Jessica Rowe has spoken of her decision to quit her TV career to raise her family, revealing a part of her ‘died’ when she became a full-time housewife.
The journalist and author, 52, who shares daughters Allegra, 16, and Giselle, 13, with her Channel Nine newsreader husband Peter Overton, announced in March 2018 she was leaving Studio 10 to spend more time with her family.
Rowe has since made occasional guest appearances on television but has not had another hosting role.
She revealed on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast her day-to-day conversations were becoming increasingly empty and pointless the more time she spent at home cleaning up after her children, and she feared she was losing her mind.
The former Today show co-anchor she once found herself asking, ‘What has happened to me?’ after having a bizarre debate about whether or not Elmo the Muppet has a penis.
Jessica Rowe has spoken of her decision to quit her TV career to raise her family, revealing a part of her ‘died’ when she became a full-time housewife. (Pictured Rowe and her husband Peter Overton with their teenage daughters Giselle and Allegra)
Discussing the shock she experienced after taking a break from her career to focus on motherhood, Rowe said there were times she would despair over how ‘boring’, ‘routine’ and ‘exhausting’ life could be as a housewife.
‘I did feel like a part of me was dying on the inside,’ she began.
‘My brain had gone on holidays and I thought, “What has happened to me? This vibrant person who could interview people.” Now I’m finding I’m having debates about does Elmo have a penis?’ she added.
‘And, you know, I’d be having these discussions with my daughters going, “How have I gone down this rabbit hole?”
‘Why did I even say yes? And they were like, “But where is it [Elmo’s penis]?” And I said, “It’s hiding under his fur.”
‘And, and I remember later going, “Why did I even say that?” Why didn’t I just say, “He’s a Muppet? No, he doesn’t.” Why didn’t I say that? Instead, I had to have a debate about whether or not he had a penis.’
The journalist and author, 52, who shares daughters Allegra, 16, and Giselle, 13, with her Channel Nine newsreader husband Peter Overton (all pictured), announced in March 2018 she was leaving Studio 10 to spend more time with her family
While she admitted going from a high-profile career to being a stay-at-home mum was difficult at times, she firmly believes you can be a housewife and a feminist.
‘The term housewife for me is about empowerment. It’s about doing life,’ she said.
Rowe stepped down a panellist on Studio 10 in March 2018 to spend more time with her family. She is now a podcaster, blogger and cookbook author.
‘There wasn’t a light-bulb moment in terms of making this decision, but we went on a family holiday last year [and] I started to think long and hard about how being present with them made them feel and made me feel,’ she said at the time.
Rowe stepped down a panellist on Studio 10 in March 2018 to spend more time with her family. She revealed a year later she’d been close to breaking point when she decided to quit her role
She told the Australian Women’s Weekly a year later she’d been close to breaking point when she decided to quit her morning TV role.
‘I could feel at the end of each show, not every day, but most days I would be close to tears,’ she said.
‘I’d feel that behind my eyes and was just about keeping it together. And I thought, “Why am I doing this to myself?”
‘I knew that I was heading down, I knew that my anxiety was there, that I was getting depressed and that if I didn’t make a change I’d start to falter.’
