Simmone Jade McKinnon Is Famous But She's Not Rich

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So you're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on. Hello spillers, Today, We've
got something a little special for you. It's an episode
from mid a podcast we produce here at Mama Mia,
hosted by Holly Wainwright. We thought we'd dropped this episode
into your feed because I know how much you all
love classic Australian TV shows. And in this episode Holly

(00:37):
talks to the one and only Simone Jade McKinnon aka
Stevie from Mcloud's Daughters. So in this episode you'll hear
how Simone joined that iconic Australian TV show right after
starring in another headline making TV show, Baywatch, alongside her
then fiance Jason Mamola. Yes, she gets into that in
this interview, and then everything for Simone changed. So here

(01:01):
she opens up about being part of one of the
biggest shows in the world, only to be fired for
refusing to film in lingerie on a beach. She also
talks about how she handles panic attacks, a public breakup,
and raising her son on a tight budget while also
chasing her dreams. Take a Listener to this episode with Simone,
and if you want more episodes of mid check out
the show notes for the link.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
The midlife woman of Hollywood's imagination lives in a windswept
beach house or in a chic Brooklyn brownstone, maybe a
tasteful Hampton style home with a kitchen island the size
of a pool table, an ape burn, a stove, and
a butler's pantry out the back. She wears tasteful roll
necks as she dips in and out of a fulfilling

(01:48):
career at will, usually something she can work on at
that home. Billowing with the smell of freshly baked bread,
she returns from the farmer's market with arms full of
freshly cut daffodils, and she brunches like she lunches often
and without ever lowering her eyes to the bottom of
the bill. Maybe you live like that. More likely you don't.

(02:11):
There's something we don't like to talk about that matters
more than almost anything when you're mad money, because it's
a time of life when choices you weren't even aware
you were making at twenty and thirty can come home
and build a stinky nest on your shoulder like a
squawking raven or a sweary parrot, chose a career for love,

(02:33):
not money. Squawk decided to study another few years. Squawk
saved travel spent saved travel spent. Squawk got blindsided by
the call to care for someone you love. Squawk seduced
by the free money promise of a shiny new credit card.

(02:53):
Squawk didn't push for that pay rise because it's not
what good girls do. Squawk stopped working to be with
your little kids and put your financial security in the
hands of someone you thought you could always trust. Squawk Squawk.
Squawk worked in a caring profession. Squawk. None of those

(03:16):
non decisions were wrong. The very idea that there are
years ahead when times will change and it might be
harder to get a job, earn money, get yourself out
of a difficult spot seems like science fiction. When you're
young and happy to toddle a high wire without even
asking about a safety net, we don't like to talk
about it because of what happens when you fall. By

(03:40):
mid we're meant to know what's what, be mature and
careful and planned. We're supposed to see a clear path
ahead that promises comfort and choice. But We're not immune,
no matter what gen Z tell us daily from the
pressures and problems of an ever more expensive world as
our perceived value falls. We have mortgages and rent to make.

(04:02):
We have families of all ages and stages to feed
and care for, the cost of caring for your parents,
for yourself when you need it, sales ever higher and taps.
You're awake at night as you add and subtract and
shift in your head. For one parent families, those maths
get heavier and more complex. You've heard, I'm sure about

(04:22):
the fifty something women living in their cars, that it's
the group of us most likely to find themselves without
a home. Maybe it's closer for you than a report
on the news. And then also, we're maybe the first
generation of women to have earned well on mass, the
first to have serious choice about this phase of our

(04:44):
lives to build wealth. We need to thank no one
for our rebellious generation is all over the place and
at all the extremes, which is for us pretty standard.
Perhaps the most goal post shifting thing we can do
right here is to do what our mothers didn't show
each other as sweary parrots and talk about money, money, money, Hello,

(05:08):
I am Holly Wainwright and I am Mid mid Life, Midfamily,
mid overwhelm. Welcome to our show for gen X women
who are anything but mid. And I want to say
that we get quite a lot of messages here at
mid from people who don't fall into that specific generation
but love the conversations we're having here, and I want

(05:30):
to say to you welcome. Mid is a state of mind, friends,
as well as a very real place. As the generation
sometimes referred to as the forgotten one between the much
maligned boomers and millennials. We're always happy when we're noticed
and people want to sit with us. You can sit
with us. So take a seat, because today we're talking
about money with someone who knows as well as many

(05:53):
that not everyone over thirty or forty is rich. Not
even everyone who's well known is rich. Not even everyone
who was in an iconic TV show in the Nordies
is rich. See where I'm going, Simone. Jade McKinnon was
and is to many Stevie from McLeod's Daughters. If you're
not familiar, That show about a family of rural women

(06:15):
in Australia's telegenic outback was massive in the noughties, and Simone,
originally from rural Queensland, herself was massive along with it.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
I promise I will continue to love you in good
times and in bad and when I'm.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Old and pray you will still be the honest woman
I've ever seen in my life. She joined fresh from
the Baywatch Hawaii cast, with a Hollywood sta fiance on
her arm and a creative career very well established, and
then everything changed. Simone and her beautiful son Madigan have

(06:56):
been living in a caravan and then a shed in
her family's back paddock for the best part of a decade.
She's been making Eden's meet with cares, subsidy on jobs
like Jillaroo, and by starting her own small business which
has ridden the roller coaster of COVID. Many of you
will relate. I'm sure when she decided to step out
of a dark time and back in front of a

(07:18):
camera to go on a reality show earlier this year,
it was very clearly with one goal in mind, the
prize money. You'll hear how that went, and in our
conversation you'll hear what it was like to be on
one of the biggest shows in the world and to
get fired for what you refuse to do in lingerie
on a beach. You'll hear how she came back from
crippling panic attacks during a high profile breakup to film

(07:41):
wedding scenes for our viewing pleasure. And most importantly, you'll
hear how she's kept moving and dreaming and pushing on
as she's been parenting her son alone on a very
minimal income. Simone is famous, but she's not rich, and
we often assume those things go together. Her story might
not be yours, but there's plenty of familiar territory here

(08:01):
for all of us.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mids.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Welcome to Mid's very first conversation about money with Simone
Jade McKinnon. Simone, everyone assumes that well known people are rich, right,
You've got to face that's familiar from one of the
most beloved Australian TV shows of all time. But you've

(08:28):
been very open about the fact that you're not rich.
Is it a strange disconnect that people are like, there's
that famous lady, she must have it all sorted out.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Uh. Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people,
not just because I'm a single mummy, that I think
a lot of people think actors in general because they
see the American actors, so they think Aussie actors are
on the same pay. We get the same kind of
residuals that other people maybe in America get, But yeah,
you know, once you're done and dusted on a show here,

