The Australian wife of new US Open champion Michael Campbell insisted today success will not go to his head.

Julie Campbell says the Brighton-based Maori will still be the modest family man who helped out with his sons' school fete before beating world No. 1 Tiger Woods to win his first Major.

Julie will be at Gatwick today to greet her husband as he flies back from New York following an appearance on the David Letterman talk show, a sign of his new-found stardom after his stunning triumph at Pinehurst.

The couple's sons, six-year-old Thomas and Jordan, aged four, are pupils at Mowden School in Hove. Campbell interrupted his hectic schedule to raise money for the school before scraping through the qualifying event for the US Open at Walton Heath in Surrey.

"Mowden had a school fete," Julie said. "He ran a putting competition and to guess the number of golf balls in a bowl.

"The prize was a putter and the mother of the boy who won it told me he slept with it!

"We raised £190 and Michael was such a good sport. He hardly has any spare time but he is a really involved family man.

"When he is really down with his golf the kids still worship him and when things are going well the kids still need to be put to bed. It's a grounding process both ways."

The Campbells will continue to divide their time between Brighton and Julie's home city of Sydney.

Julie revealed: "A really good friend of mine said to me so does this change everything, are you leaving us?' Why would we leave here? We have an amazing house we love. It's so tranquil and yet we are five minutes from action.

"I'm a city girl and I wanted a big house in the city. You can't do that in London unless you are on Madonna's income and it's too busy. Brighton feels so much more like home, not the rocks on the beach but the relaxed attitude, friendly atmosphere and mix of people.

"You can be anyone you want to be and it's completely fine. With Michael's success now I think he'll still have a little bit of anonymity."