MasterChef Australia star Julie Goodwin’s wild career change

The beloved TV star has decided to ditch the kitchen for her next gig.

MasterChef fan favourite Julie Goodwin appears have embarked on a wild career change as she ditches the kitchen for the dance studio.

New pictures of the star show her heading to dance rehearsals on Tuesday joined by Dancing with the Stars dancer Andrey Gorbunov.

MasterChef star Julie Goodwin was a big hit with viewers on the cookery show, and now she’s set to pick up her dancing shoes.

The 53-year-old cook originally rose to fame after becoming fan favourite and winning MasterChef Australia in 2009.

The pictures, first published by Mail Online, appear to reveal that Goodwin will be taking part in the new series of Dancing with the Stars, although Channel 7 has yet to officially confirm the line-up.

But it’s set to be revealed soon, with audience tickets currently on sale for the show’s first dance-off on Thursday, February 22.

What fans do know is that Goodwin will be joined by AFL legend Ben Cousins.

He recently told Herald Sun that he first agreed to take part in the dance competition back in 2008, before changing his mind.

“I’m just in a pretty good space at the moment and am in a position to take on some new challenges and this has come along and probably for the first time in quite a while I am in a position to give it a go” he said. “This worked for where I was at mentally and wanting to throw myself into something.”

Meanwhile, MasterChef season one victor and mum-of-three Goodwin shocked fans when she suddenly disappeared from her radio show in 2020, later revealing she left to seek treatment in a mental health ward amid a crippling bout of anxiety and depression.

In 2022, she was applauded for her raw honesty while detailing how she “lost her joy” before receiving the call to join the Fans and Favourites season, in what was a stirring moment of mainstream television.

Julie Goodwin recently released a new book, and is now set to embark on a career on the dancefloor. Picture from Elizabeth Allnutt.

Speaking to news.com.au, Julie revealed along with her fans and listeners, it was other patients she met while receiving treatment who first inspired her to bring honest conversations surrounding mental health to the forefront.

Recalling the moment she first penned a message to followers discussing her “crisis”, Julie said: “In the hospital where I was when I put that statement out, I was really blown away by the level of shame that was felt by the other patients in the hospital over being there.

“Their guilt in there … And I felt it too, but it took looking at these other people for me to think ‘Why would you feel ashamed of being here?’,” she said.

“Instead of going to rehab for your hip or your knee, you’ve gone to a rehab for your brain,” Julie continued. “I just wanted to talk about it so some of those guys didn’t have to feel so guilty and so ashamed of it. It’s just the human condition. Things go wrong with us, sometimes it’s things that are wrong with our bodies and sometimes it’s things in our brains.”

Originally published as MasterChef Australia star Julie Goodwin’s wild career change