Erin Molan on being a single mum and why she’s ready to date again
After dodging break-up rumours for years, Erin Molan says she is proud of how she handled the split with her partner of five years, Sean Ogilvy, and now feels “sexier than ever”.
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It’s not how fate works, but Erin Molan concedes that when her father, Liberal senator Jim Molan, was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in April, a small part of her assumed the rest of the year would proceed without incident.
“Surely you get some kind of five-year sh*t-free zone,” she tells Stellar of that initial reaction with a smile. “But life doesn’t work like that.”
And what happened next proves that it very much doesn’t – because just a few months later, in September, amid an ongoing defamation court case against Daily Mail Australia, Molan announced she had separated from Sean Ogilvy, her fiancé and father of her three-year-old daughter Eliza.
So it would be understandable if Molan turned up to her photo shoot with Stellar feeling a little drained – and not just because she’d been up since before dawn and already done The Morning Crew radio show she co-hosts with Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee on Sydney’s 2DayFM.
Instead, she is bubbling with enthusiasm. “I feel the best I’ve probably felt in my life,” Molan, who is also a Nine Network sports presenter, reveals.
“I’m a 38-year-old single mum, but I actually feel sexier than ever. And not just in a physical way. I feel really comfortable in my own skin. Maybe you’ve got to get all the bad sh*t out of the way in one fell swoop, and then you can just move on.”
Still, Molan admits, had Stellar asked her to pose for a photo shoot and sit down for a chat just a few weeks earlier, things would have been different.
“I certainly would not have been speaking the way I am now. I was in an entirely different headspace. But the fact that Dad’s OK makes me feel like I can handle anything else that’s thrown at me.”
Indeed, on the eve of Stellar’s interview, the senator returned to work and the family received news that his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels – the indication of cancer in his body – were good.
Asked about the moment she heard about her father’s cancer diagnosis, Molan says, “I remember that call. It was essentially Mum and Dad on the phone saying, ‘We’ve got some bad news. It’s cancer. It’s serious. It has spread and it’s not good. I’m going to go to bed now and I love you.’ I was like, ‘F*ck!’”
Molan and Eliza immediately drove down to Canberra so they could be with her parents, who have been married for almost 50 years.
“[Dad] is such a proud man. But to be told you’ve only got a month to live was overwhelming,” she says through tears as she warns she’s a big crier.
“Initially all we wanted was hope. We could survive and fight if they gave us hope. And our biggest fear in the early days was that we might not be given hope.”
But thanks to aggressive treatment, her 71-year-old father, a former major general in the Australian Army, was given not just hope, but a second chance at life.
“I always thought Dad was the strongest and bravest person in the world,” says Molan.
“He’s been in wars. But I’ve never seen him face what he faced there. I’ve never seen Dad scared. I’ve never seen Dad face death. I did ask him at one stage, ‘Are you afraid?’ And he said, ‘Not for me, but I’m scared of leaving your mum.’
“He wasn’t even worried about himself. I learnt that he was much braver and courageous than I’d ever imagined. And that’s saying something, because I felt that he was all those things in abundance prior.” Molan says she also had her faith restored in human nature during that dark time.
“Dad is a Liberal senator. There are people who will not agree with his politics or who don’t understand what his politics are, but it was incredible the amount [of support] that I received – from the Prime Minister [Scott Morrison] to Gladys [Berejiklian] to [Leader of the Opposition] Anthony Albanese. People would yell out ‘Good luck, General!’ at appointments,” she says.
“Australians are genuinely really good people and, for the most part, people can have differences of opinion and think differently politically, but when someone’s given a diagnosis like [that], people put those things aside and genuinely just want that person to get better.”
And at the same time that she was navigating her father’s illness, Molan and Ogilvy were calling time on their union. The pair had been dodging break-up rumours for years, mainly because he never featured on her Instagram, a decision they had made to protect his job as
a homicide detective.
During their five years together, they simply maintained their privacy and, unlike some other high-profile personalities whose splits play out in the press, Molan is maintaining that stance when it comes to the separation.
“We never did red carpets together or really do things publicly, so I can keep that private without being a hypocrite,” she says.
“We also have a daughter who will read every single word written, so I certainly will never say a bad word or give any details into something very private. I won’t ever talk about the [relationship] breakdown.”
What Molan will say is that she is proud of how she has handled the split. “I could have chosen two paths. I could have been bitter, resentful, angry and hurt, which would be normal and understandable when a relationship breaks down.
“But I look at my little girl and I think the best thing for her is for him and I to have a wonderful relationship. And we do,” Molan tells Stellar.
“When we got our latest radio ratings and went up by half a point, he was the first person I called, because he’s been there from the start. We have an incredible relationship now, and I think it will really benefit our daughter moving along.”
The year hasn’t all been bad news for Molan. After suffering mercilessly at the hands of online trolls for years, she campaigned for and saw introduced world-first online-safety legislation that holds cyberbullies to account with charges and fines.
She is also behind a successful baby-singlets business. And as she casts forward to 2022, Molan says she is hopeful it will be a far better year, perhaps even her best yet.
She was notably absent from its State of Origin coverage this year, prompting headlines about her future with the Nine Network, but tells Stellar that she is currently in negotiations with the channel regarding her position there.
“Nine has been my home for 11 years and I’ve absolutely loved it. Hopefully I’ll be there longer. But you know, we’ll wait and see,” she says.
“I enjoy having the freedom to follow whatever makes me happy. The stuff that
I did with the legislation … I derived immense joy [from] making a difference to some degree to the lives of young people.
“It’s something I don’t take for granted. There is so much more to me than just what I do on TV or in radio. And that’s really nice, to look at other areas where I could potentially make a contribution.”
Beyond her professional life, Molan says she is ready to consider dating again. “Sean and I never did anything,” she admits.
“We never went out because we had work and Eliza. But now because I don’t have my girl for a couple of nights a week, I’ve got the choice of either sitting in the foetal position on the couch crying, or I could go out with the girls and have champagne and wine, and meet people.
“It’s not a hard choice. Although I need to get laser hair removal. If I start dating again, which, you know, I absolutely hope to, I have to remove hair from places I haven’t in a long time.”
The past several months have taught Molan that, like the father she idolises, she too is stronger than she presumed.
“This year probably exceeded even my expectations of what I’d be able to handle. Every time you go through anything tough I always think the next thing won’t be as tough, or the next thing …” she says.
“I’m quite a self-deprecating person, but I’m really, really proud of not just surviving but being optimistic of what is on the other side.
“It gives you confidence moving forward. I’ve got an amazing little girl who is my best friend. I love my job, and Sean and I are in a great place. I have a lot of hope. Hope is a wonderful thing. Without it, we’re all totally screwed.”
For more Stellar exclusives, pick up a copy inside this weekend’s The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
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