Guy Montgomery on new fatherhood, comedy and Spelling Bee return
Guy Montgomery says he knows he’s in trouble when he can feel a single bead of sweat running down his neck.
It’s happened a few times on the Australian version of his hit Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee TV show, like one time when he couldn’t pronounce an Irish word in front of an Irish comedian.
“Hosting a spelling bee, I mispronounce so many words, [specifically] hosting a spelling bee in Australia as a New Zealander,” the 37-year-old comedian admits.
But our Great NZ Herald Spelling Bee doesn’t seem to stump him.
Over a quick spelling test, we dig into Montgomery’s recent big life changes – and some old regrets.
Spell... fatherhood
Montgomery says being a dad is the single most enjoyable part of his life.
He and partner, Caterpillar director Chelsie Preston Crayford, welcomed a baby girl named Billie late last year.
“I think it’s one of those things which you can conceptually understand, but you don’t truly. You can’t comprehend what it means until you are in the constant care and companionship of a baby,” he says.
“Experientially, I find that quite interesting, but I’m so stoked because it’s everything I’d hoped.”
As work has him travelling around New Zealand and Australia, have he and Preston Crayford found a way to juggle their schedules with a new baby?
“The truth is [we have] a lot of administrative conversation at home and a shared Google Calendar,” Montgomery says.
“I’m pretty lucky now, I think. I have a certain amount of autonomy that perhaps if I were to have had a baby 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to cordon off periods of my life to work that would facilitate much more time where I would be able to be at home.”
Spell... teacher
Montgomery is also stepdad to Preston Crayford’s 10-year-old, Olive. In true Spelling Bee fashion, he’s currently teaching her how to read a dictionary.
“[It’s] arguably unnecessary based on how people accumulate and research information now. But there is something deeply enjoyable to me about having a physical copy of a dictionary on the table, and she’s enjoying that tactile nature of it,” he says.
Montgomery reckons he’s enjoying the process more than Olive, but he’s trying to hide that.
“I think the goal is to obscure that fact and to arrive at the intersection where we’re enjoying it the same amount, and then ultimately one day perhaps she is enjoying it more than me.”
Spell... apology
When has Montgomery had to apologise?
“I was very young, around 5 or 6, and we were at a toy store. There was a display, a Wild West American display, and it was in front of all these little boxes. I deliberately knocked the display, and then in the tidy-up, I pocketed one of the little boxes,” he says.
“I got home and found out that they were like rounds for a cap gun, but I was rumbled for stealing, and I had to apologise to my parents. I clearly remember the weight of doing something wrong.”
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee returns to Three and ThreeNow on August 6.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.