BARBARA When did you realize your destiny? 
CHERYL  My dad and I were watching a cable station on TV and he said, “What are you going to do this summer?” I didn’t know. Then an ad came on for volunteers to work at the station. My dad jokingly said, “You love to talk,” and I said, “Yes I do!” So we toured the station and I fell in love with it. So many different jobs to do: creating shows, running the teleprompter, being a cameraman. It was awesome! If I didn’t fit in one place, maybe I’d fit in another.

B You’ve tasted it all, both sides of the camera.
C It’s a lot of work and takes a lot of people. What viewers don’t see is all the program planning: from Producers and Executive Producers to the buyers, the cameramen and show editors. They create the great programs. I feel blessed and lucky to be presenting the information to the audience. 

B Your career started on radio in Owen Sound. How did growing up and starting your career there assist you with becoming a national TV celebrity?  
C Owen Sound gave me a sense of community and comfort; time to get comfortable with who I am, and what’s important. I learned a ton: how to tell a good story, what mattered, what didn’t; the importance of deadlines and accountability. All important disciplines for moving forward. In radio, if you don’t know how to tell a story without pictures, you lose the audience. I have a great respect for people who tell stories through radio and print. It’s tough to translate for the audience.   

B Fears; you had a fear of heights, yet ended up as a traffic announcer in a helicopter over Toronto. 
C I did and I got over that pretty fast. My new boss hired me from the Barrie station for a fantastic opportunity. I wasn’t ‘on air’ at the time. I was a cameraman and he saw something in me. Thank goodness for him. Anyway, I didn’t have the guts to say, “Listen, do you have anything on the ground? I’m kind of afraid of heights.” So, I sucked it up and perspired a lot. There were a few nauseous days up there.

B Biggest career transition?
C Hosting ET Canada for sure. It took a while to get comfortable. I had been doing news stories where
I injected some of my own personality and was comfortable. When ET Canada started, we infused what they do in the States with a Canadian flavour. For some reason, I lost myself a little and wasn’t sure where ‘I’ fit in. It took a while to get my stride as a host, and get comfortable in my skin again.

B What’s the favourite part for you?
C The people. The people I interview and the viewers. And I have great co-workers. We have the goofiest, most creative, dedicated group. And we care about each other. It’s rare and special. It can be ridiculously funny in the studio, I’m glad we don’t tape that stuff (laughing heartily).

B How did the transition to being a Canadian celebrity feel?
C I can’t say because I really and truly don’t feel that way. I feel extraordinarily ordinary. I’m in the limelight because what I’m talking about is in the limelight –
I bring celebrities into people’s homes. If people are interested in that, in something I’m wearing or a charity I work with, that’s a bonus.

B Where do you feel you may have failed? 
C You call it failure; I call it a chance to learn. I choose not to look at things as failures. I’ve done things that haven’t worked the way I thought and have been frustrated, but also strangely comforted knowing maybe it didn’t go the way I wanted because there’s a reason it’s to be different. 

B You look at the success of the circumstance.  
C Sometimes I get frustrated and think, “Man, that
really wasn’t good.” But I look at what I can learn or teach others, through my ups and downs. I don’t use the word failure; it’s really negative. I look at it as something I wasn’t expecting to happen.

B Any unexpected happenings?  
C Yes. At my very first Grammy show, we had technical difficulties and I had to talk for two to three minutes straight. It was unexpected, I rambled on. At the time I thought, “I really bombed that one.” But fast forward three years. My original ET Canada boss said, “I saw that piece and I was impressed with how you handled it.” In my mind it was a disaster, yet he thought I was brilliant − because I danced. You have to keep dancing until things are right. And keep in mind, what you may think isn’t good may be good to other people.

B As a new mom, what’s your son taught you most? 
C To take one day at a time because with him whatever is happening right now is all there is. He doesn’t worry about lunch or changing his wet nappie in an hour. That’s innocence, and beautiful wrapped together. He’s taught me how to slow down, appreciate what’s in front of me, and hold onto it. It’s a challenge.

B Are you able to take that into your work?
C I’m working at it. I’m an anticipation junkie, always have been. I think my generation is. But I am learning to appreciate what I have right now, enjoy it and not worry about down the road. Jaxson is teaching me that.  

B Advice for new moms-to-be?   
C Take lots of belly pictures, and right before too! Enjoy the quiet time prior to birth with your partner. Embrace the whole experience and stay in the moment. It's challenging with a little one, but they help you live in that moment. Nothing else counts for them except what’s happening right now.

And new moms: take time to care for yourself. My husband will laugh when he reads this. He teases me that I’m not very good at that, or leaving the baby. I’m still learning to put myself first in order to be good for everybody else. It’s a challenge in today’s society with the ‘it’ career, ‘it’ marriage, the children, the house – it’s all so fragmented. Can you really be present for any of it? It’s important to be honest with yourself on how much you can stretch. I don’t like the saying ‘you can have it all.’ It’s a blind statement that puts a lot of pressure on women. ‘You can have what you want’ − how about that? Or, ‘you can create your own great world.’ 

B Where did you create that?
C In my case, I lucked in. Shaw Media has a high value on families. We worked out the schedule so I spend maximum amount of time with Jaxson at home and maximum amount of time at work. I want to teach my son the things I feel a mother would teach her
children. And everyone I work with supports this. 

B What’s Cheryl really like? 
C My life is certainly not as glamorous as it looks. My family will tell you I’m a bit dorky. I trip and fall a lot. We’re goofy and dance around at home. We like to create fun. I’m a combination of all these things, with a splash of glamour thrown in by the ET Canada ‘glam team.’