(08:58):
there is some residuals that trickle feed, but if you
haven't worked for as long as I haven't worked, then
they're used up very quickly. And I guess it does
shock people that we're not like America, that we can't
live off one show as great as McLeod's was. We
just don't get paid that much.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
You mean you weren't quite the Friends cast, is what
you're saying.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
It was not even quos to what those guys got
for half an hour work. Yeah, no, we're just nothing
like that. So I think people they assume that it's
the same as America, but I think they'd be really
shocked to know what we get paid compared to what
they get paid. And that's why once you gig ins
it ends.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, which is why I mean, actors always very honestly
talk about leaving from job to job and that it
isn't as glamorous as it all appears. But I think
people still kind of imagine that they've got it all
sorted out. Tell me a bit about what your real life,
as I always like to call life away from work,
Tell me a bit about what your real life looks
like now.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
My real life now is definitely different to any other lives.
I feel like I've had lots of lives. They were
with the dancer life, there was an actor life, there's
a single mum life, and now there's this kind of
small business life. And the small business life is hard.
So I'm in a caravan and a shed, and I've

(10:21):
been in a caravan since twenty sixteen and I was
solidly in that caravan until end of twenty and nineteen
when the shed was finally built and wicked kind of
spread out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
And is this on a property? And I know you
live in northern New well mid northern New South Wales.
So is your shed in your caravan on a property.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yes, so it's on our old family land, which so
I sold up. I did have. I had enough money
to buy myself a nice little house, and so when
Madigan was born, I relocated from South Australia to Coffs
Harbor to Bean your family being a single mum I
knew that I needed help, and so it did. Like
I had a nice house back then because of thanks

(11:06):
to Mcloud's for the years of work I put that
into there. But I realized after six years in that
house that I wasn't going to be able to stay.
So that's why I sold up. And I wanted to
do this bucket list dream, which was the round Oz
run the lab.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
So you and your son together doing like around Australia
sort of odyssey in your caravan. Right, Yeah, well I didn't.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
I wasn't in the acting world, you know. I thought
I was nailing it as a single mum loving it.
Madigan was about to start school and I was like,
this is the perfect time to do it. I'll sell up.
I didn't need that big house that I had. I
realized that wasn't it for me. I would rather the
adventure than the things. It was great for that first

(11:53):
six years, you know, a great home base. Madigan's first
memories were in this amazing old Queenslander and you know
it was lucky.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
You've always leant towards adventure a bit and travel, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
I do. My parents traveled with me from I was
two and a half in Mount Isa, my sister was born,
and then when she was six months, I was two
and a half. They hit the road in a little
tiny caravan. So my first memories, I don't remember Mount iSER,
but my first memories were in a van. It's two
and a half years. So by the time I went

(12:26):
into kindy, that's when we stopped. So I always say
that it was those guys that put the sort of gypsy.
They gave me the wanderlusty. It just has been that way.
And then I went into two different careers, you know,
my dancing career that again you're just on the move.
I was out of home at sixteen.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
You were a ballet dancer, is that right?

Speaker 1 (12:45):
I was, so I auditioned and then I actually ran
away kind of from the ballets to the Gold Coast.
But I was still under eighteen at that point, so
my mum and dad came and took me and brought
me back home to Coughs. And you know, I wasn't eighteen,
so I wasn't allowed to do anything until then anyway,
so I had to sit around. But in that time,

(13:06):
dance Encore gets a hold of me and says, guess
what we would love to have you We know you're
not turning eighteen till March, but we can put you
in rehearsals in February and the beginning of March, and
you can be on a plane to Japan the day
after your eighteenth birthday.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
The adventure begins, I know.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
But then I had to convince Mom and Dad are like,
come on, this is it? Like, because I was still
that means I was going to be seventeen in Sydney
while myself and I'd just run away, you know, up
the coast.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Did they let you do it? I assumed they did.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah. I somehow convinced them that it was what I wanted.
And you know, I'm not going to ruin a job opportunity.
It's different. I felt it would be different if I
was going to be paid, you know, I'd be accountable,
I'd be responsible. And I was like, I have never worked.
That company taught me determination and discipline way more than

(13:59):
the ballet school did. Like, I really learned to work
my ass off in that company. And I worked for
them for two years, back and forth to Japan. And
it was a.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
It sounds like an incredible adventure for a young woman.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
It was, and you know it was not the dancing
that I had in my head as a kid, but
it was just it was a great adventure, and like
I said, it just taught me so much. And then
I came back and then I ended up doing Cats.
I auditioned for Cats, and then I felt like more
of a proper dancer. But I loved both just the same.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Just thinking about when, I mean, we're gonna obviously get
to all this later, but when you choose a creative career,
very few of us who choose creative careers of all
different kinds and necessarily driven by money. You know, if
you were driven by money and the idea of stability,
steady paychecks, regular increases, investment portfolios and stuff like, it's

(14:58):
the wrong career to choose, let's be honest, right. But
one of the things when I talked to lots of
midlife women now who sort of have realized later in
life sometimes that, oh, like financial independence is so important.
Did you ever think about that kind of stuff or
were you always chasing the adventure and the experience and
the creativity.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Always chasing the adventure. I definitely didn't think about that.
I'm not like a material kind of girl. I don't
think I have been. I think that's probably come from
my parents. They're not like that. Well, we never had
money to be like that, so you know, you kind
of forced to be that way. And no, I didn't.
I just lived and I would work whatever other jobs
I had to to keep afloat so I could keep

(15:38):
that dream alive. So you know, I would wait tables.
I mean that's the main thing when you're a dancer.
You learn how to wait tables, make coffee, do all
of that. But then when I did get like Cats,
I thought Cats was the best thing. Now we got
seven hundred dollars a.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Week, yeah, you would have been like, I'm rich.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
So rich, and then you also got your per diem
and you're staying in these hotels all around. Well we
did Asia, and then all of Australia's saying, in great accommodation,
you're getting this. You can live off the per diem
if you're smart, which I did, and so I felt like, yeah,
I felt like I was winning at that point in
my seven hundred dollars a week. But then after Cats,

(16:21):
I somehow sort of fell into acting, and then money
kind of did become slightly more appealing because it blew
like a whole week of really really hard work, eight
shows a week, three hour shows. You know, that's a
lot plus rehearsals, all for your seven hundred bucks. But

(16:41):
then you go and do a TV commercial and you're
there for two hours and you get six grand. It
sort of acting opened my eyes, and probably, if I'm
being really honest and truthful, I would say money certainly
swayed me into the acting world.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
I mean, obviously your life to lots of turns, but
when you were sort of in a Hollywood adjacent period,
did you have your head turned that? You know how
you were saying before, I've never been a materialistic person,
and that's obvious that your values are not that right,
it's obvious and the choices you've made, the way you
live your life. Did you have your head turned when
you were almost adjacent to that kind of big, glitzy world.

