Danny Painter Gets Candid About Growing Up Famous, Grief, Finding Love Again and Rebuilding Her Life

For more than two decades, Danny Painter has been a familiar voice and face in South African entertainment, moving seamlessly from children’s television and theatre to radio, podcasting, television and live events.

Today, she can be heard on Jacaranda FM every Monday – Thursday from 19:00 to 22:00 and hosts the weekly ‘Top 40 with Danny Painter Powered by Pick n Pay’ on Saturdays. But behind the recognisable voice, big personality and all those tattoos is a woman who has spent much of her life navigating experiences that have shaped her in ways audiences rarely get to see.

From becoming a household name as a teenager to experiencing profound personal loss and finding love again, Painter has lived through some of life’s biggest highs and lowest moments in the public eye. Now, she is opening up about the realities of growing up famous, navigating grief and embarking on a new chapter of her life that is focused on strength, discipline and learning to trust herself again.

Growing up in the spotlight

Painter’s career began when she was just three years old, performing in children’s theatre before landing her first major television role as a teenager on SABC 2’s children’s show ‘World of Winners’.

Growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s, she became part of a generation of young television presenters who were watched by millions of South African children every afternoon.

“I was with you during your homework. I was with you before your parents came home. I was your best friend,” Painter recalls. However, the level of fame that came with being a young television personality was something she says she was not prepared for. “I was just thrust into this audience of people that I had no idea of. It was to the point that you couldn’t go to the mall. I had to be escorted out of the zoo once. It was insane. TV was different back then.”

She remembers one particular moment that brought home just how recognisable she had become. “I remember driving through the airport and my face was on every pillar. That’s insane for a kid from Brakpan.”

While Painter loved performing and being on television, she says the pressures of being a young star were far less glamorous than they appeared from the outside. There were strict expectations around her appearance and behaviour, with the young presenter feeling she had to constantly meet an image set by the industry.

“I loved every minute of the work; the fame was hard for me,” she says. “You couldn’t do anything wrong as a kid. You’d mess up, you’re out. If you weighed five kilograms over what you were contracted to weigh, you’re out. If you dyed your hair, you’re out.”

She recalls being weighed every Monday as part of the expectations placed on young talent. “I would go in every Monday and get weighed. You were supposed to look a certain way.”

Looking back, Painter says the experience has given her a unique perspective on fame, particularly in an era where young personalities are now able to build audiences through social media without necessarily going through the traditional gatekeepers of the entertainment industry.

A life changed by grief

In 2023, Painter experienced one of the most devastating moments of her life when her husband of 17 years, Phil, died suddenly following a heart attack. “It was immediate; he thought it was heartburn. He was at the doctor that day, and that night he was gone,” she says.

A year later, Painter faced another devastating loss when her father died by suicide. The back-to-back losses forced her to confront grief on an entirely different level. “Just after my husband, a year later, my dad took his life. So it was grief on grief.”

For Painter, the experience has changed the way she thinks about loss and the process of moving forward. “We are going to move through life, all of us losing people, and we’re going to start navigating it differently. All you need to do is get up every day and try your best.”

Finding love again

After losing her husband, the idea of opening herself up to a new relationship came with its own complicated emotions.

Painter has been dating Nick Storm for the past year, and says their relationship has given her space to experience love again without pretending that grief has disappeared. “Nick is amazing. He is very calm about it and allows me the space to talk about it, and he allows me to grieve.”

She admits that finding happiness again can sometimes bring its own sense of guilt. “Even though grief never ends, I’ll have days with my new partner where I’m still like, ‘Oh damn, I shouldn’t be doing this.'”

Today, however, Painter says she is in a relationship that feels different from anything she has experienced before. “I feel terrible to say this, but it’s the best relationship I’ve ever been in, because I’ve done the work.”

Rebuilding from the inside out

Painter’s journey of rebuilding has also extended to her physical health. After experiencing a series of significant losses, including the deaths of her grandparents, husband and father, she says she lost 40kg amid stress and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Now, she is four weeks into a six-month life and body recomposition journey focused on strength training, nutrition, fitness and building a healthier relationship with herself.

For Painter, however, this isn’t about a quick transformation or chasing an idealised body. “This isn’t a quick-fix transformation or a dramatic before-and-after story,” she says. “I am only four weeks into a six-month commitment, and it is hard. Recomp requires patience because you are asking your body to build muscle while gradually reducing fat. The changes are not always immediate or visible, but the work still has to happen every day.”

Her journey began simply, with a membership at her local gym and a trainer once a week. Over time, her commitment to strength training grew, eventually leading her to train alongside her partner, a professional powerlifter and coach. “I didn’t start here. I started where I was, with what I had and what I could afford.”

Painter has chosen to approach the process naturally, focusing on strength training, balanced nutrition, recovery and consistency rather than performance-enhancing drugs or shortcuts.

For someone who describes herself as a “complete party girl, drama kid-nerd” who never considered herself sporty, the process has been challenging. She is also candid about the emotional reality of changing her body. “There are days when I feel powerful and days when I question whether anything is changing. I still cry on the scale, even though I am working my literal butt off,” she says. “You can be doing everything correctly and still need to wait for your body to catch up with the work. That’s where discipline becomes more important than motivation.”

Perhaps the biggest changes, however, have been psychological. “Training has taught me that I can keep promises to myself,” she explains. “It gives structure to my day, helps me manage stress and reminds me that strength is something we build. It is not something we either have or don’t have.”

The work behind the transformation

Painter is also determined to be honest about the often unseen reality of personal transformation. Social media is filled with dramatic before-and-after photographs, but she says the most important part of any transformation happens in the middle – in the ordinary, repetitive days when progress isn’t always obvious.

For Painter, the six-month journey is about far more than physical change. After years of living in the spotlight, navigating fame from a young age and experiencing profound loss, she sees the process as another chapter in rebuilding her relationship with herself. “This is not punishment for the body I currently have,” she says. “It is an investment in the woman I am becoming. I am not trying to disappear or make myself smaller. I want to be strong, athletic, capable and fully present in my own life.”

Catch ‘Love Songs with Danny Painter’ every Monday – Thursday between 19:00 and 22:00 and catch Danny counting down the biggest songs of the week on the Top 40 with Danny Painter, powered by Pick n Pay, every Saturday between 10:00 and 14:00, only on Jacaranda FM.