Jackie Gillies: The high-spirited psychic housewife keeping it Real
Former Real Housewives of Melbourne star Jackie Gillies has given people goosebumps with psychic readings for 23 years. Now she wants you to know she’s more than just the wife of a rock star. She’s keeping it Real.
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Who’s Vanessa?” asks medium and psychic Jackie Gillies not even 30 seconds after I sit down with her for our interview. “She’s right there,” she continues, motioning to the nothingness over my right shoulder.
“She’s here. You’ve got goosebumps on your arm – she’s saying stop crying over her.
She’s speaking in my language, Croatian – there’s no such thing as coincidences, girl.
You were meant to do this with me. She says stop crying over her – she’s very happy and at peace.”
Vanessa Juresic – who was of Croatian background like Gillies – was my best friend.
She passed away when we were 36 from triple negative breast cancer.
Four weeks from today she will have been gone for seven years. I still think of her every day, and always more this time of year.
The business of psychics is booming for believers, while diehard sceptics – “she could have Googled you”, I hear you cry into your Cornflakes – will always dismiss “woo woo” claims of communicating with the dead.
Gillies knew things about my friend no one else would have – but as she says, it’s not her job to convince you – and she doesn’t care if you believe or not.
The tens of thousands of people who pay her $30 a minute for her gift – at one stage she had a three year waitlist – know what they know and her reputation has seen her convert sceptics, one by one.
THREE-YEAR WAIT LIST
“This is why I do what I do,” she explains. “I started doing psychic readings – and now there’s a lot of people out there promoting themselves – but how I have my three-year waiting list is … everything that I’ve experienced in my life and how I was able to turn it around and create an abundant life with a loving, fulfilling relationship, abundance – and I’m not talking about just money – I’m talking about good people around me, creating a business that’s going to see people uplift.
“I did my first reading, I was booked out for one week and two weeks and four weeks and six, then one year, then two years and three.
“This is before Housewives. So when people say to me: ‘You’ve done more for me than a psychiatrist or psychologist’ it’s so nice to hear, but I’m just the funnel for the messages to come through.”
Married to her soulmate, former Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies, she says people will “get there when they get there” – but either way, you can’t argue with her success, or why the realm is rising in popularity. Celebrity mediums John Edwards, Tyler Henry and fellow Aussie Alison Maiden are further proof. A private reading with Edwards costs upwards of $1400 and they’re so popular you have to be randomly selected after expressing interest. At the age of 28, Henry had a waitlist of near on 700,000 people. They fill theatres around the world with fans desperate for connection. For peace.
That’s what Gillies does now. She helps peoplebe the best versions of who they’re meant to be, and she does that with her 12-week personal empowerment course TransformU, with her Soul Sessions nights – she’s holding one in Sydney next month – and Bali Bliss Out retreats. Her gift to the world is helping people be as content as she is.
For the past 23 years she’s done readings for more than 50,000 people worldwide.
MANIFESTING MARRIAGE
Today, 30 minutes with the Real Housewives of Melbourne star won’t give you much change from $900. She manifested her marriage to Gillies, as she did Housewives. They live in their native Newcastle, moving home from Melbourne to be with her sick father Ivan before he died. After a miscarriage, they now have three-and-a-half-year-old twin boys Bonham and Rocco, IVF miracles she also manifested. Life is good. Great actually. And she wants that for you too.
“This is why I did TransformU and created this course – one day I was doing a deep meditation and I said, ‘What is it I need to do next? I’m ready for the next step,’” she explains.
“I heard very clearly I had to teach people what I know, what I learnt. I was in a toxic relationship where I had lost myself completely and utterly, at my lowest despair – and in that moment I said to God – universal God, consciousness – why is this happening? And then I realised the problem wasn’t him – the problem was me. I allowed it. I enabled it.
“So came the inner healing, the inner work.
“At that point I was working in corporate banking – if somebody had said, ‘Jackie, you’re going to be a psychic medium’, I would have said ‘no way in the world’. But the universe has a way to make you get to your purpose and service.”
It wasn’t always so easy though. She manifested every good thing in her life and knows like attracts like – hence her “shine, shine, shine” energy and infectious positivity.
“My dad came to Australia with no money,” she says. “Not one single cent. But my dad was psychic like me. Before he made it to Australia, he was laying in a forest for three days. It was raining, he was in shorts, a T-shirt and no shoes – and he dreamt of Mother Mary.