(17:18):
Did it seem attractive then? Were you seduced by it
at all?

Speaker 1 (17:22):
In America?

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh yeah. Look, so my first proper acting job, you know,
I did twenty three TV commercials from a dancer. I
was taking some time off and I had an agent
and I said to that agent, you know, I need
a break, and she called like in a week in
and said, hey, I've got an audition for you. And
I was like, no, I need a rest, and she's like, no,
it's an acting job. You just got to look longingly

(17:46):
at a chip, like it's a KFC. You just got
to look at a chip. And I was like, no,
I'm not an actor and she's like, you just pretended
to be a cap for two years. Yes you are.
And it pays two grand. And I was like two
grand for how long? They're like two grand for maybe
half a day if you're there that long. Anyway, I
was like, okay, I'll do that. So I did all
these TV commercials and they paid really really well. I

(18:09):
did them for probably three years. But then anyway, Baywatch
came to town and it was my first I've done
sort of a couple of little roles. I think i'd
done water at anyway, a couple of little roles, sort
of one liners, not real scenes as such. Anyway, bay
Watch came to town. I auditioned. That's the whole nother story.

(18:31):
They watching me was just bizarre.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
But what a thing, Like what a thing to come
to town? You know, when you're I don't know if
you relate to this or not, but you know we're
similar ages. Now you look back at life and you
go that decision, that job, that relationship, that moment. Like
the things that change your path, you can see them
very clearly from where we're sitting now, right, and that

(18:54):
obviously was one of those moments.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Baywatch definitely changed the path that first audition. You know,
I went in there. I was doing my TV commercials,
but I was mainly working in the restaurants at that
point in time, and you know, a bit of a
night our partying. So I was lily white, short red hair.
My agent's like, you're going to go in for this
bay Watch audition. I was like, are you mental? Like no, no,

(19:19):
and well I agreed, and then sure enough I get there. Everyone's,
you know, either blonde like the Kimberly Yes.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
Kimberly Davis is that what she was called as well?

Speaker 1 (19:29):
The two of them?

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, And that was very much an aesthetic at that time.
There was like a Pamea Anderson obviously the baby Watch connection,
but a very blonde, beautiful, curvy.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Definitely long haired, definitely beach babe, beach board all of that.
And then there was me but for whatever reason. You
know that Alexandra Paul who had been on the show
prior the short hair, she was a bit bomboyish, you know,
she was the different one she had left the show.
So that's I guess how I got my start because

(20:01):
they were looking for something just different.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
No, so they was definitely put me on a different path.
And when I got to Hawaii, they gave us a vertible.
I was at the Hilton Hawaiian Village with one hundred
and eighty k Waikiki Beach views. You go into the
best parties, you people are giving you clothes, so you
do get a little bit carried away with that kind

(20:26):
of life, Like it was so new, it was so different.
So I went from my seven hundred dollars as well,
you know, as a dancer and the commercials that paid
well to Now this was minimum, but it was three
grand US in ninety nine and your PERDM and your
accommodation again, so that was huge. Our dollar was so
weak at that point, so my three grand American was

(20:48):
massive money to me. Massive.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
So there are times in your life where you're like,
I'm nailing it And was that one? Did you love it?
Did you love all that, the parties, the convertible, the glamour.
Was that very exciting or did you quickly kind of
go I don't know.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, both. I loved all of it. With Baywatch, Come Baywatch,
you know, and the stigma that's around a show like that,
that acting wasn't good. I mean, I learned so much,
so I would never ever slam it for that because
it taught me all the things about camera angles and

(21:24):
sizes and lighting and just learning lines. You know, I
hadn't really done that before, so you know, it taught
me a lot. But then there's also the other side
of Baywatch, which was the weight.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah. I was going to say, what was it like
being in your cozi all the time? Did you feel
pressure around other women?

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And because the girls out there
were absolutely extraordinary. I went in there the smallest I've
ever been. I think I was weighing in it. This
is horrible, forty five kilo and I'm five seven when
I first got there, because I was so paranoid before
I went that, I just trained like nothing else and
all I ate was protein and I stripped down and

(22:06):
I thought I was looking okay, But I look back
at those first few episodes of Baiwo and I'm like
so thin, like I couldn't see it in real life,
but when I watched it back, it was also though.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
That nineties esthetic was tiny, right like sometimes when you look,
but I mean, and I was watching TV at that
time and very much immersed in that. It definitely, as
I say, seems to have been a time when we
decided that women needed to be absolutely tiny in that.
With that, so you're in Hawaii, you're getting paid money
that to you is like wow, and living the life.

(22:39):
There's a lot of shit that comes along with it,
like you're not allowed to eat, but you're going to
all the parties, you're meeting Hollywood stars and all the
rest of it.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Then what happens, Well, look, I realized that all of
that stuff wasn't really important, and you know, I got
fired in the middle of Baywatch. So sorry. I know
we said we weren't going to go down the PA
that's fine, but I didn't fired in the middle of
it because I refused to do a photo shoot that
I just didn't think it was. I'd already done so
much publicity for them, and I used up my quota

(23:09):
and I just foot down anyway.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
What kind of photo shoot did they want you to do?

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Look, it was for one of the men's magazines.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Which are massive then, like just for like I'm sure
our listers will remember because they're grown ups, but those
men's mags were huge at that time, right, huge.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
And especially for Baywatch, Like there was going to be
a cover. I think it was Maxim And I was
really excited at first because I was like, Oh, that's cool.
But then I had in my head, Okay, we'll do
a black and white shoot. It'll be with shears in
a hotel room. Maybe there'll be a cigarette, a little
bit suspenders, Like I'll make it. This could be amazing.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Sexy but tasteful.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
You're thinking super tasteful but super sexy. I was like,
this would be nice, and I'm like, no, no, it's lingerie.
But you'll be on the beach with the girls. It's
a bit of a girl on girl. You know. Actually,
I've got nothing against that at all, and I certainly
had nothing against my co stars, but I was just
done with all of that. Like, you know, we had
to go to football games and basketball games in our swimsuits,

