Jessica Rowe reveals she felt ‘shame and stigma’ when struggling with depression

Jessica Rowe has revealed how she was consumed by shame when she realised she was battling mental health issues. 

The television personality tells Stellar’s podcast Something To Talk About that despite seeing her mother battle bipolar disorder, she still sensed a ‘stigma’ around her own struggles. 

‘My mum has bipolar disorder, and we had as a family done a lot of advocacy work around the discussion of there should be no stigma around mental illness’ the 53-year-old said. 

‘The great irony was when I realised I had a mental illness, I felt the shame and the stigma, and that was a massive wake-up call for me’. 

Jessica says she felt she would be a ‘hypocrite’ if she wasn’t honest about suffering from postnatal depression. 

‘It was very hard because, I remember at the time, there was a lot of pushback from some people saying I’d made it up, that I was attention seeking and why would someone like me have postnatal depression?’ she said. 

‘I still think, though, there’s this myth around the joys of motherhood and how easy it is and how wonderful it is and how great we are at it and how capable we are. Now, sure, some people are… but I wasn’t’.

Jessica has spoken out about her struggle with depression after leaving Studio 10 back in 2018.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the TV host said she decided to step away from the show to spend more time with her family.

‘It was very hard because, I remember at the time, there was a lot of pushback from some people saying I’d made it up, that I was attention seeking and why would someone like me have postnatal depression?’ she said

She confessed that it was only after she left the Network 10 morning talk show that she realised how exhausted she was.

‘At the time people gave me quite a bit of slack about it and said it’s old-fashioned. My choice was about leaning in for my family,’ she said. 

‘I feel lighter and happier that I’m actually present. I was running on empty, juggling so much… thinking I had to have this great career, be a good mum and wife.’ 

Jess has been married to news presenter Peter Overton for 19 years, and they share two daughters, Allegra, 16, and Giselle, 14. 

She regularly speaks openly about her battle with depression, and told The Australian Women’s Weekly in March 2019 that she was near breaking point when she decided to quit Studio 10. 

‘I could feel at the end of each show, not every day, but most days I would be close to tears,’ she said at the time. 

‘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.’ 

‘The great irony was when I realised I had a mental illness, I felt the shame and the stigma, and that was a massive wake-up call for me’ Jess added 

‘I still think, though, there’s this myth around the joys of motherhood and how easy it is and how wonderful it is and how great we are at it and how capable we are’ she said

Jess announced she was leaving Studio 10 during an episode live on-air back in March 2018, and has since appeared on the show as a guest.  

‘There wasn’t a lightbulb moment in terms of making this decision. But we went on a family holiday last year, 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. 

In a December 2019 interview with news.com.au’s body+soul, Jess confessed that she used to feel like a ‘failure’ because of her battle with mental illness. 

‘I felt like a failure because of my mental illness, but now I know that it’s an illness like any other and nothing to be ashamed of,’ she said. 

‘I asked for help, went to a psychiatrist and started taking medication, and I’m far healthier in my head as a result.’ 

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