Mel Greig opens up on dating struggle: ‘I’ve given up’

It was an attempt to make other women feel secure, but the response to this Aussie radio star’s photo was foul.

Mel Greig hasn’t been on a “proper” date since her divorce in 2016.

The Australian radio host doesn’t envision herself going on one ever again.

“Men just aren’t worth it in the sense of how they treat you,” Greig tells news.com.au. “It’s just not worth it.”

It’s an awfully sad admission, particularly when Greig explains whyshe feels this despondent about finding someone to spend her life with.

The Gold Coast reality star says she’s been made to feel like an “embarrassment” by partners and love interests for sharing her warts-and-all battle with endometriosis, which she was diagnosed with at the age of 24.

The often disregarded condition affects nearly one million women in Australia, and causes severe pain and infertility. For Greig, it’s been both.

Ever since talking about the condition during a TV segment 10 years ago – she says “I was one of the first people to say endo on national TV” – her love life has suffered.

One man on Bumble told her he wasn’t interested in dating her because he thought endometriosis was a “sexually-transmitted disease”.

“‘I don’t want to catch endometriosis’, he told me,” Greig, 41, says.

Mel Greig said she’s “given up” on dating. Picture: Supplied

When she posts raw photos of her “endo belly” – bloating is common among endometriosis sufferers – she’ll cop a stream of “yuck” messages from males.

Greig didn’t have a security blanket in her ex-partner, either. She says he would often question her openness, almost as if she brought the ridicule upon herself.

“’Why do you have to tell everybody? Why do you have to share that?’” she remembers him asking her.

“It has affected my dating life. and I’ve given up on dating if I’m honest,” Greig adds.

“They can put you into these stereotypes, and think you’re going to be embarrassing and you just feel not loveable enough.

“One of the biggest issues we face is with relationships, whether that be having to cancel social events because we’re having a flare up, if your boyfriend wanted to do something with you that weekend and you don’t feel well.

“There’s a lot of frustration there and a lot of disbelief in our condition.”

Mel Greig's 2018 photo that went viral, in which she showed her bloating belly.

In 2019, Greig’s embryos were destroyed. She underwent IVF while married to her ex-husband Steve Pollock, but they split in 2016.

At the time, a heartbroken Greig wrote on social media, “Today I lost my babies because my ex-husband decided to destroy them which revokes my right. What I went through to create them was so hard but more so … Children gone.”

Being so forthcoming about her inability to have children, Greig says, has presented yet another barrier when dating.

“People who want children don’t take a second look at you,” she says.

“Until I see the masculinity problems fixed with men at the moment, with how they see women, how they treat women …

“Women with endo aren’t damaged goods. We’re actually very resilient. We’re very passionate, and we’re bloody strong.”

For all that toxicity, there is a much shinier flip side.

Both Sophie Monk and Gabi Grecko were diagnosed with endometriosis after spending time with Greig on set of Celebrity Apprentice in 2015, in which her chosen charity was Endometriosis Australia.

“A male friend told me I’d never win the show because nobody knows what endo is,” she says.

“But that was why I chose the charity. And lo and behold, Sophie and Gabi were diagnosed after having conversations with me and hearing about it on the show.

“It wasn’t until a few years later Sophie called me and said, ‘I have endo’.”

Mel Greig helped Sophie Monk discover she had endometriosis.

During that phone conversation, Monk told Greig she’d been to the emergency room more than 20 times in severe pain. That she felt like a hypochondriac each time she needed medical help.

“This is why it’s so important we communicate with each other about it. It helps you feel validated with what you’re going through,” Greig says.

Greig doesn’t regret her tireless advocacy, even if its come at the peril of parts of her personal life.

“I really have been this open because I want that to be a part of my legacy. That I’ve been able to help women,” she says.

“I have had thousands of messages from women saying they feel less ashamed of their condition. Every time I get one of those, it just drives me to do whatever I can.

“10 years ago we were embarrassed to talk about it. Now is the time to really go full steam ahead and do what we can to make real change.

“Without further research and funding, we’re just going to be stuck in this position where people don’t understand what endometriosis is and the full effects it has on women’s lives.”

Medicare is failing women and it’s About Bloody Time things changed. Around one million suffer from endometriosis. There is no cure. Help is hard to come by and in rural or regional areas, it’s virtually impossible. We are campaigning for longer, Medicare-funded consultations for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment. Read more about the campaign and sign the petition here

About Bloody Time is an editorial campaign by news.com.au that been developed in collaboration with scientists recommended by the Australian Science Media Centre, and with the support of a grant from the Walkley Foundation’s META Public Interest Journalism fund.