a bed and some linen.

The apartment is now furnished with a mixture of white grey striped sofas, black metalwork chairs, black shellac tables, oriental figurines, and a multicolored abstract painting by the couples old friend, Alistair Macdougal.

The couples are already planning their first wedding anniversary

on January 2. "We'll have a mega party in Australia and invite

everyone, family and friends," promises Julian.

"When January 2 arrives it will be like oh,wow - one year married!" laughs Dannii. "I feel happier than I've ever felt before. My friends say, 'Since you've been with Julian you look so well. You glow. And you've lost a lot of weight."

The latter point has not been lost on the singer who, in the past, has had to suffer the taunts of tabloid journalists describing her as 'chubby'. At her heaviest she was 8 1/2st which, even at 5ft 2in, was hardly huge. But now she weighs 4st 21b. She puts her slimness down to 'the look of love in my eyes.'

"I work out less and eat much more than I did before, yet my body's completely changed. And the person who's responsible for that change is this man here, because he's made me so happy. Being in love and feeling wanted is better than anything dosed out by Weight Watchers."

And when would Dannii and Julian like to have a son, or daughter, of their own? "I feel sort of too young to have children right now," says Mrs. McMahon. "But when I do have children, I'll be giving up my career for a while to look after my family."

Julian leans forward. "Ideally," he says, "I'd like to do the same. I don't want to miss out on parenthood."

"I want to be solidly established, financially, before I have kids," adds Dannii.

"I know it sounds corny," Julian beams, "but I really feel I'm heading where I want to head, doing what I want to do. And I'm enjoying myself along the way."

The only thing that would cap that enjoyment, Mr. and Mrs. McMahon reflect, would be Dannii's presence on the 43rd floor for a period longer than the present half a year. They are working on it.