MasterChef Australia’s Julie Goodwin has spoken about her mental health struggles in the years since winning the show’s inaugural season, saying her anxiety was so intense that at one point she “couldn’t set foot in my kitchen” after be admitted to a mental health unit. .
Goodwin, who is currently starring on the show’s spinoff Fans v Faves, spoke on Thursday night’s episode about her life in the 13 years since she won the first season. The 50-year-old has written six cookbooks and runs a cooking school, as well as appearing on television and radio.
She has previously spoken about her depression and anxiety, which she has lived with “on and off for many years” before being prescribed medication in 2019. In 2020 she was voluntarily hospitalized for five weeks.
“I had to do a serious assessment of my mental health and well-being… I got to a point in my life where I lost the joy,” he said Thursday night. “I had to quit my job in radio, I couldn’t do that anymore, and I couldn’t really set foot in my kitchen.”
He said he was worried about going back to television: “I think maybe I’ve done everything that I was here to do, and I’ve accomplished everything that it’s possible for me to accomplish… so this for me is an opportunity to see if there’s another chapter. . Yes there are more.
After winning the first challenge, Goodwin tearfully told the judges that “when the phone call came to do this, I didn’t know if I could do it.”
“It’s been a tough couple of years and I didn’t know if I could get back into this environment. My experience last time was that I fell down over and over again, and I think I got to the end because every time I fell down I got up again. The phone call to come here was… it was the universe saying ‘It’s time to get back up.'”
In 2020, Goodwin wrote a detailed letter listeners of his radio show to explain his prolonged absence, share his battle with depression and stress, and his subsequent hospitalization.
“On the surface I know that I don’t seem to be depressed or anxious. I have denied it to myself for a long time, and I certainly put a lot of energy into making sure it wasn’t obvious to people around me,” she wrote.
“My beautiful husband Mick, the person who loves me the most, recognized the crisis I was in and took me to the ER. I was referred to what is known as the acute care team, who referred me to a psychiatrist, who recommended inpatient care in a mental health unit.”
In an interview with Australian Women’s Weekly this month, Goodwin said that he had been suicidal during that period.
“In the middle of that really horrible moment, I had decided that it was over. I had nothing else to do, my work here was done. That’s where I found myself. That landed me in the hospital a bunch of times,” she said.
On Thursday, she said her success on Fans v Faves made her feel like “maybe I’m not done. Maybe there’s more for me.”
He addressed viewers directly, “Everyone walks their own path through depression or anxiety. But if I had a message to give, it would be simply, don’t give up.”