(24:09):
so that could be in the middle you know of
the night, eight o'clock at night and there we were
in the middle going.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
So they kind of treated the Baywatch actresses like models,
cheerleadre's what do you call them, promo girls like yeah,
which there's nothing wrong with that as a way to
make a living, but that's not what you thought you
were doing.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, I was just thinking, you know, I wanted to
be taken what as serious as you could be taken
on bait Watch and that sort of thing, especially when
I'd done what my contract had already, you know, I'd
done my quota. I didn't want to be doing any
more of those, and so I just stood my ground and.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
It didn't go down.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, it's just backfired. But I'm so stubborn. I'm so stubborn.
They were like, they called me in and they said
you have to do it, and I said, I'll be
as sexy as you like, but please, can we do
it like in a hotel. I don't want to do
the girl on girl. I don't want to do that,
and I don't want to do it on beach, and
don't want to do it in like underwear on a beach,
wet lingerie on a beach. So's yuck. And they were like, no,

(25:12):
this is what you're doing. And I said, well, I'm
not so and they said, okay, we we're sending you home.
You're fired.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
More of my conversation with Simone after this shortbreak, so again,
we could be here all day. Because your life is
very interesting. So you've got this level of success. You know,
you're going in Hollywood movies, you had a famous boyfriend
at this time. Then you do come back to Australia

(25:42):
and you're on Mcloud's Daughters, which is one, as I
said before, it's in the cannon of one of the
most loved Aussie TV shows ever.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Right for sure.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Was it amazing to be on it at the time.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Absolutely, I mean I definitely had moments in la and
in America where I felt like, especially that movie in Lithuania,
I felt like, oh, I'm a proper actress now. But
then I did some big grade movies too that made
me go okay. But then when I came back to McLeod's,
you know, i'd never seen the show because I'd been

(26:13):
in America, and they flew me back for the second audition.
So I did a self tape in America and the
second audition was back here in Australia, and they gave
me six or seven episodes to watch in the hotel
before I was to do this, and I was like, oh, no,
these guys are amazing, like amazing, amazing. How am I
going to do this? Like I'm not a trained actor.

(26:34):
I looked at a chip once and then next thing
you know, I'm here.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
You know, I looked at the chip once and now.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
How when? Like it just pure and so that made
me really really nervous because the standard, you know, the
actors who were the nier people, who were Briety and
Aaron there, and you know, they all trained and amazing,
and I did feel very uncertain about this second audition.
But luckily they put me on a horse, and I

(27:05):
grew up with horses, right, I mean, I'd never hit
a mark before on a horse. I was comfortable cantering
in on a horse and my character had to be
really comfy. So I think my audition wasn't great. My
first audition was, but the second one wasn't so great.
But because I nailed it on the horse anyway, Yes,
Mcloud's was amazing for me to be now with these

(27:25):
actors that were so talented, to be working with animals,
to be back in Australia, like all of those things.
The last couple of years in America, mem X were
like out in a caravan again. Caravan we moved out La.
He wasn't an La kind of person either, So we'd
been living in an airstream out there in the middle

(27:48):
of Valencia, and we've sort of been away from all
the big material things anyway. But for me to be
back and be on home turf family could come and visit,
doing this extraordinary show with these amazing people was just
the biggest gift ever.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
So interesting that you know you are originally from country Australia,
I guess, and then you're on the most iconic regional
country show.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
I don't want to push on this too much because
I know it's personal, but I have seen a post
of yours that you put up once of you were
in a wedding dress on the set of McCloud's you're
filming the wedding scene, but you actually were going through
personal heartbreak at the time. I think you and your
axe had just broken up.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Ah. Yes, well I didn't break up. He left and
he left very very suddenly. And you know, I'd been
an anxious person sometimes. You know, nerves can totally get
the best of me when it comes to additions. If
it's something really important, you know, the nerves can just
completely derail, like I can't think, I can't do anything,

(28:53):
and that's normal. But when he left, it catapulted me
into a world of anxiety that I didn't know existed,
and it opened the door to panic attacks. So he
left the end of November two thousand and six.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
And you were like, you were a long distance at
this point, so correct, and you're contracted to be in
a tiny town in South Australia dealing with this from Afar,
which must have been very like discombobulating on a million levels.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Yeah, well he flew into break up with me, I guess.
So he did do it face to face, but it
came out of the blue because I was leaving Mcloud's
I've given my notice. We were about to be married.
You know, we were talking baby names, my world. I
thought I knew what my world was. And here's my
character playing She's going to be a bride. So all

(29:46):
this good stuff's happening for my character, it's happening for
me in my mind as well. You know, I'll be
written out of the show. This would have been an
amazing four years. But I'm going off to live my life.
He turns up, leaves with no explanation, and I have
to go. The very first thing I do on the Monday.
Can you believe he left on the Friday? The very

(30:08):
first thing I had to do that Monday day was
try on Stevie's wedding dress. The very first thing. I
don't really remember it from the moment he left. I
think I just drank myself into a bit of a
stupor the entire weekend. Don't think I ate much anyway.
They take me and I'm a mess. I can't even stand.

(30:28):
I'm just crying. I'm sobbing, and they're just going to
hold me up trying to fit this wedding dress. So
I've never even tried my real wedding dress on. I
hadn't bought one. You know, it was going to be
a beach wedding, so it wasn't going to be any.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
But still it was all there in your mind. What
was going to happen.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, I'd never tried any wedding dress on. I'd never
played a bride, So this was the first time ever.
He just left and here I am trying to put
this dress on. Anyway, I didn't from that moment though.
They did hold me up and I had to go
to set. I only had one scene to do that
first day on that Monday, and I just stopped. I
shut it off, and I didn't cry again at work.

(31:08):
They flew my family in immediate which was amazing. So
I had my little niece who was maybe two or
three three at the time, at home with me, and
my sister was there, you know. So I didn't cry
at work, I didn't cry at home. But a couple
of weeks went by with this somehow held within. I'm
playing the giddy bride, so I'm going the opposite while

(31:30):
I'm at work. But then one day i'd had a dream,
walked into the makeup bus and one of my co
stars just said, oh, you look better, and I was like, yeah,
I feel good. I had a dream. I told him
where to go, feeling really confident, and the second I
did it, my world just like collapsed but imploded at
the same time. I didn't know what was happening. I

(31:53):
couldn't move. All I could hear was people around me saying,
are you're right or you're right? But I was just
I was frozen. It's completely and utterly frozen, but I
believe I was breathing really, really heavily. Anyway, they quickly
rushed got the medic to come in, and that was
the first panic attack that I'd never had, and it

(32:13):
came from just that little tiny bit of joy that
I had from you know, telling him off in my dream,
in my subconscious. It was crazy. And so that photo Stevie,
my character was shooting the wedding. So everything I did
from friggin' moment that he left was all Stevie's happiness

(32:34):
and joy. So of course the wedding itself was going
to be a hurdle. Everybody knew it. You know, these
panic attacks had started, so we knew that they would come,
and they'd come randomly, you never knew, but we assumed
that the vows were probably going to be the worst.
But I somehow got through the vowels. Don't know got it.
But then and then there was the wedding, the first dance,

(32:56):
and it's just massive. It was as nearly as big
as the first one. I think it was a huge
huge panic attack, and then that was the aftermath. So
I was sitting in the dining room in the big
old house and my makeup artist Jodie is just trying
to put me back together, and of course it had
them for a bit. Now everyone was not so panicked anymore.

