‘They couldn’t believe I’d never had botox’: Anjali Rao on joining Real Housewives of Melbourne

Signing up for Real Housewives of Melbourne may seem an odd career move for a former international news host, but Anjali Rao has always been glamorous, and a risk-taker.

Anjali Rao, pictured here with fellow ROHM stars Kyla Kirkpatrick and Simone Elliott, says she doesn’t care if she’s painted as the show’s villain. Pic: Narelle Portainer

Anjali Rao was open to a new television opportunity but what came knocking was unexpected.

The respected presenter who had worked in relentless newsrooms at Sky News UK, Channel 5 and CNN International was being offered a spot in the cast of the Real Housewives of Melbourne — a franchise she’d never watched.

“I was like hell no, absolutely not,’’ Rao says of the approach two years ago.

“It was not anything that had featured in my mind at all. The EP (executive producer) came after me hard to do it and she convinced me over quite some time.

“I thought you know what, I have always been a huge risk taker in my career.

“And I just thought if I didn’t take the risks I did that are natural to me I’d still be writing for the Hong Kong shipping gazette.

“Of course I had huge reservations. My ex-colleagues at CNN were like, ‘you’re doing what?’”

The ROHM season five cast: Kyla Kirkpatrick, Anjali Rao, Janet Roach, Jackie Gillies, Gamble Breaux, Simone Elliot and Cherry Dipietrantonio.

Rao, a divorced mother with a 12 year-old son Izzy, had always been self-made and self-funded.

From her first job in television at age 21 she never looked back and spent years living in Hong Kong and London, travelling the world and working as a news anchor and journalist.

The first big breaking news story she covered were the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.

Since returning to Melbourne in 2012 she has made a living as an MC after struggling to find TV work.

“My entire life has been in front of cameras,’’ she says.

“Any rolling news network is going to be hectic and the head of Sky News UK once said to me if you can work here and not get fired you can do any job in this industry.

“Everybody had always said to me, ‘OMG Anjali why are you always so glamorous’ when I think I’m just being my normal self.

“To go into a world like Housewives was different, particularly when I am an entirely self made woman — professionally, financially, all of it — I didn’t have to hook up with somebody or marry someone to have it.

Anjali Rao with ROHM stars Janet Roach, Gamble Breaux, Jackie Gillies, Kyla Kirkpatrick and Simone Elliott. Picture: Narelle Portainer

“A lot of those women do have more materially than I do these days. It was a different kettle of fish when I was at CNN but now coming into this country, leaving my marriage, getting divorced, I lost everything. I had to start everything all over again from the very bottom.

“So to me it really isn’t all horse drawn carriages and diamond tiaras. But I think for those other women it is.”

Rao harboured many insecurities doing the show along with other newbies Kyla Kirkpatrick, Cherry Dipietrantonio, Simone Elliott and returning cast members Jackie Gillies, Janet Roach and Gamble Breaux.

Cherry Dipietrantonio, Anjali Rao and Kyla Kirkpatrick. Rao says the drama in this series is ‘next level’. Picture: Instagram

The drama is next level according to sources, and it seems Rao is largely at the centre of it.

She says she has an unbreakable bond with Kirkpatrick and Dipietrantonio, but not so much Roach who she dubbed as on “Planet Janet”.

“I’ve always been the bread winner but you do question yourself — do I look the part, do I measure up — and that’s an uncomfortable thing to me because I’m a very confident person and I know what I’ve achieved,’’ she says.

“That was difficult having the questioning, but every time I was able to shut them down just with pure wit. You can have your diamonds, I’ve got my brain.

“The others couldn’t believe I’d never had botox. I think anybody who says they go into any reality show not frightened or nervous in some way, is a liar or an idiot.”

Rao was announced as part of the new cast for season five in March last year, and then filming was delayed until this year due to Covid.

News of her involvement came at a time when she’d just emerged from a toxic relationship and was on heavy antidepressants.

“I was in a long relationship and I’d been trying to leave it for years,’’ Rao says.

“I can’t say any names but every time this person would in inverted commas threaten to destroy me with personal private things you don’t plan on sharing with anybody.

“That was always held over me and it was a very damaging dark time in my life. When I finally did end it things got really bad. All I can say is thank you to the good people at Victoria Police but that didn’t mean it was easy for me.

