Jacqui Felgate: ‘I dated average men until I finally swore off them’

Radio presenter Jacqui Felgate is best known for hosting Drive on 3AW Melboure, and her news updates on Instagram. The 42-year-old shares how her husband, Michael, gave up his media career to give her more space to pursue hers, and which media heavyweights have been her champions.

Jacqui Felgate has had many famous mentors including Eddie McGuire.Credit: James Geer

My paternal grandfather, Ray, was a Grenadier Guard in London who worked for the royal family before he was sent to fight in World War II. He fought and trained in Africa, before fighting in Sicily, and then moved to mainland Italy as part of the British Eighth Army.

After the war, he couldn’t live in Europe any more, so he burnt his uniform and came to Australia as a Ten Pound Pom and worked as a house painter.

Ray moved in with my parents when he became unwell later in life. My husband, Michael, and I spent a few weeks living with him when my parents went overseas, and we really got to know him. He was a gentle soul who died aged 94.

My maternal grandfather, Basil, was born in Australia, and during WWII was based in New Guinea. My brother, Anthony, and I were his only grandchildren.

My dad, Clive, is an industrial photographer who took aerial pictures before Google Maps came along. Mum [Anne] did his administration. Dad is nine years older than Mum. They met at a party and had me when Mum was 26.

I get my work ethic from Dad. He is still working at 78, processing films in his garage, and has lots of energy and drive. He also keeps bees and sells honey at school fetes.

My brother, Anthony, is 18 months younger than me and a very private person. He lives in Darwin, where he works as a plumber. He now has two kids and stopped doing his FIFO work. Our children have brought us closer together.

I went to the all-girls school Tintern Grammar and was obsessed with, and scared of, boys most of the time. I spent my teenage years going to Jooce Nightclub in Ringwood. One of my earliest kisses was at age 18; I think once before that might have been in a spa at a party!

I had a celebrity crush on actor Matt Damon, who came to Melbourne in 2007 to promote The Bourne Ultimatum. I was a journalist at the Herald-Sun when the incoming premier John Brumby asked if I wanted to come to Parliament House, where they were doing a photoshoot with him. When I got there, I lost my mind and couldn’t say a word.

I have always been in relationships. I didn’t give my younger self enough time to enjoy my own company. I thought I needed to be loved by someone, and as a result dated a series of average men until I finally swore off them.

I met my husband, Michael, a former sports broadcaster, at Hoo Haa nightclub on Chapel Street after the 2007 AFL grand final. I went there to have a drink with a male friend, walked up the stairs and bumped into Michael. We spoke for 10 minutes and, after, I texted my friends and said, I just met my husband. By the Monday, Michael had texted. We started dating soon after. For the first time in my dating life, I was like, this is what a good relationship feels like.

Michael has given up his career in the media, so I can fulfil mine. We have two daughters, Maddie, 12, and Georgia, 7. When we had our second daughter, he said he’d stay home and raise her. He has the most phenomenal relationship with her because of that.

As a woman in my 40s, I realise you have to find the men who lift you up and allow you to follow your dreams. Michael lets me go on my feminist rants and what it means in terms of raising daughters. He listens and takes it on board. Men like him are hard to find.

Broadcaster Ross Stevenson took me under his wing and offered me a spot on his radio show after I left Channel 7. He is like a mentor to me. Other men who have championed me are TV presenter Brian Taylor, Hamish McLachlan and Eddie McGuire; they still check in.

Jacqui Felgate’s collaboration with Ceres Life is out now.

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