(33:16):
We knew that they came and they were horrible, but
then they did go and the release, Like, I felt
quite good after them, because all of this energy is
somehow it's gone for a second and you go into
this really horrible, scary place, but then there's this there's
such relief after it's passed.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
People who haven't experienced panic attacks are always very shocked
at how physical they are. You know, people frequently think
they're having a heart attack, that there's something very serious happening,
and seeing somebody out of context that happening to them
is very scary. When we were just talking before about
the moment you look back on and you go, well,
that was a turn, and that was a turn. So

(33:58):
that sort of culmination of Mcloud's and sort of clashing
into this big breakup and also clashing into a mental
health crisis. I imagine that it is kind of the
start of another chapter, right.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Yeah, yet definitely it was well, it was the big
end of a life that I thought I was going
to have and then it was. It opened up a
different kind of world, this anxiety world that I then
had to contend with. I mean, it did sort of
pass down there. They became less frequent, especially after the

(34:30):
wedding was kind of done and dusted. But other things
can trigger them these days, and so more recently, you know,
financial stress is under the thing.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
It's interesting because a lot of the women who listen
to this show, you know, their stories won't involve Hollywood
stars and you know, being on the beach in their
neckers and shooting weddings, but the themes are similar, right,
like the things that can derail your life. There's confidence,
there's mental health, there's romantic breakdowns, there's all these things.

(35:04):
It is actually very relatable because then you're there going okay,
well now what and then you become a single.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Mom then yeah, look, so it all happens for a reason,
right inside, Like I'm so glad that he left because
I wouldn't have MADS if you know, I had stayed
in that relationship, if I had gone to America, Like,
oh god, I just wouldn't want to be in America anyway.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Well, no, not at the moment for sure. So your
life as single mom, as mads as mom?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Yeah, how has that?

Speaker 3 (35:34):
And obviously did you consciously leave acting behind or did
it leave you a little bit? Well? Was that a
very conscious decision that like, okay, it's time to change
how things are going?

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, look, I definitely decided to put my hand down.
So Madigan was born on my thirty seventh birthday, and
I went down and I think he was only three
months old. I did a little stint on City Homicide,
which was fine. It was only a few days though.
It was just a little guesty. That was okay. But
then when he was around two, I went and did Neighbors.
And I did Neighbors for about three months. And the

(36:09):
set days when you're working on a show, any show,
sometimes you can be there twelve fourteen hours a day,
and that's how it was when I was on Neighbors.
You know, you work for a really they crushed their scenes.
You did all your scenes kind of in one day
and then they'd be rehearsals and whatnot. So even though
I was there for three months, some weeks, I was
only maybe working the one day, but in that day

(36:30):
I was away for the entire day. I'd leave in
the dark, I'd be home in the dark, and Madigan
just didn't understand. And I just after that Gig, I
just thought, you know, I'm the age that I am.
I don't have a partner. The chances of me having
another baby are very, very slim. I don't want to

(36:51):
miss a moment. It was then that I sort of
said to my agents that I don't really think this
is for me at the moment. I really just want
to enjoy this with my little boy. I was in
Coughs Tarbarts, so you know, I'm removed from the acting
world and all of that anyway, so I just said, no,
let's just leave it for now.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
After this short break, I'm going to be back with
Simone Jade McKinnon to hear about how things came full
circle for Simone, but not quite in the way she'd planned.
And this brings us back to the little house that
you bought that you told us about. So after Mcloud's
you bought a house back in coff she moved back

(37:35):
to be near your family, and then after a few
years there and I imagine circumstances changed. We moved back
to the paddock.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
We moved. Yeah, we get the caravan. We set off
on our lap around Australia. But my dad, who has
been battling cancer since two thousand and seven, not battling
the whole time, sorry, living with cancer. Yeah, he got
really sick. So I'd only been on the road for
six months. Here we are in the caravan, we're in
cans and he wants me to come back, and I'm like, oh, okay,

(38:06):
it's a long drive, but I'd rather come back now,
you know, than if we're over in wa. You know,
it's a lot bigger hall to get home. So I
was like, this is perfect. We'll come home for Christmas anyway.
Set up in the paddock. The paddock that I used
to ride my horses in out of Bonvog was five acres.
It's nothing big, it's nothing grand. And so there I
was in the caravan in the paddock and he asked

(38:29):
me to subdivide the land for him. He's like, I'd
rather subdivide it now. The council had just given approval.
I'd rather subdivide it now and have your kids get
a little bit of your inheritance. Now that'll help you
all out. And so I was like, okay, sure, how
long would this possibly take a few months, I thought.

(38:50):
Two years later, I'm still in the paddock full time
in the caravan, not moving, and it's.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Like, oh, what are you living on at this point, Like,
what's work like for you at this time?

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Work?

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah? Were you working?

Speaker 1 (39:03):
No? So I came back. I was his care for
a while, yes, because he was so sick. So I
did get some money from that. You know, I'd sold
the house, so I had money in the bank, so
I wasn't allowed I sent a link or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, because you had savings.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, yeah, because I had my savings. So that was
a choice I decided. I knew that I was going
to spend money to do this lap, but it was
something I was happy to do because it was the
bucket list dream that I wanted.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Was the six months that you did get to do?
Was it the dream?

