At a glance
- Miranda Tapsell is the only child of Barbara and Tony Tapsell.
- Both Miranda and Barbara are proud Larrakia and Tiwi women.
- Barbara and Tony live with Miranda, her husband James Colley, and their two children, Grace and Vincent.
- The pair joined host Tiffany Dunk for a special double episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories.
I have interviewed Miranda Tapsell many times over my years as a journalist. And every time we chat, she gifts me with a beautiful story about her mother, Barbara, and the wisdom and love she’s gifted Miranda with over the years.
As a result, I’ve always dreamed of meeting this wonderful woman myself. So when Miranda offered to bring Barbara along for a special double episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories, you bet I jumped at the chance!
Listen to part one:
Who are Miranda Tapsell’s parents?
Miranda is the only child of Barbara and her husband Tony. And that, Barbara, confirmed in our chat, was entirely intentional.
Barbara was the oldest of eight, Tony the youngest of 12. And when they met they wanted to enjoy their freedom as a married couple before adding kids into the mix.
“I had a job. I had good money,” Barbara explained. “And you want to do things with your friends. So when Tony and I were married, it was just so lovely to do things together and not be caught up with children.
“But, you know, I thought, ‘Oh, well, may as well just have one child and see what happens.’”
That one child was Miranda. Barbara was 32.
“It was very unusual for your generation to hold off on having kids,” Miranda said to her mum as they sat with me on the couch. “Cousins and friends your age were having children almost straight away. In their 20s, once they were married.
“And so in some ways that kind of took the pressure off me, I guess, to think about children and marriage. I felt like I was given the permission to choose my career in my 20s.”
Miranda married her husband James Colley – a comedian, author and head writer for several ABC programs including Gruen – in December 2018, when she was 31. The pair had been dating since 2016.
Miranda was 34 when she welcomed Grace Birri-Pa Purnarrika Colley three years after their wedding. And then Vincent Anthony Jalamin Colley came along in August last year, when she was 37.
Barbara and Tony relocated from Darwin to Sydney in order to help their only child raise her family. And they moved in under the same roof too in a way that mirrored Miranda’s own childhood.
Where did Miranda Tapsell grow up?
When Miranda was tiny, the family had moved to Jabiru, inside the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park. Barbara’s own parents, Lucy and Alfie, came with them to help look after Miranda while she and Tony were at work. It was a beautiful multi-generational set-up that enriched the lives of the entire family.
“I have wonderful memories, fond memories, of my grandparents looking after me,” Miranda told me.
Becoming a mum herself, Miranda added, has deepened the relationship she has with her own mother, especially since they all moved under the same roof.
“You really see the best and worst of each other, you know,” she said of what has shifted. “And this new dynamic is what magnifies it. But it is also one of the most solidifying things that it could do to a relationship, you know?
“I love how much my kids love their grandmother. The way they look for her, the way they, like, caress her. It’s so lovely.
“And I feel like there are so many things that we don’t need to say to each other because we’re both mothers now.
“You know, my four-year-old’s having a tough time being called baby because Grace doesn’t consider herself a baby anymore. But Mum said to her, ‘Well, your mum is my baby.’ And she’s like, ‘Wait, how? She’s not a baby!’
“And Mum’s like, ‘No. But I had her, and so she is still my baby. No matter how old she is, she’s still my baby. And no matter how old you get, you’re still Miranda’s baby.'”
Watch Part 1:
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