“Now my dad doesn’t go to church – but Mother Mary came to him and said, ‘you’re gonna cross the border’.
My dad and one other man were the only people that crossed that border, and ended up in an Italian jail like most of them did, for a minute, because they jumped the border.
By miracle – and by that I say consciousness and synchronised events – this Italian priest said, ‘I’m going to sponsor this man’, and brought him into Australia. With no shoes on his feet.
Similarly, Gillies, who was born Jackie Ivancevic, says her inner healing journey from her “deepest, darkest despair” helped her see anything is possible.
“If you can see it, you could have it – but it has to be with the right intent,” she says.
“I don’t come from privilege – my dad would send half his money back to Croatia for all the brothers.
And I’d be bullied – there were no other Europeans (at school), but one person that was Egyptian. But something inside of me was like ‘you’re not going to break me’ – and I got that from my dad. I used to write on every single card, ‘love famous Jackie’ from the age of four – and Vanessa’s still laughing – I can see her image, man, she’s floating around you,” she tells me, mid sentence.
“And who gets the ‘when will I be famous award’ for the Year 12 formal? Jackie Ivancevic.
“But this was never about fame for me. And then it was really interesting how I came into the Housewives.”
VISIONS APLENTY
Gillies has had vision boards since she was 17.
Her mum used to tell her to “get her head out of the closet” – but not in a negative way. That was just her way of thinking.
“And I said to her: ‘You watch me, I’ll have everything on this board,’” she recalls.
“Now, when I say everything, that is including six pairs of legs walking down the red carpet – and that was even before Housewives had even been thought about.
“I have a particular diamond on this board that is very rare – which Ben gave to me when he proposed.
“He didn’t even know it was on my board – I didn’t tell anybody. I said I’ll be married by the time I was 30. My dad was like, but you’re 29 and you don’t even have a boyfriend?
“Ben kissed me, and proposed to me two days later, with the diamond that was on my board that he had no idea about. Two months later we got married – a day before my 30th.”
Now a mother herself, she’s passionate about teaching our children how to listen to their intuition. She says her boys have her gift. Most children do. And she encourages it through affirmations.
“My dad had a walking stick towards the end, and the other day, Bonham gets up and he goes ‘haha’ with his drumstick and says ‘Dida loves us’,” Gillies says, re-enacting her son waving the stick. And I said, ‘I know’. I said ‘Bonham, where’s Dida? Where’s Poppa’ – that’s Ben’s dad – up in the stars.
“I make sure that they’re in the space to feel safe in talking about their feelings because I know it’s very important for young kids.
“The way you can help them is to allow them to speak freely about what they see, what they feel, what they hear.”
THE TOUGH TIMES
It was hard to always keep the faith though, even for her.
“For example, when I came out of that toxic relationship, I was at my deepest darkest – there were times I was driving a car and was like I could just drive off a cliff – I wouldn’t do it – but I had those thoughts, right?” she admits candidly.
“I just lost my faith in everything.
“I was always a very positive person but the relationship nearly broke me – he isolated me from my friends, he told me what to wear, when I could go out – I was controlled.”
Her personality shone through and she knew it would all be okay – even after a miscarriage, seven rounds of IVF and in season four of Housewives, predicting they would have twins.
“That was well before I fell pregnant and even before I started IVF – but I didn’t know how it would get there. I just knew that I had to lean into my mindset.”
That mindset today, as a busy working mum of two very busy three-year-olds – means she meditates three times a day. Wherever and whenever she can actually, including in the Uber on the way to our interview.
“I do (stop and realise what I’ve created),” she says of her very content Newcastle life with Ben and her boys – who by all accounts are little drummers in the making like their famous dad.
“I sometimes even spin myself out – I’ve been doing readings for 23 years. I’ve worked with the police. I’ve worked with actors, musicians, CEOs of this country, billionaires, people you’d know – but they don’t know how to tune in to their intuition clear enough.
“They’ll come into me and say, ‘Jackie, I need your help’ – and I will show them.
“But then I make them take accountability for why the noise is there.
“Even on the morning of the miscarriage, I woke up and said to Ben: ‘It’s not there.’ I knew.”
She opened up about her miscarriage onHousewives. But how did she deal with the true trauma?
Shesays she laughed out loud. Hysterically.
