AThe house in Melbourne in Carlon -Nort, Melissa Leong is concerned. She is preparing to spend the day, talking about her new memoirs, “Guts”, which reveals a personal struggle, which she never talked about the public.
“This part – so to speak, reveals itself several times a day – is complex,” she says. “This is mentally difficult. It is emotionally difficult. ”
A Former Judge MasterChef And the host Dessert Masters describes himself as an introvert, a private person who loves to retreat and recover after a day on the set. In her memoirs, Leong found a way to balance this need for confidentiality with vulnerable. She shares her battles with depression and anxiety, bouts of loneliness during the filming of MasterChef, and her experience of bulimia, self -overlap and sexual violence.
The running thread is Leong's tendency to the “explosion” of her life. She writes about how to leave a reliable work in order to live on the sheep dairy industry in Tasmania and her divorce. “I became a little expert in this,” she writes, although she is afraid to encourage others to do the same.
“If you are going to press a large red button, you need to be prepared for some consequences, because it is by nature a selfish thing,” says Leong. “And when I speak selfishly, I do not mean selfish in a bad sense.
“There are certain things that we came to understand how women we can do and have for ourselves and our friends who do not include subscription to social norms.”
Leong says that she closed to write about what was true, including her childhood in the predominantly white suburb of Croulla, Sydney, in the 80s; How chronic pain stopped a promising musical career (she began to play a piano at the age of three); her work as a makeup artist; To get out of your first corporate work and break into an amazingly hostile at that time is the world of food.
“There is a little sweetness in managing your own race, which appears triumphant and understanding that everyone who did not believe that you could do this is just there,” says Leong. “I met many people who tried to throw me back, and this is normal, because resistance gives you something tangible, against what.”
The 43-year-old was standing for her book “The Testament” because she wanted the name to express intuitive discomfort. “Life is not easy. Life is ugly, hard and unpredictable, and often not perfect, and I liked that in one syllable you have this word that is downloaded. ”
It is supported by others in the industry, who wrote memoirs, including Kumi Taguchi, with whom she met during her stay in SBS as a judge on the lines of the chef, which she calls “Masterchef with training wheels.” She feels that he is in a good company with women telling complex stories. “The presence of people like kumi on my side and in my corner helped me lower.”
Leong writes that she came to accept that she was raped about 15 years ago. She does not call the criminal, but she hopes that she can help others to share her story.
“The specific configuration of the experience that I had was mine, but these are things that happened to our friends, sisters, mothers, cousins.
“I share these things, because I know that they are not unique to me, and therefore, if I can formulate them so that, perhaps, someone cannot formulate for themselves if it means that they feel less alone, then this is success for me.”
Now Leong does not contribute to the priorities, “because most of my life I was the pleasure of my life.”
“I wanted to make other people around me happy for damage to my health, my wealth and me, in fact.”
She jokes that she does not know whether it is age or perimenopause, but “if one of the side effects is that I give less fuck, then I do not care.”
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Leong experienced criticism from the moment she was declared the first woman, a masterchef, in 2020. After the death of her Kokhost, Zonfrillo in 2023, she was even more criticized for deciding to grieve in private. In the guts, Leong describes Masterchef as a “set of golden handcuffs” – at the same time a huge opportunity, and also limits.
“I am really proud of me;
After the two seasons of dessert craftsmen, Leong received an unexpected rod for the UFC battle week. “It was as far in the opposite direction as I could imagine,” she says.
She is a big fan of mixed martial arts and for about 18 months in the training of Giujitsu, working on the third strip on her white belt. “This is the correct combination of human instinct and critical thinking. Plus, this is a great training. If you feel stress, then what I do not care, sweaty and exhausted and exhausted.
Leong also finished shooting a new show in New Zealand called Taste of Art, with the chef AMISFILD, the Wogan Mabi. Although the show “Returning to the world of food – and studios, dresses and exquisite resources”, she hopes that the audience will see evolution in their career.
Now she is also on the screens as a participant in Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition, exchanging designer dresses and heels for T -shirts and coaches. According to her, it was “quite free” to refuse to control and be on the geimlan of the reality -show. “The opportunity to just trust is an excellent exercise for me. I am a big subscriber: just subscribe to every experience that your life offers you.
“I think we learn a lot about ourselves, being uncomfortable. And not all these lessons are soft, fluffy, kind, pleasant things, but they are nevertheless incredibly valuable. ”
This philosophy helped share the darker parts of her life in courage. According to her, any doubts were “overshadowed by the truth.” “If I'm going to tell my story, then I'm going to tell my story. I cannot embellish less than the perfect things that happened to me.
“These are things that very much formed me in the choice that I made in my life. The last few years have been a lot about survival, and not so much, to be honest. But I am sitting here, now I am really proud that I was able to achieve. “
