Danielle Fren is used to holding down the fort at home in Newcastle, NSW while the rest of her family entertain us with their antics on Logie-winning Nine series Travel Guides.
But when Victoria wasn’t able to make a recent trip to Japan due to a work commitment, Jonathan’s wife had just a matter of hours to decide whether or not she would step in and take her sister-in-law’s place.
“I thought, ‘No, I couldn’t possibly do it,’” Danielle tells Woman’s Day. “Then it was just a lot of encouragement from [Jono] and his parents, and I thought, ‘Why not give it a go? It’d be good to just see what’s involved, what they do.’”
Armed with the advice to just be herself and “act like the cameras aren’t there”, Danielle, 34, threw herself into the trip, airing this Sunday, which saw the Frens experience all the magic and wonder of winter in Osaka and Kyoto.
“Everyone was really lovely and welcoming, and you really did just forget about it [the cameras],” Danielle says. “So it just felt like I was away with Jono and his parents. And we all get along great, so it went better than I thought.
“I thought I would be very in my head about it all. It’s scary but you sort of just forget about the cameras and all of that and you just enjoy the activities.”
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NEW INSIGHT
The most eye-opening part of the whole experience for Danielle was how little of each destination you actually get to see – something she could never understand when Jono tried to tell her previously.
“Jonathan will often go to a place and he’ll come home and say, ‘It was really good, I want to take you back there one day,’ and I get all stubborn and I say, ‘No, absolutely not, you’ve already been there. We need to find somewhere you haven’t been before,’” Danielle says.
“But now that I’ve gone and experienced it, I’ve realised there actually is quite a lot that you don’t see. As much as it’s an amazing adventure and they do great activities, there is a fair amount that you don’t get a chance to do. So yeah, I have a new thought process around that and I’m like, ‘OK, if he says the place is good, I should embrace that and we could go back for a holiday.’”
Indeed, Jono, 34, insists the experience only brought the couple closer together. Surely helping matters, for a change, he wasn’t forced to share a room with his parents Cathy and Mark!
“In Japan we were lucky enough that Danielle and I got our own separate room to Mum and Dad, because in Japan they’re only really tiny rooms,” Jono recalls. “Thank god!”
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CLOSER THAN EVER
Having just marked four years of wedded bliss, the couple continue to go from strength to strength.
“It’s so nice to be spending every day with your best friend,” Danielle gushes. “It sounds really cliched, but I could not picture myself with anyone else. I just think Jono is the absolute best person and people who watch the show only see a snippet of his personality and who he is as a person.”
However, while it might have been the trip of a lifetime, Danielle admits it’s not one she’s keen to relive.
“Absolutely not!” she states. “It was fun. I had a blast. But just not knowing the activities until you’re about to do them, for me, I’m not as much of a go-getter as Jono and his family are. I’m very grateful I was lucky enough to go to Japan because there were no extreme adrenaline activities where I was throwing myself out of a plane. I was also very grateful it was a winter holiday, so I was able to cover up and not have to whip out the bikini. No, it’s not for me. I’m one and done!”
(Credit: Instagram)
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