This generation’s yellow Wiggle, Emma Watkins has spoken out about her decision to leave The Wiggles after a decade of Fruit Salad and Hot Potato.
In October last year, the first female Wiggle, Emma Watkins announced that she was hanging up her skivvy to focus on completing her PhD at Macquarie University.
Now, Emma has discussed why she really left and broke so many young hearts around the country in an interview with Stellar Magazine.
Emma told Stellar: “I never, ever, ever – ever – want to let down the children. But I relate it to when I took time off after I had surgery for my endometriosis in 2018,”
“I had two beautiful performers replace me on tour for a period of weeks. I felt terrible and kept thinking, how are we going to do this? But the children still came to the shows, because they love the music. That experience helped me make this decision because everyone was OK after that.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the star, who revealed that she faced backlash and “wasn’t really liked” when she was introduced as the group’s first female member as many were “territorial about the original group.”
“It took about two or three years to actually have people accept that there was a female among the group; that was a massive deal back then,” she said, “So to then see how that changed over the decade, and children coming to the show dressed in beautiful Emma costumes, or wearing bows… it’s powerful.”
“We have a responsibility to introduce children to entertainment and I’m that vehicle. I’m really proud of that. It’s been so rewarding,” Emma said.
“But the time away during Covid showed me that I gave The Wiggles everything.”
The children’s sensation didn’t mention the historic moment where she and the rest of The Wiggles won Triple j’s Hottest 100 but we can’t think of a better way to end a career.
We’re definitely intrigued to see if Emma will embark on any other musical adventures. Maybe she’ll dabble in punk? Of course, she’d have to get a black skivvy.
