Jude's Life Lessons: 'You Need To Get Back Up Again'

Wisdom Becomes Her! Jude Begins A New Gig At The Weekly.

- Donna Fleming

It’s been a long time since Jude Dobson last shared words of wisdom in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly via her column Ask Jude. So long, in fact, that when she’s asked how many years she did it, there’s a rather lengthy pause.

“Um, I know I started in the early ’90s, when I was a young woman living in Ohakea and my husband was in the air force, and I actually had a computer at home, which was pretty cool,” she says, racking her brain for dates. “Was it 1991? I know I was in my 20s. I can remember some of the letters, but I can’t remember how long I did it for. Hmm.”

Jude’s memory may have failed her on that point, but her ability to help readers deal with some of the dilemmas life throws at them is still as spot-on as ever, as we’ll get to see now that she has returned to the Weekly with a new advice column, Hey Jude.

The former TV host turned producer and documentary maker has been looking forward to coming back to the magazine, which first featured her in an article in 1989 when she landed the job on game show Sale of the Century.

By our reckoning, she was our advice columnist from 1994 to 1997, tackling questions on everything from falling out with friends to meddling mothers-in-law. After that, her Weekly column changed from advice to handy tips and recipes to tie in with her TV show, 5.30 with Jude.

Although she’d had training as a Lifeline counsellor when she took on the column, she was somewhat lacking when it came to life experience.

“But I think my answers were pretty good and from a couple that I’ve looked at, I think I’d say the same thing today.”