Where’s the Spray n’ Wipe lady now? Australian actress reveals her new life after rising to fame through hit adverts – and how the cleaning product will haunt her for the rest of her life
Australian actress Paula Duncan, known to millions of Australians for her iconic Ajax’s Spray n’ Wipe advert, has a new life as a charity worker.
The veteran artist, 72, who was the Australian face of Ajax cleaning products from 1988 to 2010, embraces her role as an advocate for people with disabilities.
“It’s probably one of the most powerful, dominant and incredible things I’ve ever been involved with,” Paula told New Idea magazine about her ambassadorship for the Focus on Ability Short Film Festival.
Paula said the NSW Film Festival, which aims to showcase the ‘abilities of people with disabilities’, was a great cause and she was proud to be involved.
‘Most people my age don’t do all the things I do. I’m the opposite, there’s a lot going on,” she added, revealing she had been involved in the industry for 35 years.
The NSW-born stage actress said despite a 50-year career in showbusiness, including many years in Channel Seven police drama Cop Shop, she will always be known as the ‘Ajax Spray n’ Wipe lady’.
‘That will never leave me again. Even to this day, many people who knew the commercial and followed it sing for me in the grocery store aisles,” Paula revealed.
“They’ll come and say hello!”
Australian actress Paula Duncan is known to millions of Australians for her iconic Ajax Spray n’ Wipe advert
When she’s not doing charity work, Paula keeps busy as a doting grandmother to her grandson Seth, whom her daughter Jess gave birth to last year.
Paula is virtually a household name, gracing Australian TV screens throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
She even received an Order of Australia award from the Queen and was given a ‘This is your Life’ tribute.
Paula has previously revealed how grateful she is to be involved in charity work.
The veteran artist, 72, was the Australian face of Ajax cleaning products from 1988 to 2010
Some of the accomplishments she is most proud of include raising more than $9 million for Paralympians and the Special Olympics Program, of which she is a patron.
Paula said helping others is one of the most rewarding things she has ever done.
‘For anyone who is really down or depressed, the first thing to do is do something for someone else first. When you do, you will feel appreciated and discover an element of self-worth that you would never have felt otherwise,” she said.
Duncan has a new life as a charity worker and is an ambassador for the Focus on Ability Short Film Festival
