Growing Up Gretzky
Born and raised (mostly) in Los Angeles (but raised in the Canadian spotlight), Paulina is every bit the sun-gilded Malibu teen Aaron Spelling makes primetime dramas about. When she wants to relax, she sits by her swimming pool with her girlfriends and when she wants to watch a movie, she can go to their movie room. “Oh my gosh, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion is my favourite,” she beams. Despite all this, she tries to convince me that her childhood wasn’t as jet-set as people imagine: “I always felt like I fit in. I never felt any different than anyone else. Every day, people ask me, ‘Do you feel weird about your dad being famous?’ And I’m like, ‘No. No, I don’t. He’s my dad.’ ” She continues to plead her case: “My parents have a lot of help in the house—housekeepers and stuff like that—but my parents [not limos] took us to school.” (However, when she moved to New York when she was six, a driver charioted her and her mom to ballet school in a Range Rover.)
Paulina attended ballet school for three years, but it never bloomed into a passion. “My mother was a big dancer. It wasn’t my passion, but I tried my best. I learned that from my parents. You’re not going to succeed at everything, but for the thing that you really have a passion, you will.” Her first love is singing. “Paulina and her friends were always imitating the Spice Girls,” Wayne recalls. “Singing is her dream. We try to explain to her, if you have a passion you can overcome so many things. I was fortunate that I was blessed to play in the NHL, but Paulina has only seen the end result; she didn’t see the hours of practice and commitment that it took to become a professional hockey player. You’ve got to open those doors. And when those doors open, you’ve got to bang through. Practice and dedication are the only way,” he says.
