‘Sitting in sadness’: Melissa Leong pens moving column after Jock Zonfrillo’s death

One month on from the death that shocked Australia, Melissa Leong has penned a moving new column about her grieving process.

MasterChef Australia judge Melissa Leong has given her first detailed public comments about the death of co-star Jock Zonfrillo in her latest column for Stellar Magazine.

Zonfrillo was found dead by police in a Melbourne hotel room the night before the new season of MasterChef was due to begin on May 1. The show’s start date was pushed back by a week as his colleagues – including Leong and fellow judge Andy Allen – struggled to process the awful news.

In a powerful and reflective new column for Stellar, Leong opens up about how she’s navigating grieving for her friend and colleague.

A much-loved TV trio: Allen, Zonfrillo and Leong.

“Sitting alone in my house and in sadness as I attempt to articulate some of my thoughts, I can tell you it is indeed a strange experience for someone who usually writes from the crystal-clear perspective of hindsight,” Leong writes of her struggle to pen this particular column.

“The passing of someone from life is a powerfully shared experience.

“Even more so when that person lived a huge life and touched the lives of many.

“In their passing, a community struggles to come to terms with saying goodbye. Outside of immediate family and ‘framily’ (friends who are like family) members, whose privacy and consideration are paramount, grief is beautifully democratic,” she writes.

Leong says Zonfrillo ‘lived a huge life’.

“We must look outwards as well as inwards when it comes to our experience, checking in on the people in our lives who are also coping with loss. This can help to alleviate a little personal pain, reminding ourselves that no human is an island.”

Leong and her MasterChef co-star Allen dealt with Zonfrillo’s death differently: Allen sat down with The Project host Sarah Harris for a raw, emotional interview that aired just days after the Scottish chef’s death.

In contrast, Leong took time out, dropping out of a planned speaking event and keeping a low profile aside from an initial statement paying tribute.

“We all deal with loss differently, and we need to honour that. People talk about the various stages of shock, disbelief, anger, bargaining and acceptance, and while that much is probably true, everyone deals with these exceptional times differently, and at different speeds …

The latest issue of Stellar.

‘We all deal with loss differently.’

“While some go to pieces, others go to work, finding momentum to cope. This isn’t because they aren’t feeling, it’s because sometimes focusing on tasks is a way to find purpose in an impossible situation,” she writes.

“Some people need to talk in order to process emotions, while others take more time to find the words, if they can at all. Some people need to be with people, while others need time alone to stare at a wall, clean incessantly or sleep.

“There is no right or wrong way to be in these moments, just what is true to you.”

Read Melissa Leong’s full column in this week’s issue of Stellar, free with the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun.

Originally published as ‘Sitting in sadness’: Melissa Leong pens moving column after Jock Zonfrillo’s death