“Ben’s like, ‘What the f--k? This is such a f--king shitshow’,” she laughs, remembering her reaction when the sonographer told her she was no longer pregnant.
“That was the way I coped with it in the moment. It’s the shittiest thing you can ever experience.”
Speaking of Housewives, she recently made a cameo appearance on the Sydney franchise, helping Terry Biviano lead a healing to connect the circle of feuding friends. And after her time on the Melbourne show she’s appeared on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! and she and Ben competed in the seventh season of The Amazing Race Australia in 2023. So – would she do TV again?
“TransformU and working with energy and motivating and being a mindset coach, is what I’m here to do,” she says.
“That is my purpose.
“TV I love too.
“I actually adore it. One of the biggest reasons I did Housewives was I believe the universe put me there for people to actually see what I do.
“I’ve always been authentic to who I am and people are, like, this chick … even if someone likes me or doesn’t like me, there’s relatability within me that people can resonate with, however that looks.
“Being a psychic medium, I have to live for who I am – because speaking to spirit every other day when people pass away, I have shit to do.
“And would I do Housewives again?
“Yeah, I would. I did I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! and I did a reading for (fellow contestant and Princess Diana’s former butler) Paul Burrell – and I gave him a reading that was so accurate that he said to the producers, ‘You cannot air this.’ He said there’s only two people who know what Jackie knows – and it’s me and the Queen.
“He said ‘You cannot categorically air what Jackie has said.’ That’s why I’ll keep doing what I’m doing – because I’m the bridge to tell you that you have to lean into your power to be able to connect to the other side. And that’s what I want for everybody. And that power is not just connecting to the other side. The power is connecting with your higher self.”
Again, it’s about manifestation.
“So if I’m going to manifest a house, I need to be the energy that I want within that home. I see the vision, I feel the vision, I believe it’s already happened. I don’t question it,” she says.
“It’s there. Because our realities are always changing due to who we are and where we are vibrationally. If I’m at low frequency and I’m depressed and keep co-creating the same shit over and over and over – energy goes where energy flows, so you’re co-creating that. So, for me, TransformU is about showing people that nobody else is better or more special than you. You have the power..”
At that point, my Nonno Joe, who passed away when I was in primary school, came through. Again, sceptics are tut-tutting. But in that moment it felt so real, so normal. Gillies knew his real name was Giuseppe, and could see him in his prized garden. Vanessa was laughing because he was cooking for her. He was an amazing cook. “He’s giving you goosebumps down your arm – he loves you very much and he’s giving you strength,” she tells me.
When Vanessa got sick was around the time I became interested in psychics and mediums to help navigate the pain we all went through watching her life end so prematurely.
“She wasn’t ready to go – but she’s at peace with it,” Gillies, 44, continues.
“You’re even lucky she’s coming through because I usually don’t allow that when I’m doing stuff like this, but she’s pushed a way through and she’s around all these flowers – I can see her, and her baba (grandmother) is with her too.
“Yessssss, honey – she says you need to get out with your man, you need to shine up and have a bender outside these damn children. Come on, girl – she’s here.”
THE ITCHY NOSE
This is Jackie Gillies in her element.
Talking fast, picking up on vibrations, feeling the spirits that seek her out to change the lives of the souls left behind. Like me.
“For me, when I get an itchy nose, it’s spirits, and when I do psychic readings like I’m giving you vibes now, I speak very fast because the energy comes really quickly and I have to articulate what I’m hearing,” she says.
“But she also says your neck’s out, you’ve got to change your pillow – like it’s completely out, here,” she says squeezing my neck that’s been sore for weeks. “She’s so very proud of you.”
For someone suffering loss – even seven years down the track – those words mean everything. It’s reassuring getting a glimpse into such an unknown. Confirming there’s life after this one makes death not so scary?
“This is how simple life is,” she continues.
“Your power, your inner knowing, is connected to every single thing that is vibrating from plants, the sea – you are consciousness.
“We are energy, and energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be transmuted or transferred. You can tune into Vanessa.
“What’s really interesting about spirit world, even though in your mind you have a different perspective, that perspective has always been there, but you’ve tuned out of it. Your intuition is here, always in the now, in the moment.
“So me tuning into Nessi’s vibration is because I’m tuning into the now and tuning into your energy.
“So when you say, it changes your perspective when someone dies – yes, because it makes you realise what is life about. Life is about being the best version of who you are – on every level.”
