Arriving in Australia from Boston in 1970, then 16-year-old Marcia Hines had no idea she was expecting her first child.
Only six months later did the former Australian Idol judge realise she had fallen pregnant from her first sexual experience.
WATCH: Deni Hines unmasked no The Masked Singer Australia
As a result, Marcia became “terribly twisted about sex”.
“I’m thinking, ‘I don’t think I’ll do that again’,” she told Anh Do during his ABC art show, Anh’s Brush With Fame.
When Marcia built up the courage to tell her mother, Esme, that she was expecting, the news didn’t come as too much of shock.
“I remember calling Mum and saying ‘I’m pregnant,” the singer told the Australian Women’s Weekly. “She said ‘yes, I know, I could tell by your pictures that you sent home. I was just waiting for you to tell me’.”
Forever the performer, Marcia was on stage the night she welcomed Deni into the world, and was back performing nine days later.
“When Deni was born, she had me all day, and a nanny when I went to work,” the musician told Stellar about her daughter’s upbringing.
Aside from a nanny, Marcia was grateful to have her mother’s guidance during the formative years of Deni’s life.
“She said, ‘you’ve chosen a very strange career, so if you can’t take care of your baby send her home’. I didn’t send her home then, but that support was great to hear,” she told AWW.
However, as Marcia prepared to go on tour, she decided the environment wasn’t suitable for her youngster and took Deni back to Jamaica (her parents’ birth country).
In 1975, Deni and Esme came to Australia to live with Marcia, a move for which the singer is forever thankful.
“I won’t say my mother was a saint, but I think some people just are good mothers, and I was really blessed to a great mother,” the Australian Idol alum told AWW. “Deni had two parents; her gran and me.”
Three years into Deni’s life, Marcia told the father about her existence, and while they were in contact, he wasn’t an active part of her childhood.
As her baby grew up, Marcia’s protective role didn’t waver, with the musician telling Body + Soul that as a mother, “you always worry, no matter what age your ‘baby’ is”.
The From The Inside singer even confessed that she hammered her teen daughter’s window shut when she spotted a boy climbing out of it.
As for Deni’s ascent into the music industry, Marcia told Stellar in 2017 she was “surprised” that the Masked Singer alum followed in her footsteps.
“We sang at home a lot, but I thought she wanted to be a coroner. Music was an integral part of our home, so she decided to do that. She has such a beautiful voice, one of the most unique voices I’ve ever heard.”
Shared musical talent aside, over the years, Marcia and Deni’s relationship has only gotten stronger, with the former revealing that their communication skills have improved.
“The teen years are rough. The older Deni gets, the more she realises how hard it is to be a parent. We do all we can. My relationship with Deni is really cool now; I like it. We are similar in a lot of ways.”
Can’t get enough Dancing With The Stars content? Check out the articles below!
Why Ricki-Lee Coulter has decided not to have kids
Kris Smith’s candid approach to his fatherhood journey
How David Rodan passed his love of dancing onto his sons
Marcia Hines was “surprised” her daughter Deni followed in her musical footsteps
Why Sonia Kruger prefers to keep her relationship low-key
How Todd McKenney was shaped by the strong women in his life
It was dance that brought Helen Richey and her husband together
How sliding into his crush’s Instagram DMs scored Rob Mills a wife-to-be
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