Speaker 1 (39:34):
It was part of the dream Queensland.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
So, but was it wonderful being on the road like that?
To sheer Math, Oh my.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
God, it was the best. It was the best. It
was hard because I was homeschooling him, like kindergarten. You
think that KINDI would be the easiest, but it's not.
Kindergarten is the base of all their schooling and he
had a speech delay, so it was really hard. That
was the worst part of it. Like I loved doing
it all myself. I took him to the Tip Wow

(40:03):
Tip of New South I was. I dragged a twenty
four foot caravan by myself that whole.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Way crop country red bir.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Like. We loved it. Madigan loved it, the dogs loved it.
We didn't love the crocodiles because that made it hard.
But just being on the road and you know, the
physical work, I didn't mind at all. I loved driving,
so that wasn't a problem. And yeah, we were just
we were absolutely living our best life while we were
on the road. I just think I was born to

(40:32):
do it.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Yeah, well, you know, there's plenty of time. We'll get
to that. So that you come home, you're looking after
your dad, Mads and living on the property. And then
what happened.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
So then Poppy pulls the rug out from under my
feet a little bit and he goes, well, so I'm
about to sell the land for him and me and
Mad's he's feeling better, and I'm like, perfect, we're going again.
And then Poppy goes, actually, I'm not going to sell
it to anyone. You're going to have to take it.
I don't want it, no offense, But I don't really

(41:04):
want to live next door to my dad. I mean,
I got out of Coff's Harbor when I was sixteen
for a reason. Be here. It was good while Madigan
was little, but you know I wanted out anyway. He's
a stubborn I get the stubbornness from him. From him,
and once he put his foot down, I truly believed
him that he wasn't going to he wasn't going to
sell it to anybody else. But may so I'll like, okay,

(41:26):
well I've got the cash. I've got a bit of cash.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
From the house.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeap, from the house. I'll pay up my brother and sister,
and I'll use the land. I'll build a shed on
it and I'll use it as my base. That sounds
like a great plan.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
So the land you're living on now is yours.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
It is actually mine. Yes, it's two and a half acres,
and it is the paddock that we used to ride
our This is in that's.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
So interesting because I mean, I know you were saying
that isn't what you wanted, but what a story to
come back there to raise your boy after all these
after Hawaii and Gaula and Sydney and Japan. Yeah, it's wild.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
I know the place that I couldn't wait to get
out of though I'm stuck.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
He now, is there something beautiful about it or not?
Or do you have to really reach for the something
beautiful about it?

Speaker 1 (42:16):
You really have to reach for the same I think,
you know the reason of all the stress and the
mental issues was because I was forced into this situation.
I would have decided it for myself, that's one thing,
and then you live with your decision. But I kind
of felt like I was forced into it. And that's
the thing that I've battled with because it's not a

(42:37):
bad thing to be forced into, but it has changed.
It's changed my life because the I haven't been able
to continue the lap and live out my dream. I
don't have the cash to do it anymore either, because.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
You've spent it on the land.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Well, spend it on the land and then anything else
has now gone into this small business.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
So so you've started a small business it's clothing and
I have to say it's very you. I was looking
at the website earlier on is that the big dream?
Like is that where you see yourself going no, you're
shaking your head another.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I honestly did it.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
So it's called Wandering Aussie. By the way, everybody wandering Ozzy,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
For the shout out. Yes, wondering Izzy. Well, I went
under the name Wandering Ossy when I first sold up
because I was like, oh, this is cool. Maybe I can,
you know, do a little YouTube channel. I did start one,
and you know, I'll document my travels. Maybe there's a
way I can make some money as I go. Kind
of That's what I thought back in twenty sixteen, and
then twenty nineteen I did take off again and I
was working as a Jillaroo.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
Which this blows my mind because I'm just imagining people
going our Jillaroo is Stevie from McLeod's daughter.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
And it all happened by chance, Like my whole life
is just this chance after chance that I've just been
really lucky and really fortunate that they've come up. And
then also I've had the balls to just go, yeah,
why why not? And this family that lived up at Rockhampton.
I did a charity event in Tamworth with riding these

(44:06):
cutting horses, which is amazing, and then they said to me,
why don't you come up. This is twenty nineteen. Why
don't you come up and work at our station and
will teach you to do what you used to pretend
to do on mcclouds Daughters. We'll teach you for real.
And I was like sure. Like I didn't get paid,
so it was just food and accommodation were all covered,

(44:28):
so it was just for the experience and I was
there for only three months. Unfortunately, the drought hit and
it was a really bad time for the family, so
I couldn't stay as long as I had planned to stay.
But from there I went up bull catching in far
North Queensland and I kind of went, oh, there's enough
interest in me doing this that I think I could

(44:49):
do both the lap and the jillarooing at the same time.
Document it as well. Just want a property, hop my
way around and get paid like a jilaru is really
low wage, especially starting from the bottom. I'm sure the
good station hands in all of those they'd probably get
great money. But when you're the shit kicker as I was,

(45:11):
It's really basic money, but I didn't care. I was like,
that could be an amazing thing for me. But then
the pandemic hit twenty nineteen, everything was great. I had
some station work lined up for early twenty twenty pandemic,
Yeah you're not going north and I had a station
in Tazzy and our second wave hit Victoria not going
that way, and then I was like, oh, what am

(45:33):
I going to do? I need to do something. I'm
stuck here. I've got the shed in the caravan, but
what am I going to do? And then with the
Wandering Ossie title, I just thought, you know, I've always sown,
I've made I made Logi dresses when I was back
doing the logis. I've always been creative in that way,
and so I thought, well, maybe I can just do
something along those lines while I'm stuck here. And I

(45:54):
knew that there'd be Mcloud's fans out there. I did
my logo was a cowgirl, kind of a gypsy cowgirl.
I had my dreadlocks, so it was like a cow
girl and a gypsy collide. And I knew that they
would get a kick out of that, and they did.
You know, the hood and T shirts went quite quickly,
and then the pandemic just kept going. So I was like, Okay,
well I'll do something else, and here we are, like

(46:17):
what four years later, and I'm still going with it.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Can I ask you about the pressure of being a
single mom? And I know that actually looking at Wondering Ossie,
you actually give a little bit of money from all
your sales to a single mom's organization, right, so you're
really passionate about supporting single moms.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Can you explain a little bit about the pressure of
how it feels to be the sort of single point
of failure for your family? And when I say single
point of failure, that sounds wrong. I'm not suggesting in
any way your failure, but the pressure of knowing if
I don't do it, it's not going to happen. If
I don't put food on the table, it's not going
to be there, if I don't secure things, you know

(46:57):
for maths like that is a pressure that is a
lot to live with, right, Yes.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
It certainly is. Like any single parent, male or female,
you know, it's it's a really it's a tough gig.
But I always say that, you know, with all the
stress and the money and all of that, you also
get double the love, double the hugs, double the everything.
So for me, it's been a really wonderful ride. As

