It was the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and Aussie Kieren Perkins had just won gold in the pool in his iconic 1,500-metre race. Cheering him on with the rest of Australia was a then-13-year-old Allison Langdon. Thirty-two years later, she can still vividly recall the excitement of the moment.
“It says something about the Olympics that those memories are still so clear… I remember how I felt when I watched it and it’s such a fond memory, my earliest real memory of an Olympics,” she enthuses. “The Olympic Games is just so unique. It’s the biggest sporting event in the world. And there’s just this wonderful sense of being Australian, and seeing Australia perform on the world stage.”
Allison couldn’t have been more excited to be front and centre of the action at the Paris Olympics. She recently co-hosted the Nine Network’s coverage alongside James Bracey.
Bold decisions
Headlining the Olympics is just one of many career highs for the journalist and author, 45, who has forged a stellar career ever since joining Nine in 2001 after completing her journalism degree.
As a reporter on 60 Minutes from 2011, co-host of Weekend Today from 2017, then three years co-hosting Today alongside Karl Stefanovic, she has travelled to far-flung corners of the world and all over Australia to cover some of the most historic, important and touching stories of our time. Then, in early 2023, she replaced Tracy Grimshaw in the coveted role of host of A Current Affair.
Warm and personable, she’s also never been afraid to ask the hard questions or cover the tough issues. Ally stamped her mark on A Current Affair (ACA) from the very first episode, devoting the first 17 minutes of her debut show to domestic violence.
“I was really proud of that, because it was a risky thing to do, coming in as a new host,” she says. “You don’t want to give a sense that the show isn’t accurate anymore. But this was something really important to me and I love that we did it, that we backed it.” She laughingly adds: “I remember coming out of the studio saying, ‘All right, tomorrow night, I need a dodgy neighbour. A great, classic ACA story!’”
There have certainly been many classic ACA stories since, and Allison is equally as proud of them. “I feel like we’re the voice for people when they often don’t have a voice or when they’ve tried everything else,” she says, “and what amazes me is how often we get results.
"We recently had a poor woman who’s been battling with her power company because she’s been paying the neighbour’s electricity bill for 18 months. They’ll have nothing to do with her and it was crippling her financially. We make one phone call and it’s sorted. That’s the power of the brand. To be able to help people like that and be involved in something where you feel you’re actually making a difference, it’s really special.”
Managing the juggle
Hard-working and driven, Allison is also funny, down to earth and quick to laugh, traits no doubt fostered via her country upbringing in Wauchope near Port Macquarie in New South Wales, where she regularly returns on the weekends to visit her parents on their farm, along with her husband, fellow journalist Michael Willesee Jr, and children – son Mack, seven, and daughter Scout, five. “It’s the kids’ favourite place in the world,” she reveals.
Despite her many accomplishments, Allison has confessed in the past that her admirable work ethic is partly motivated by a fear of failure, with “imposter syndrome” rearing its head at times. Although “much more confident in her own skin” these days, she muses that a fear of measuring up is written into many women’s DNA. “It often comes from that juggle of what’s happening at home and how much mental space that takes up, while also trying to do your job as best you can.”
Case in point: her Olympics stint, which, while undoubtedly a career high, came at the high price of a month away from her children. Separation woes aside, Allison considers herself “incredibly lucky” to be in a partnership where the load is split 50/50, even if the finer details occasionally require some ironing out.
“I remember my first day driving to work for A Current Affair, my husband rang and said, ‘Any thoughts on what’s for dinner?’ And I was, ‘Nup. And it’s not my brain space. I do breakfast and pack lunches every morning. Look at what’s in the fridge, it’s your problem.’” She laughs. “Which is great… he’s a better cook than me, anyway.”
Since moving from breakfast TV to an evening show, not only has Allison reclaimed some desperately needed sleep (“colours are brighter, my patience is greater,” she laughs), it’s meant she gets her favourite morning moments back. “I was never home in the mornings when the kids woke up and it was so lovely to have that back… when they come running in for those morning cuddles,” she says. “But I’m not home in the afternoon or dinner time.
I remember telling someone the other day, ‘The kids are in that sweet spot right now,’ and my husband’s like, ‘It’s just that you’re not here for witching hour!’ So, I miss that part, but I guess I’m okay with that.”
One of the key lessons Ally has learnt about acing the elusive family and work juggle is the importance of giving up control… even if it means things won’t be exactly as we want them.
“My husband does the grocery shopping, and I’m like, ‘Great, did you get Napisan?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, I forgot.’ And I’m like, [mutters under breath] ‘You forgot the last three grocery shops!’” She laughs. “But if you’re handing it over, you’ve got to hand it over. If we want our partners to step up, then we’ve also got to step back.”
Learning to pivot after injury
Along with the many workplace highs Allison has experienced, there has also been one pretty memorable low… a shocking hydrofoil accident in 2021 while filming a water stunt for Today.
A seemingly benign fall from the hydrofoil would bring devastating injuries, breaking Allison’s tibia (shin bone), shattering her kneecap and rupturing her posterior cruciate ligament (back of the knee). Requiring three operations the year it happened, Allison now has “a decent amount of metal in her leg” and, three years on, she often needs to wear a special knee brace containing metal when she’s active or out and about.
“It just means I can exercise without doing any more damage – it keeps it safer and will hopefully make it last a little longer.”
As someone so innately active and adventurous, there’s no doubt Allison’s injury has had a serious impact on her life, but she reflects on it with her trademark resilience and humour.
“There’s a bunch of stuff I can’t do anymore, so I’ve had to pivot,” she says. “Actually, pivoting is something I can’t do, but there are plenty of things I can.”
She pauses. “It does get you down at times when you can’t run after the kids or jump around or kick a ball, but it is what it is, and it’s fine. What I did learn through this was a great respect for people who live with chronic pain. My knee doesn’t hurt all the time; it’s not hurting right now. Compared with what some people live with, this is so minor.”
Ally has found many other helpful options instead to ensure movement and fitness in her life, including “lots of Pilates, circuit training and rehab work, and swimming” and says she “knows to back off” if she feels she’s pushed her knee too hard.
“You know, you just get on with it.”
For the full article, see the current Aug/Sept 2024 issue of Prevention Australia, available in supermarkets and newsagents. Or subscribe to Prevention Australia to get every issue delivered to your door.
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