Maria Venuti celebrates 85th birthday after stroke recovery

0:00Well, one of Australia's most beloved entertainers, Maria Venuti, has spent decades dazzling audiences as a singer, actress, cabaret performer and of course much love TV personality. She's appeared in everything from stage shows to hit films, including the hilarious Fat Pizza series. But in 2016, Maria faced the fight of her life. She suffered a devastating stroke following an intruder incident at her Sydney home. The old deal left her in a coma and was life altering but true to form. This showbeer's powerhouse refused to give up and now still full of sparkle and spirit, Maria celebrating an incredible milestone, her 85th birthday. Sorry, giving up is not part of the story. And the always wonderful Maria Venuti and her daughter Bianca and granddaughter Allegra right here in the studio, three Venuti girls in the room. Welcome, lovely to see you.

1:01Happy 50th birthday. Oh, 50th, she was like that. You know what, it's going to say 45th. Actually, no. I'm telling people her range. Bianca, how does it feel to reach this milestone? How did you celebrate? Thank goodness. Well, we had a big 80th and sort of thought that was it for the milestone, so we just hadn't thought through beyond that. So when 85 came up, I thought, well, five is still a big number. We've got to celebrate all the fives and zeros at this stage. So we had a relatively small party, as small as we get. We had the lots of gums, friends. We had the fabulous Emma Pask singing with mum's penis, Kevin Hunt. Woman's Day came in to take photos. Monica made this gorgeous birthday cake from Mourish Cakes and lots of stories and lots of singing, didn't we? Maria, you can't, Maria, you can still pull a crowd. Look at her. I'm so happy. So pink and leopard theme and it looked like it had a lot of fun. Absolutely.

2:01Everywhere. Balloons. Beautiful cake. Beautiful. Beautiful black bow on this beautiful pink and leopard cake. I love it. Looks beautiful. Bianca, we're going to ask you 10 years since Mum's Stroke. Yes. Talk us through the journey and how's she doing now? How are you going? Well, I feel like Mum is just in, is it indomitable when you just never give up? Yeah. She's going to be around forever. Actually, look, I think 10 years, like no one thought we'd get to this point. I don't think we even thought we'd get this far. And Mum's just still the same. She's full of life. We actually were on the drive on the way here and we met our Maxi Taxi Driver 10 years ago and said, Mum hasn't changed. She's exactly the same. I said, she has medically the same spirits, the same. She understands everything. Smile, the smiles, the smiles. Yes, smiles. We went to Europe for my wedding. We're back here. She's turning 85. She'll be 90 before we know at 100. Mum. I just think. Mum. There's no stopping.

3:02Mum. And still fabulous taste in jewellery. Look at her. Oh! What is it? Mum. Yes. There's Sicilian. Mum. Beautiful and necklace. It's a, because Maria, her life has been about performing. Bianca, is there a favourite memory of your Mum's? Well, I was going to say Mum has got a lot of them in her book, so she'll say, well, that's her version of it. For me, it was probably actually when we did fat pizza after her stroke. So, we did on Seb make with Paulie, who was also at her party. He had her back acting on set in the wheelchair, not able to talk with the rolling pin, just playing the mumic character that she played 14 years before, after her stroke. And that to me was really special because I thought she's still a performer. I think sometimes big things like this can happen and people just sort of write you off a little bit and think, oh, you know, they're aged, they're old, they're done. It's like, no, no, no, she's not done. Not this one, not this one.

4:02Hey, Allegra, do you want to be a performer like Nana? Is that what you want to do? Do you want to sing and dance and be a big star? Do you like singing? Yes. Do you like singing? Yes. And what about dancing? Do you like dancing or...? Yes. Yeah, dancing as well. Do you do ballet? Yes. I guess you're going to do everything if you're going to be as fabulous as... Nana's already given her a little lesson of singing. Is that you dancing, sweetie? Oh, beautiful. Yes, she's still getting used to cameras. This is only ever her second time on TV since she came on here when she was first born, but she loves dancing. She's very extroverted at home. So I think we've got to watch out with this. I've been doing this for 100 years. I'm still getting used to the cameras. I'm so lovely to see you all. Lovely to see you. Lovely to see you. Yeah. Thank you. What are you going to say? You say Maria Vanity Tutti frutti shizza.

5:02Michi. You've got a word there. You can read more about Maria Vanity's 85th birthday celebration in this week's Women's Day magazine available now to all Sunday. They got the numbers round the wrong way. It was actually 508. It wasn't. It was 508 Maria. Yeah, that was a photographic era. So good to see you. Love it.