It seems we are a society in need of transformation.To ask someone how they are and hear “busy” in reply is not uncommon.
To get lost in the overwhelm of 24/7 life, work, kids, bills to pay and dogs to walk is the norm.
“Being frazzled represents not wanting to be still – so that means there’s a lot of people out there that are disconnected,” she continues.
“But the one thing that nobody can ever control is the universe, your intuition, your thoughts – so it always comes back to one thing.
“Your inner power is there and your highest self will give you nudges – like your Nessi when she passed – you think: what is this all about? Why does she go? And you go through the anger and all these things and then you start reassessing your life. If somebody can go that quick and that young, f--k me. If I drop off tomorrow, am I going to be happy?”
She can say yes, although she’s not sure most could.
“You’re not going to give a f--k about spending $20k on a holiday when you’re sitting on your deathbed and you’re not going to give a shit about your mortgage or a house.
“What you’re going to care about is what experiences did you have? With your family? For you? Did you live in purpose? Did you live in service? If you can inspire one person in your life, then you’re doing your job. Just one. Because then it creates a ripple effect.”
HAPPY PLACE
So Gillies spends her life helping the world getto their happy place– where is hers?
“When I’m giving readings and I’m doing TransformU and I’m doing live shows, I’m with my boys and my husband – that’s when I’m operating at my highest self,” she says.
“When I do readings and people have passed away, some of the biggest regrets they have is that they lived life worrying about everybody else, worrying about the home loan, not going on that holiday.
“I’m so passionate about changing people’s lives and stepping into their power that I know I have to do this.
“This is something bigger than me.
“I actually get really quite emotional about it because there’s so many people out there that think there’s no way out, when there is. You can’t change what has happened then, but what you can do is change what’s going on now. I’m a massive believer in this, the biggest investment you can ever do is in yourself.”
She gets it. There was a time when she had $5 in her bank account.
“I was helping my parents with money, there were home loans I couldn’t pay, but I didn’t look at it like ‘I am poor’. Even many years ago … but I learned that money is vibration. Money comes in, money goes out. So instead of looking at myself as I can’t afford it or I am poor, I’d start leaning into the gratitude of what I did have. I’m in a house with a roof over my head and I have a loving family. And when you’re in a state of flow in the present moment – nothing that’s negative can come in.”
GIVING BACK
She says things have literally “dropped out ofthe sky” – like Ben. Like Housewives.
“The house that I live in now, I literally was with my mother and I was standing at the top of a hill and I pointed at the house and I said: ‘I’m going to live in that house,’” she says.
“I didn’t know who lived there. And that was Ben’s home. What irks me is when people go, ‘You married a rock star that’s why you have what you have’. No, no, f--k off. I had a three-year waiting list. Before I was a psychic I worked three jobs. I worked in a Chinese restaurant, I scrubbed windows, I cleaned toilets – and if I had to do that tomorrow, I would. I’m a hustler.”
What she did along the way that gave her “the keys to the city” was give to charity.
“I used to give half my wage to charity,” she says. “I didn’t tell anybody. I’ve never told anybody this … “I’ve never gone out and gone ‘Look at me I give to charity’ – I’m a believer the universe is responding to me because of what I was giving to people unconditionally, without wanting anything back.
“On I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! you get paid a fee – I gave $25,000 (to my chosen charity) … the universe will respond to me in other areas. Be honest. It always comes down to your intention.”
‘I’M STILL HUMAN’
When people tune into their gifts, as she has, the ripple effect starts. But she’s still only human after all.
“But listen, don’t get it twisted,” she says with a laugh.
“I’m still a human being. There are days that are quite tricky with my boys. Ben is better with the boys than I am – I can categorically say that, man – he’s so calm.
“I’m calm too, but I’m still Croatian,” she laughs.
“There’s only so many times I can be abused by my three-year-old who wants to smack the f--k out of me. It’s not easy, but I’m very good at asking for help.”
Vanessa tells her I should be going on a girls’ holiday “every f--ing year” – and why wouldn’t you, Gillies yells.
It’s advice I’m happy to take, for the greater good, of course. And I still have goosebumps.
“She also says you’re a very good mother and she’s so proud of you. Stop crying for her. She’s around you all the time.
“She’s here – she’s everywhere.”
Originally published as Jackie Gillies: The high-spirited psychic housewife keeping it Real
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