{"id":24796,"date":"2025-09-30T02:04:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=24796"},"modified":"2025-09-30T02:04:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:04:02","slug":"melissa-leong-life-is-not-easy-life-is-ugly-and-hard-and-unpredictable-australian-lifestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=24796","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Leong: \u2018Life is not easy. Life is ugly and hard and unpredictable\u2019 | Australian lifestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

A<\/span>t home in Melbourne\u2019s inner north, Melissa Leong is feeling apprehensive. She\u2019s preparing to spend the day talking about her new memoir, Guts, which reveals personal struggles she has never before spoken about publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis part \u2013 laying yourself bare, so to speak, multiple times a day \u2013 is challenging,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s mentally challenging. It\u2019s emotionally challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former MasterChef judge and Dessert Masters host describes herself as an introvert, a private person who likes to retreat and recover after a day on set. In her memoir, Leong has found a way to balance that need for privacy with being vulnerable. She shares her battles with depression and anxiety, bouts of loneliness while filming MasterChef, and her experiences of bulimia, self-harm and sexual violence.<\/p>\n

A running thread is Leong\u2019s propensity for \u201cblowing up\u201d her life. She writes about leaving a secure job to live on a sheep dairy in Tasmania, and her divorce. \u201cI have become a bit of an expert at it,\u201d she writes, though she\u2019s wary of encouraging others to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are going to push the big red button, you do need to be prepared for some fallout, because it\u2019s inherently a selfish thing,\u201d Leong says. \u201cAnd when I say selfish, I don\u2019t mean selfish in a bad way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain things we have come to realise, as women, that we can do and have for ourselves and our friends that don\u2019t involve subscribing to societal norms.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u2018I\u2019ve met a lot of people that have tried to set me back, and that\u2019s OK because resistance gives you something tangible to push against.\u2019<\/span> Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Leong says she shut herself away to write about what felt true to her, including her childhood in the predominantly white Sutherland Shire, Sydney, in the 80s; how chronic pain halted a promising musical career (she started playing the piano aged three); her work as a makeup artist; quitting her first corporate job and breaking into the \u2013 surprisingly hostile at the time \u2013 world of food writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little sweetness in running your own race, emerging triumphant, and realising that everybody who didn\u2019t believe you could do it is just way back there,\u201d Leong says. \u201cI\u2019ve met a lot of people that have tried to set me back and that\u2019s OK because resistance gives you something tangible to push against.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old called her book Guts because she wanted the title to express visceral discomfort. \u201cLife is not easy. Life is ugly and hard and unpredictable, and often less than ideal, and I liked that in one syllable you have this word that is loaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s buoyed up by others in the industry who have written memoirs, including Kumi Taguchi, whom she met during her time at SBS. She feels she\u2019s in good company alongside women telling complex stories. \u201cHaving people like Kumi on my side and in my corner have helped galvanise me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leong writes that she has come to accept she was raped approximately 15 years ago. She doesn\u2019t name the perpetrator but she hopes that sharing her story might help others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe particular configuration of experiences I\u2019ve had are mine but these are things that have happened to our friends, sisters, mothers, cousins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI share these things because I know that they\u2019re not unique to me, and so if I can articulate them in a way that maybe someone else can\u2019t articulate yet to themselves, if that means they feel less alone, then that\u2019s a success to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Hosting UFC Fight Week \u2018was as far in the opposite direction as I could imagine\u2019. <\/span> Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Now Leong is unapologetic about prioritising herself, \u201cbecause for the majority of my life I have been a people-pleaser\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have wanted to make other people around me happy to the detriment of my health, my wealth and myself, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

She jokes about not knowing if it\u2019s age or perimenopause, but \u201cif one of the side-effects is that I give less fucks, then I don\u2019t care\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Leong endured criticism from the moment she was announced as the first female MasterChef judge in 2020. In the aftermath of her cohost Jock Zonfrillo\u2019s death in 2023, she was further criticised for choosing to grieve privately. In Guts, Leong describes MasterChef as \u201ca set of golden handcuffs\u201d \u2013 at once a tremendous opportunity and also limiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of the time I put in; I learned a lot, I grew a lot, but I also just as equally wanted to continue moving, so that the expectations people had for me weren\u2019t able to atrophy around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After hosting two seasons of Dessert Masters, Leong took an unexpected pivot to hosting UFC Fight Week. \u201cIt was as far in the opposite direction as I could imagine,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a huge fan of mixed martial arts and is about 18 months into jiujitsu training, working towards a third stripe on her white belt. \u201cIt\u2019s the right combination of human instinct and critical thinking. Plus, it\u2019s a great workout. If you\u2019re stressed, getting really sweaty and exhausted a couple of times a week is quite good, for me anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leong has also finished filming a new show in New Zealand called Taste of Art, with the Amisfield executive chef, Vaughan Mabee. Though the show is \u201cback in the world of food \u2013 and studios and dresses and fine dining\u201d, she hopes viewers will see an evolution in her career.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also on screens now as a contestant in The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition, swapping designer dresses and heels for tie-dye T-shirts and trainers. It\u2019s been \u201cquite freeing\u201d to relinquish control and be at the whim of reality TV\u2019s gameplan, she says. \u201cBeing able to just trust was a wonderful exercise for me. I am a big subscriber to: just sign on to every experience life offers you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we learn a lot about ourselves through being uncomfortable. And not all of those lessons are soft, fluffy, kind, nice things but they\u2019re nevertheless incredibly valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

This philosophy helped with sharing the darker parts of her life in Guts. Any doubts were \u201covershadowed by the truth\u201d, she says. \u201cIf I\u2019m going to tell my story then I\u2019m going to tell my story. I can\u2019t sugarcoat the less-than-ideal things that have happened to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are things that have very much shaped me in the choices I\u2019ve made in my life. The last few years have been a lot about survival and not much else, if I\u2019m honest. But I sit here now really proud of what I\u2019ve been able to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n