Former Wiggles star Emma Watkins has revealed how she “burned through” her savings after leaving the iconic children’s group in 2021.
The 35-year-old became the first Wiggle woman after donning the yellow underwear in 2012 and replacing founding member Greg Page.
Speaking with Osher Günsberg in his better than yesterday On the podcast, Emma revealed that her decision to leave the Wiggles to create her new Emma Memma character came at a pretty high cost.
Osher asked Emma if she did “a financial inventory” before embarking on her solo venture.
“I feel like the inventory has been done recently to see how much money we’ve spent,” Emma said.
According women’s dayEmma was paid $750,000 a year for her role as Yellow Wiggle.
Wiggles star Emma Watkins has revealed how she “burned through” her savings after leaving the iconic children’s group.
She went on to explain that after leaving the group in October 2021, she dedicated herself to creating the character of Emma Memma and returning to studying full-time, which proved to be a burden on her finances.
“When I left The Wiggles, I actually went back to studying full time,” Emma explained.
“The premise was that I was going to finish my PhD, and that became the central goal, but of course that didn’t generate any income.”
Emma premiered her own children’s entertainment character Emma Memma in 2022 and won an ARIA for Best Children’s Album in 2023.
The character was designed to incorporate elements of song, dance and sign language, which is intrinsic to Emma’s full PhD from Macquarie University, which explores the artistic integrations of sign language and dance for children’s screen media.
“If (Emma Memma) wasn’t successful (after 12 months), or we didn’t have any problems or potential work after that time, I would have to stop it,” he said.
‘Only after 12 months did we start to make some profits for the business. Which put us in a complicated situation because then we have to invest more money to move on to the second year.’
Aside from Emma Memma, the Wiggles star certainly hasn’t rested on her laurels.
Speaking recently with Osher Gunsberg on his Better Than Yesterday podcast, Emma revealed that her decision to leave the Wiggles to create the character of Emma Memma came at a pretty high cost. Emma (second left) is pictured with (from left) Simon Pryce, Lachlan Gillespie and Anthony Field.
She went on to explain that after leaving the group in October 2021, she set out to create the character of Emma Memma and return to studying full-time, which proved to be a burden on her finances.
Emma has also stepped away from the children’s entertainment space to appear in films such as The Masked Singer, The Amazing Race Australia, Lego Masters Australia and the ABC series Teenage Boss: Next Level.
Her turn on the 2023 season of The Amazing Race, competing alongside her sister Hayley, earned Emma an equal first place alongside former Voice host Darren McMullen and singer Alli Simpson’s teams.
She also married her husband Oliver Brian in 2022.
Emma told Daily Mail Australia in October that she has never had so much creative flexibility since leaving the Wiggles, given the iconic group’s rigorous touring schedule.
“Oh, I feel like it’s been a very interesting three years where I have a lot more flexibility and I’ve been able to do a lot of different projects that I didn’t really have the opportunity to do before because we were so busy touring.” “she said.
‘I-I think about the last three years. Sometimes I’m a little surprised when I think about what we’ve done.
‘It was just a dream. “Honestly, the last three years have been really special.”
Speaking to Stellar in September, she admitted that her departure from The Wiggles two years ago came with immense guilt.
‘Only after 12 months did we start to make some profits for the business. Which put us in a complicated situation because then we have to invest more money to move on to the second year,” he said.
Emma became the first Wiggle woman after donning the yellow underwear in 2012 and replacing founding member Greg Page.
“During the pandemic, we weren’t on tour and I thought maybe I wouldn’t disappoint so many kids,” he said.
‘But even though I left during that time, I still let the kids down. So I feel sorry for all the kids at that time.’
Emma went on to say that some of her fans have followed her in her new projects.
‘Parents will most likely say, “We actually had a ticket to see you in 2021 and the pandemic happened. So they refunded our money and then booked us to see the next one and then you weren’t there.” she said.
“So now we’re coming to see you (as Emma Memma) because it’s the first time we get to see you live.”
—That’s a beautiful story too. And that story is still unfolding.”