Di Kershaw enjoyed the fame she found late in her life on Gogglebox Australia, happily posing for selfies with fans of the show.
She liked a lot of things in her 77 years: shopping, trashy gossip magazines, fashion and kombucha and vodka on the rocks in a wine glass.
But as mourners heard at the part-time TV star’s funeral in Sydney on Friday, most of all she was devoted to her husband Mick, children Alex and Victoria and six-year-old grandson Harvey.
To those who knew Di only from Gogglebox she was the stylishly dressed master of withering put-downs as she and Mick dissected television shows on their couch.
Gogglebox star Di Kershaw has been farewelled at a funeral at Sydney’s Garrison Church in Millers Point. Her husband and fellow Goggleboxer Mick Kershaw is pictured at the service
Mick and Di Kershaw had been looking forward to settling into the couch for the latest season of Gogglebox Australia, which began shooting this month. Di’s death from stomach cancer on July 22 means Mick will not continue appearing on the program without her
In his eulogy Alex spoke of his parents’ love affair that began on the Northern Beaches when Mick was 20 and and Di was 17. ‘Mick and Di were total sweethearts,’ Alex said
The art dealing couple would have celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary last Thursday and had been together 60 years all up.
Mick and Di had been on Gogglebox since its first season in 2015 and were among the most identifiable participants in the Channel 10-Foxtel program.
Diane Lesley Kershaw died of stomach cancer aged 77 on July 22 and chose to be farewelled in a plain timber coffin at the the Garrison Church at Millers Point.
Son Alex, 45, and daughter Victoria, 43, came to the Anglican service to celebrate a life well lived with their 80-year-old father.
In his eulogy Alex spoke of his parents’ love affair that began on the Northern Beaches when Mick was 20 and Di just 17.
‘Mick and Di were total sweethearts,’ Alex said.
Di’s son son Alex (second adult from left) and daughter Victoria (above) came to the Anglican service to celebrate a life well lived with their 80-year-old father (far right)
Alex Kershaw said Mick and Di did everything together – movies on Sunday nights, travel, collecting art – and were out more nights a week than most of his hipster students.
After a long courtship they tied the knot in 1967, the same year Johnny Cash and June Carter released the classic country song Jackson.
‘They got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,’ Alex said, quoting the opening lyrics of the hit single.
The art lecturer described how Mick and Di did everything together – movies on Sunday nights, travel, collecting art – and were out more nights a week than most of his hipster students.
‘Di’s friends all know she knew how to throw a bloody good party,’ he said.
Alex recalled how his mother liked a glass of red wine – as viewers of Gogglebox would know – ‘but she could not care less if it was a $10 bottle or a $100 bottle’.
She was a woman who did not suffer fools gladly and could run roughshod over anyone who got in her way but cared deeply about all those she loved.
A choir sang Abide with Me, Amazing Grace and Let it Be at the end for the service
Mick, 80, told Daily Mail Australia that 77-year-old Di fell ill about three months ago when she began having trouble keeping food down. She spent nine weeks in St Vincent’s Hospital at Darlinghurst in Sydney’s inner-city and her de ella last fortnight in the Sacred Heart Hospice
‘She liked to be in control and she wasn’t particularly happy when she wasn’t,’ Alex said.
The service heard Di was an extrovert who stood out in any crowd. She did not watch the nightly news, she believed in astrology and ‘arranged’ food rather than cooking it.
She had always seemed indestructible.
Alex told a series of anecdotes that summed up his mother’s character from all stages of her life.
A natural beauty who had modeled as a teenager, Di described herself before meeting Mick as ‘a gal from Newport that couldn’t be caught’.
She had been expelled from school at 15 after being found at an arts students ball at the old Trocadero dance hall in George Street.
A natural beauty who had modeled as a teenager, Di described herself before meeting Mick as ‘a gal from Newport that couldn’t be caught’ Mick is pictured far right
‘The cancer spread and was inoperable,’ Mick said. ‘The only alternative to that was chemo or radiation but she was far too weak to be put through that. Di is seen bottom row, second from right, with the cast of Gogglebox Australia
On a 1976 trip to San Francisco she was approached by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell who wanted to buy the Victorian night dress she was wearing. Say told her she couldn’t have it.
‘Life is for living,’ she used to say.
‘There was a vitality that you could call infectiously effervescent,’ Alex said. ‘She was a warrior queen who walked her talk about her.’
Being asked to appear on Gogglebox had been a chance to find a new kind of fun in old age that she and Mick wholeheartedly embraced.
‘She adored being on Gogglebox,’ Alex said.
Being asked to appear on Gogglebox had been a chance to find a new kind of fun in old age that she and Mick wholeheartedly embraced. ‘She adored being on Gogglebox,’ son Alex said
Mick and Di were approached to be on the show by a production scout for EndemolShine at a cocktail party for the opening of an art exhibition at Paddington.
The couple was unfamiliar with the original British Gogglebox but the scout saw they had something together that would appeal to audiences of a local version.
Mick and Di didn’t think about the proposition for long. They had sold their Indigenous art galleries in Darlinghurst and Cairns and had some spare time in semi-retirement.
The pair grew up close to the production staff they invited into their loungeroom, welcoming births and attending the wedding of one member.
They had been looking forward to settling back into the couch to appear on the next season of Gogglebox which begins airing on August 25.
I spent nine weeks in St Vincent’s Hospital at Darlinghurst in Sydney’s inner-city and the last fortnight in the Sacred Heart Hospice next door.
Di kept her terminal diagnosis a secret from all but those closest to the art dealing couple. The former model, who had been unable to eat and was being fed intravenously, spent her last days surrounded by family
Di kept her terminal diagnosis a secret from all but those closest to the family. ‘She was strong willed and she was brave,’ Alex said.
‘Mick is certainly going to miss being bossed around.’ She was ‘giving lip’ right to the end.
Mick previously told Daily Mail Australia that Di’s cancer was inoperable and she chose to stop being fed intravenously.
‘Part of that decision was thinking about us,’ he said. ‘A big part of that decision was not wanting to put us through that.’
Filming of the next season of Gogglebox began early this month and Mick said he would not be doing the show without Di: ‘We were a couple’.
Di Kershaw was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2020 for her service to the visual arts
.