(47:25):
stressful as it has been, I know I'm fortunate though too,
Like I do have a block of land here, I've
got a caravan and I've got a shed, and that's
a lot more than many many other single mums or
dads have. Especially now now it's horrible.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
What have you learned about how to? I mean? And
maybe you didn't have to learn because as you said
at the beginning, you're not a very materialistic person. But
the logistics of living between a shad and a caravan, like,
what have you learned it's easy to go without? Like
what's your sort of philosophy on what you actually need,
you guys to be the happy family unit that you
clearly are very tight.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yeah, well, look we don't have there's no heating or
cooling in this shed. This is a big black shed too,
So sumer time, this thing is hot, wintertime it's freezing.
It's cement floors, so you know, we just go without.
You put the fans on when it's hot, and then
wintertime we rug up like I've always got I mean,

(48:23):
my hair's growing out at the moment too, so that's
another reason for the bandanna. But always got a beanie
on and just you just got to lay out so
we go without things like that. You know that money
can go towards an adventure of some sort. Madigan, you know,
I want him to grow up thinking that kind of
thing too. And he like he laughs at the fact
that he's a kmart kid. That's what you know. It's

(48:46):
I think it's cute, like of course, like he's he
understands already. I mean, he's got a PlayStation, so you know,
there are some things that I definitely want him to,
you know, not feel like he's getting left behind. But
he also knows that you don't need all that. He
loves the shed. He thinks the shed's great.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
It actually looks really good from what I can see.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
I'm showing you a good part.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
I've got a corrugated roof on my house too, so
I know about the noise, but you're doing very well
with it. Let's just get to the Summit, because I
heard when you were going on that show. So anyone
who hasn't watched The Summit, right there are some shows
that I love to watch with my kids. Family. TV
is a thing, right. I used to turn my nose
up at those kind of shows, but now there's nothing

(49:32):
I love more than being on the couch. And we
watch Survivor, and we watched both seasons at the summit,
and you were on it.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
The physical pain has been the lentless from blisters to
sore shoulder, and as much as my heart is telling
me to keep going, where I am really struggling to
catch my breath, like I don't know if it's a
panic attack that I'm feeling coming on, I can see

(50:02):
your hands shaking.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
I loved you from the minute you came on, because
obviously I know who you are. Of course I do.
I'm very familiar with McCloud's and all the culture of
the tea. I used to work at TV week at
one time, and you were a big deal there, I
can tell you so obviously I knew you were, but
there was something very relatable to me about you on
that show. You were very honest about your circumstances. You

(50:26):
were very clear about the fact I'm here to make
some money for my family. My dream is to build
a shared house on your property. You seemed overwhelmed at
the beginning. You seemed insecure at the beginning, you were like,
what am I doing here? Who are all these big personalities?
I don't even know? And yet you were spoiler friends
one of the last three, and you walked away with

(50:48):
some money, not as much as, in my opinion, you
should have walked away with. But you get paid to
go on it, right.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
No, as a show like that, some contestants might get paid,
but on a reality show like that, you don't get paid.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
So the prize money is the reward and that's it, right, Okay,
and obviously expensive.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Pluff, Yeah, yeah, but definitely people can get paid for it.
But in general terms, no, a show like that, you
go on there. I mean it's two weeks, fifteen days
of your life, so you know it's a good gamble.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
Was that experience terrifying?

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Well, look, they asked me, and then I said, yes, okay,
let's do it. But then I went back and rewatched
season one again as an actual contestant, and I was like,
oh shit, that actually looks a lot harder. And it
was really close to the shooting date, and so there
was no time I'd lost on my hair earlier that year,
so I hadn't been to the gym. I was pretty unfit,

(51:47):
and all of a sudden, it all kind of came
to me in a real sense of what I was
going to have to do. But I was still thinking
at that point only about the physical side of it,
and potentially the emotional side of it being away from Madigan,
because I had never been away from him ever. We've
never not spoken, and I knew that once you get
on the mountain there was no communication whatsoever. I knew

(52:10):
that was going to play with my brain a lot
of my emotions. What I didn't realize was because I
had been in this really dark place and I'd lost
all my hair, and i'd been in hiding that you
know you're there, and the next thing you're with all
these people that you don't know from a bar soap.

(52:31):
They're all very big personalities, and then you've got cameras,
although you know the cameras do try and keep away
a little bit. So you're kind of in this little
bubble on the mountain with these random people and they've
got their big personalities, and everyone's trying to get their
five minutes of fame and their views across and they
want to be the alpha and everything, and I wasn't
prepared for that kind of environment. I wasn't prepared for

(52:54):
the cameras. Again, I didn't think about it. I didn't
think it through, and I wasn't prepared for all the
big personalities that seem to be very, very comfortable in
front of I should have been the one comfortable in
front of the king. Yeah, interesting, okay, but I wasn't okay,
and I just well, I didn't speak like I'm glad

(53:16):
that you could sort of see what was happening to me.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
You walk away with one hundred thousand, it's all right.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Two thousand, yeah, which is better than nothing.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
So better than nothing. What have you done with the money,
And tell me how you're feeling now post that post
coming out of this place you've been in, about what's
next and what are the plans?

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Right? Well, certainly the one hundred thousand is enough to
take the pressure off a little bit. It's not enough
to build. So this shed here that we spend a
lot of time in isn't a livable space.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
It's not a proper house.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
It's not a proper house, and it's not a legal house.
I'm not allowed to live in it. It's legal shed,
and I can work out of it. The businesses here,
everything's fine, but it can never and can never be
sold as a residence. So the only option i'd have
to build another. And I love the shed. I love
what I did here, so I know that I could
build another one and do it quite cheaply. In my head,

(54:10):
I thought I could do it for about two hundred grand.
There would be a lot of work. That wouldn't be
a good kitchen, that wouldn't be good bathrooms, but you know,
I could get the bones up. I can't do that
with one hundred thousand. There's just no way. So unfortunately
it's a bit boring. I've got dead of course, Yeah,
the money will go that way. And then right now

(54:31):
I'm feeling quite confident. I feel like I'm going to
be able to do a bit of the lap. I
know I can't leave my dad for very long.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
So your dad is still with us, and he's still unwell.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
He's still just living with cancer. Yeah, that he's on
his own, so I'm still I'm not a paid care anymore,
but I certainly am his person from you know, technology,
like he doesn't have a mobile file, I'll have a computer.
You know, I've got to help him with his smart TV.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
And so you are caring for him, not in a
medical but yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
And I cook for him, you know, probably three or
four nights a week, but I don't get paid for it.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
So of course I.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Know that we could get something in place there. And
so the plan is now, if I can pay these
debts off, I don't have that to build the other
shed house shouse, so that just has to sit on
the back burner now for god knows how long. But
what I could do is put a bit more money
into the business. This is the plan while that stock