Anjali Rao was announced as part of the new ROHMs cast last year but filming was delayed because of Covid. Picture: Wayne Taylor

“I would have awful nightmares that this person was in my house or coming to kill me. It was really bad and I had to go on some heavy antidepressants and I had never had that before. And I gained weight on it and I was incredibly unhappy.

“Thank god it’s been a long time since I was on them but it was a really, really horrible time.”

Her love life before that included a 14 year marriage to Brett Gullan, whom she met at a nightclub in Hong Kong, and who is the father of her child. She said they gave it a “red hot try” but one day she had a midlife crisis and realised it wasn’t right.

“It was all my decision, we had a big hug and said thanks for the memories but we never had one second in court,’’ she says. “I don’t think 14 years can be seen as a failure.”

And then there was a brief relationship with TV personality Jamie Durie in 2013-2014 after meeting on Derby Day.

Rao had a brief relationship with star Jamie Durie after meeting at a Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. Picture: Jim Lee Photo

“Jamie was the only high-profile relationship I’ve ever had. It wasn’t long but it was extremely intense. We both decided we weren’t for each other and what do they say about showbiz relationships... I certainly don’t have any hard feelings.

“I didn’t know who he was. I worked it out in the end because I’d seen him on Oprah but that was it. We were really happy for a time and then we really weren’t.”

Rao is due for a change of fortune in love and she’s found it, with Melbourne man Tim Hennessy who also used to live in Hong Kong and who she had dated when they were teenagers.

Anjali Rao is now loved-up with Tim Hennessy, who she dated when she was a teenager.

“Two years ago I decided to make all his dreams come true after we reconnected,’’ she laughs.

Rao has been discreet about her new relationship and also doesn’t bring her son into the show at the request of his father.

“Life is good and my kid’s happy and really that’s all that matters to me,’’ she says.

“I was able to support us, I haven’t taken a dime in child support from anyone.

“It’s not about going to buy a Bentley on a Tuesday afternoon. Some people care about that.

“I have (love) in spades at the moment. It’s public knowledge now (about Tim) but at the time of filming it wasn’t and we were just being careful. In the legal definition of whether I was single, I was, it was the truth and nothing but the truth, just not the whole truth. We are very happy.”

Rao is hoping her stint on Housewives will help boost her profile and lead to job prospects in mainstream media.

She quit as host of Dateline in 2015 and has been vocal about her lack of opportunity and rejection — being told she’s too brown, too different and too foreign for Australian television.

Rao, 47, is half-Indian and half-Australian and her mother Cynthia is from Bendigo in country Victoria.

Anjali Rao was once a presenter of SBS’s highly respected Dateline program.

Her father Prithvi Raj (meaning king of the earth), who was 24 years older than her mother, passed away just before her fifth birthday, leaving her mother a widow at 31 to raise two daughters, Anjali and Radhika.

Her mother quit her job as a journalist in Hong Kong and then worked as head of PR for the Hong Kong government.

“Bendigo was like Monaco would be to anyone else,’’ Rao recalls.

“We loved it there when we’d come over for my mum’s annual leave. Now my mum lives in Cornwall in England and I really miss it.

“It’s really amazing and I can’t wait to get back. And of course stop off in my actual homeland of Hong Kong which I miss every minute of every day.

“It’s funny how geography, history, economics and politics, I vehemently refused to do them at school, but that’s all I worked across and it’s a great feeling to look at my show reel now.”

Rao has worked hard and makes no apologies for being a strong-willed woman.

What’s more tough? Reporting on breaking news with up to 15 people barking in your earpiece, or going head-to-head with a bevy of well-heeled stubborn beauties.

“Whatever it comes out as I totally stand by everything,’’ she says of Housewives.

“I’m not someone who will say you screwed me over, I know how this works.

“If I come cross as a villain then great.

“Everybody walks out at some point in this show. It couldn’t be any other way because all the personalities we have, we weren’t cast because we’re all going to be BFFs and go on picnics under a double rainbow and take long sunset strolls together.

“Invariably someone will say bleep this, bleep me out of here. Everyone does it.

“Don’t know why I’m the focus.... I can’t show you my knickers at this stage, just a glimpse of my petticoat. There is only one way to find out what happens to me and that is to watch. I can assure you it is worth the wait.”

The Real Housewives of Melbourne premieres on October 10 on Foxtel.