Regina Bird
Encyclopedia
Big Brother (Australia series 3)
Big Brother Australia 2003 was the third season of the Australian television series Big Brother Australia. The season lasted 87 days, starting on 27 April 2003 and ending on 21 July 2003....
. Small in stature with an unusual nasal intonation, she earned public admiration with her down-to-earth charm, strong work ethic, and naivety. Reggie was widely tipped to win Big Brother from early in the series and won with 72% of the final vote, the biggest margin in a Big Brother Finale to date. She is the first female winner of the Australian series. "Go Reggie" bumper stickers were a big hit in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
Before Big Brother
Big Brother (Australia)
Big Brother Australia is the Australian version of the international Big Brother reality television series. Big Brother Australia was produced from 2001 and ran for 8 seasons before it was cancelled in 2008. It has been renewed in September 2011 for a 2012 season. All eight seasons were produced by...
, Reggie and her husband Adrian managed a fish and chip
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
shop in Cambridge
Cambridge, Tasmania
Cambridge is a suburb in the greater area of Hobart, capital of Tasmania, Australia. It is in the City of Clarence Local Government Area. The suburb is situated in close proximity with Hobart International Airport and the Cambridge Aerodrome, and is approximately 18 km to Hobart via the Tasman...
, Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
. Their marriage ended shortly after the season finale.
After her win, Reggie signed up with manager Harry M. Miller
Harry M. Miller
-Early career:Born in New Zealand, Miller grew up in Grey Lynn, Auckland, and moved to Australia in 1963, where he established a company called Pan Pacific Productions with Keith and Dennis Wong, owners of the noted Sydney nightclub "Chequers"...
and filmed a pilot for a TV show which never made it to air. Later she appeared as a contestant on 2005 Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
celebrity skating competition series Skating on Thin Ice
Skating on Thin Ice
Skating on Thin Ice was a short-lived Australian celebrity reality television programme broadcast on the Nine Network in 2005. Hosted by Jamie Durie, nine celebrities learnt to skate with the ultimate goal being to perform with Disney on Ice, with proceeds going toward children's charity,...
. From December 2004 to May 2005 she worked for airline Virgin Blue as a flight attendant – her "dream job" – although she resigned claiming she had been bullied by her colleagues. In 2005, Bird lost $40,000 to a conman.
She spent some time residing in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. She now lives in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter – Mia Regina Sorensen – with her second husband, Dale Sorensen. In 2008 she underwent emergency surgery arising from an ectopic pregnancy
Ectopic pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy, or eccysis , is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterine cavity. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable. Furthermore, they are dangerous for the parent, since internal haemorrhage is a life threatening complication...
and was also declared legally blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
after having been diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition.
Reggie was included in Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
newspaper The Mercury
The Mercury (Hobart)
The Mercury is a daily newspaper, published in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, by Davies Brothers Pty Ltd, part of News Limited and News Corporation...
's list of "Tassie's Top 200" movers and shakers in 2007.
She was interviewed by 60 Minutes in July 2009 where she discussed her ongoing degenerative eye condition and her second child due in August 2009.