At the age of 16, something happened that would change the trajectory of Julie Goodwin's life. She was a student at Sydney's Hornsby Girls High School and it was a day, she recalls, like any other, when a memory came back to her. An awful, traumatic and long-buried memory of being sexually abused close to a decade earlier.
"It was sudden," she tells The Weekly today of that watershed moment. "Nothing triggered it - it was just like the memory was always there, like a dusty book on a library shelf. And one day, I took it down, looked at it and went, 'Holy crap! How have I not thought about that for nine years?' Then, as I sat with it, I realised why I hadn't thought about it and shoved it away again."
This is just one of many previously secret stories the 53-year-old reveals in her memoir, Your Time Starts Now. Honest, raw and at times incredibly confronting, the decision to open up her entire world, she says, isn't something she has done lightly. But the thought of writing her life story without including those ugly parts? That was something Julie says she would never have considered.
Her life has been public record since that iconic MasterChef Australia win in 2009. People have watched her succeed as well as occasionally fall. She's opened up to The Weekly in previous years about a lot of her tough times, including a hospitalisation for mental health, a drink-driving arrest and growing up with a single mum who struggled to put food on the table. She did this, she has always said, in the hope it might help somebody else treading an equally rough road.
"When I was asked to write a memoir, I knew I wouldn't write a fluffy food-based memoir with just some MasterChef stories," she says now of revealing her darkest moments, warts and all. "It was hard, but I had to do it."
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.
