TV Insider (Dec 2015): Alex O’Loughlin brings his family home for Christmas.

HE’S made himself a happy home on the island of Oahu, but Hawaii Five-O star Alex O’Loughlin is bringing his young family back to Australia for the first time this Christmas.

by Holly Byrnes (National TV writer)

for The Sunday Telegraph

12 December 2015

Alex & Malia at Fashion Show 20 Nov 2015 (Picture taken by Kelli Bullock)

The 39-year-old and his stunning wife, surfer girl Malia Jones, are jetting back to Sydney, reuniting with O’Loughlin’s teenage son Saxon. Jones’ son Spike, 7, (from her second marriage to Aussie surfer ex, Luke Stedman), as well as the couple’s adorable three-year-old boy, Lion, will also be there.

While O’Loughlin’s conversation is littered with Hawaiian phrases and the odd “gnarly” expression (“I’m surrounded by surfers”), the Canberra-born star is looking forward to an Aussie summer. “I haven’t had a Christmas back there in years, so we’re going to come back and just have a bit of quiet time, breathe a bit of Aussie air and catch up with family and friends,” he told me. “Also, the little ones haven’t been home so that will be great too … (the grandparents) are going to get crazy.”

 

O’Loughlin moved to Hawaii almost six years ago, after landing the lead in the reboot of the 1970s police procedural, opposite Scott Caan (as his Five-O partner, Danny ‘Danno’ Williams).

He bought a $4 million home at Diamond Head, Waikiki, and began dating Jones, 38, four years ago. They quietly married in April last year and both relish their tropical lifestyle: “I love it here (Oahu), it’s my home. I want to raise the kids here. I think it’s a great base geographically for me as well because it’s not as far away from Sydney as LA but it’s not as far away from LA as Sydney. It’s beautiful and clean and the kids are in good schools. They’re into surfing and have got great sports coaching. We’re happy.”

His son Saxon had also been living the Hawaiian life for a few years with his famous dad, until returning to Australia recently to start an apprenticeship.

His youngest was born on the island and given a native name: Lion Kahano, a moniker his dad jokes he sometimes regrets calling him “because he really lives up to his name. He marches to the beat of his own drum. I joke and say he’s the one I worry about the least and the one I worry about the most, you know. He’s the best, mate. He’s a little gift from the heavens, that boy. They all are,” O’Loughlin gushed.

With Five-O midway through filming season six (to air on Ten early next year), the star revealed he was currently off contract but keen to sign up again: “I thought by season six it would be dying. I thought ‘how do you keep a show going like that?’ But it’s a good season, one of our best. I’m ready and just waiting for the call. We’ll see what happens.”

My Thoughts

• For some reason we never added this article to our archives when it first came out in 2015. I guess I was a bit pissed off at the time , because they used a paparazzi picture of the family, that was taken at a private family outing at  the beach, to run with the article. I know everybody most probably have their own line drawn about what pictures they would post.
• Our own unwritten policy is to only post pictures of Alex’s family that were taken at public events where he would know that pictures are taken – and where they also willingly pose with the children for pictures to be taken.