‘Quit that’: Jessica Rowe reveals offensive request by former TV boss

Jessica Rowe has revealed the outrageous request a former TV boss once made of her during her days as a news presenter on TV.

Jessica Rowe has shared an offensive request a former boss once made of her during her days as a news presenter on TV.

The veteran journalist opened up about her experience on The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Thursday morning while celebrating the 3rd birthday of her podcast, The Jess Rowe Big TalkShow.

In a lighthearted chat about Botox that segued to snorting, Rowe recalled a moment in her career when her distinct laugh, which she says sounds like a snort, was not favoured by a former employer who asked her to stop doing it on-air.

“The snort is part of me! Do you know with the laughter, years ago when I was on TV, a boss told me to quit that snorting laughter,” Rowe, 54, told hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson.

“For a time, I listened to him. That was my real mistake because it diminished who I was.”

Rowe – who is married to Nine News’ chief newsreader Peter Overton, 58 – said she is more confident in her skin now and would never dim her light for anyone ever again.

“So now I embrace the snort and laughter and wherever I go I laugh,” she said, before reciting former US First Lady Michelle Obama’s catchphrase, “When people go low, I go high!”

“Good on you, we love you for it,” Henderson was quick to praise.

Jessica Rowe says she was once asked by a TV boss to lose her signature laugh on-air.

The veteran journalist was on The Kyle & Jackie O Show to mark three years of her podcast.

Rowe’s decades-long career in media has not been without scandal.

Back in 2006, she made the move from Channel 10 to Nine to replace Tracy Grimshaw on the Today show.

But after just one year in the co-hosting chair alongside Karl Stefanovic, Rowe was brutally sacked. Upon returning from maternity leave, she was abruptly let go over “payment disputes” with the network.

On the Today show with (from left to right) Richard Wilkins, Steve Jacobs, Rowe, Karl Stefanovic, Ross Greenwood and Sharyn Ghidella.

What unfolded afterwards were revelations that then-CEO Eddie McGuire had pushed for her sacking in a meeting with executives.

Stefanovic appeared on the very first episode of her podcast in 2021 where he apologised for not having her back.

“You didn’t have a guy next to you who could have helped you and protected you,” a candid Stefanovic said to Rowe.

Studio 10 panellists (from left to right): Sarah Harris, Joe Hildebrand, Rowe, Denise Drysdale and Ita Buttrose.

“I’m here to apologise to you, and I wish I’d been a better man. A stronger man. Not just for you, but for myself.

“Years later, when I was going through my third and fourth wave of [criticism], I was thinking, how did Jess Rowe survive?”

After being appointed news presenter on Seven’s Weekend Sunrise from 2010 to 2013, then taking on a five-year stint back at Ten on its morning show Studio 10, Rowe left television all together to spend more time with family.

She and Overton share two girls: daughter Allegra, 17, and Giselle, 15.

Originally published as ‘Quit that’: Jessica Rowe reveals offensive request by former TV boss