(55:30):
is being made, because it takes a while Mad's and
I could hit the road for a little bit. Like
it's not it's probably not the best financial idea I've had,
but life is it's too short. Like I've got four
years left with Madigan in the house. So if I
don't do that now while I've got a bit of

(55:51):
cash to do it, I won't get to do it
if we just sit here and wait until he's eighteen.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Yeah, this is the thing is that you It sounds
to me. I don't want to put words in your mouth.
But your values are you want to spend time with
your kid, you want to make memories and have adventures
and go to place you want to go.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Well, we can't.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Those things are not free, because nothing is. But their
choices you can make that are more meaningful perhaps than
some others.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Well that's what I believe. I believe. If we don't
do it now, who knows what's around the corner, you know.
And I want him just to have the best start
in life. And I just don't believe sitting here going
to earth school. I would rather have the adventure and
sett him on a path that could just open up
all the doors for him. People who sometimes just get

(56:39):
stuck in one place, you know, you think that's your life.
That's how it's got to be. By doing this with
him now and showing him and telling him, like the
way I've lived my life, because he says, oh, you
know what if I just finished school and then what
am I going to do after that? Am I just
going to go to the same job, do the same
thing day after day? And I'm like, no, look at
my life, look at what I've done. You can spin

(57:00):
and pivot at any point if you really want to
if you're not financially driven.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
I guess yeah, for sure, we've probably been talking too long.
I'm sure, or my producer would say so. But I
have two things I really want to ask you before
we wrap up. The first is about you said before.
You know, it's a fact actually that on the fastest
group of people becoming homeless of women in their midlife, right,
And I know that to a certain extent, the way

(57:27):
that you're living is a choice, but it's also an
affordable way for you to be able to live your
life how you want to live it. Through your work
with single parents community and so to. Have you heard
about a lot of people who are really struggling in
that circumstance.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Oh, look, they're always struggling, but they're even more so
now because of the housing crisis. I mean, it's so hard.
I mean, I don't know how else to help, other
than to get word out, Like my business doesn't do
enough to be able to give much. I've had some
amazing customers though, who have donated to the single Mums

(58:03):
and their Children's charity that I work with, and I
know every little bit helps, but it's just just a
real I don't know what we need to do as
a community, but we need to do something because you
can't have people out on the streetlight that. You can't
have single mums out on the street, missing.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
Meals, kids living in cars, kids.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Living in cars. You know, I after the first year
of starting Wandering, I was either the first year was okay,
but then the second year was not. And you know,
there was times in that year. I mean, I have
to go without heat and air con. That's just what
I have to do to get by. But there was
a time that I was like, oh my god, medication

(58:44):
am I going to be able to afford that? I
was faced with it too, and I called to Rees,
who's the head of that charity, and I was like, look,
I'm not going to be able to do much because
I'm actually now one of the people that I wanted
to help, Like, I'm actually that person deciding if I
should get my medication or not. So yeah, it's just hard,

(59:06):
It's really hard, and I just wish there was something
more I could do.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
It sounds like, you know, as you say, getting the
word out and doing what you're doing through Wandering Ossie
is definitely helping because people don't think enough about what
everyone's going through. The Other thing I really wanted to
ask you is for a woman who's listening to this
who feels like she's at one of those moments where
all the plans have fallen a heap. You've been through
a few of them, as we've discussed today. All the

(59:32):
plans have fallen in a heap. She's got responsibilities, she's
got no idea what life's going to look like in
a few months or a year. Midlife can bash your confidence,
as we've discussed, have you got words of wisdom?

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Like?

Speaker 3 (59:45):
What gets you through?

Speaker 1 (59:46):
I warned you at the beginning. No wisdom here.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
I think there's wisdom. How the hell have you got
through some of those things?

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Well? You know what I reckon? It goes back to
being a dancer and an actor as well, because there's
a lot of knockbacks in both of those worlds, and
you have to become very resilient and you have to
take the knox and you have to get back up. Otherwise,
what is there? Like I did it for years as

(01:00:15):
a dancer, you know, I go for twenty auditions and
maybe I'll get one. As an actor, it was way worse.
I go for one hundred auditions and maybe get one,
so you kind of get used to being knocked down.
And then as a single parent, you know you've got
the added weight. I don't know, You've just got to
you just got to keep fighting.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
And I guess what some people have said is that
you never know what's going to happen next, you know
what I mean, Like life throws you some bizarre curveballs sometimes.
I mean, that's a cliche, but it's true.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
It's so true. And that's why I keep wanting to
live life, you know, because nothing is certain. I just
want to live the best life that I possibly can
while I'm here, and I wanted to do as much
as I possibly can with my son and give him
the best start. It's a life. I told you there
was no wisdom.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
No, that is wisdom. Look at you, it is wisdom.
Oh well, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Ah, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Look, I need to tell you about Simone, even though
she just did an excellent job of telling you about herself.
She recorded that with us from her shed on the
mid North coast of New South Wales, as the rain
pelted down on her tin roof and her son played
with the rescue dogs on the floor for a woman
who's been through such a lot. Her beauty and her
very open energy just kind of pomped through the camera.

(01:01:37):
And we did video that conversation. We always do video them,
but we had a tech problem, which meant you're not
going to see it, and I'm sorry about that, but
I could have talked to her for a week. We
talk about living a life full of stories, and I'm
not sure there's a clearer example than that conversation. We
just had a midwoman who's refusing to give up on
the life she wants, no matter how hard it is.

(01:01:59):
I just loved it. I'm always really energized by talking
to people about the things that light them up. And
what lit Simone up with definitely her son and the
time and the adventures that she wants to have with him.
And I totally get it. Times ticking away, I feel
like as your kids are growing up, and you're like, but.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
There's so much I want to do with you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Before you fly the nest. Friends, please remember to scroll
back in this feed to hear more stories of overcoming
remarkable stuff, like my conversation with Julie Goodwin about mental
health and the moment her life was saved by a
couple of strangers and their puppy, or with Christine Arnau,
who spoke to me about rebuilding herself after divorce and

(01:02:39):
facing up to the parts we all play in the
moments that derail us. Just enormous Thanks to you mids
for embracing our show and to the team who helped
put it together, led by our amazing executive producer Nama
Brown and including sound design from Tom Lyon and production
from Telissa Bazzazz. Go and follow us, Share this episode

(01:03:01):
with a friend, throw us alike. It means the world.
I'll see you here next week for a conversation about rage.
I know you feel it. I'll see you back here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
H

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Simmone Jade McKinnon Is Famous But She's Not Rich

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

Simmone Jade McKinnon Is Famous But She's Not Rich

Stuff You Should Know