70-Year-Old Jeff Fatt, the Original Purple Wiggle, Discloses the Surprising Truth Behind His Onstage Sleepiness: ‘It Was a Disguise’

Original Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt has shared the surprising reason his character was known to fall asleep onstage – and the song that was concocted to wake him up.  

Jeff, who became synonymous with the line ‘Wake up Jeff’, admitted in the new Amazon Prime documentary Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles that he previously suffered from shyness and used fake sleeping as a way to deal with introversion.

‘It used to be [Blue Wiggle] Anthony Field that would fall asleep, and the children got to wake Anthony up. But it really suited me because it was a bit of a mask,’ Jeff said. 

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Jeff, now 70-years-old, was candid about his difficulty performing, saying he was the only person in the group who didn’t have a background as a preschool teacher. 

‘I’d actually say, I’m very shy and introverted because I was the only non pre-school teacher and I had very little experience in dealing with children,’ he said. 

Original Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt, 70, (pictured) has shared the surprising reason his character was known to fall asleep onstage – and the song that was concocted to wake him up

Jeff finished by saying he always struggled to be in front of an audience, and admitted he feared public speaking. 

‘It was a way of getting me involved and on stage and as it turns out, it’s such an empowering thing for a child to be able to wake up a grown-up,’ he said. 

Later, Field chimed in to say the idea for ‘Wake-up Jeff’ came to him from preschool, where children would pretend to wake up a tree.

‘The tree would fall asleep, and they’d have to go, ”Wake up tree”, and I thought, ”This is fantastic” So we gave him [Jeff] the role of just falling asleep,’ he said. 

Jeff, who became synonymous with the line ‘Wake up Jeff’, admitted in the new Amazon Prime documentary Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles that he previously suffered from shyness and used fake sleeping as a way to deal with introversion

‘It used to be [Blue Wiggle] Anthony Field that would fall asleep, and the children got to wake Anthony up. But it really suited me because it was a bit of a mask,’ Jeff said 

The Amazon Prime documentary offers a gripping account of life in The Wiggles by its founders Field, Fatt, Greg Page and Murray Cook.

In the series, Murray made a shattering family confession, revealing he often struggled to leave behind his two children, daughter Georgia Munro-Cook and son Hamish Cook, to go on tour.

The entertainer said his son Hamish often took it the hardest.

‘I don’t like music because it takes daddy away,’ he recalled his son once saying in the documentary.

Jeff finished by saying he always struggled to be in front of an audience, and admitted he feared public speaking 

Blue Wiggle Anthony, 60, also opened up about his harrowing battle with depression throughout his incredibly successful career.

He said he was ‘bursting into tears backstage’ during The Wiggles’ very first tour in England and no-one could understand what was wrong with him.

‘Talking to one of my brothers, I told him I felt sad all the time and he said, ‘What have you got to be sad about? You’re successful, you have got all the comforts – what’s wrong with you?” Anthony said.

The Amazon Prime documentary offers a gripping account of life in The Wiggles by its founders Field, Fatt, Greg Page and Murray Cook (all pictured)  

Meanwhile, Yellow Wiggle Greg, 51, found leaving behind The Wiggles in 2006 due to poor health couldn’t save his marriage to Michelle Charlton.

Jeff also had a pacemaker inserted following a terrifying accident which saw him blackout behind the wheel of a car and crash into a tree.

‘Luckily it was without any great velocity,’ Jeff said of the incident. 

Field also opened up about his harrowing battle with depression throughout his incredibly successful career. Pictured: The Wiggles