Melissa Doyle is effortlessly smiling and laughing in front of our photographer’s camera. There’s a gentle ease and elegance about her. She lights up while sharing stories about her family, laughing at her eldest’s decision to cut his hair into a questionable style. It’s almost like spending the morning with a girlfriend you’ve known for ages.
But Melissa, 52, is not your average girlfriend, having enjoyed a prolific career spanning three decades covering television, radio and print.
Her new book, 15 Seconds of Brave: The Wisdom of Survivors, has been making waves and there’s another one in the works, she’s currently filming This is Your Life for the Seven Network, has launched a podcast, Age Against the Machine, and is the weekend breakfast host for Sydney’s smoothfm.
But, as busy as she’s been, she’s still most recognised and loved for her 11-year stint as the ‘queen of Aussie brekkie TV’, a label that she carries proudly. “I still get introduced as ‘former Sunrise presenter’ and that was nearly 10 years ago,” she says, laughing. “People see you in a certain way and that’s lovely and humbling and I’m so grateful. I wouldn’t change it.”
Leaving Stability Behind
In late 2020, Melissa found herself facing something she hadn’t quite anticipated. Leaving her role at the Seven Network after 25 years was a big mind shift. “You know the place inside out; you know everybody and the people feel like a second family,” she says. “It’s a remarkable opportunity to have worked for that long and loved it.” Moving on from that level of stability “took a little bit of adjustment”, she says, smiling.
Even when knowing that one’s identity is largely wrapped up in what you do, no matter what that is, she says that “I always used to say my job doesn’t define me, but I quickly realised that, to an extent, it did – and more than I thought.” She also learnt that, as much as you try to wrap your head around change and embrace a new direction, “sometimes it takes people a little longer to adjust to the change, like in my case”.
But, as Melissa discovered, the challenge of change was also welcome. “I’m a glass-half-full kind of person who goes, ‘Okay, that’s done. Shut that door. What am I going to do next?’ It took a while, but I got there, and I feel like it’s been such an exciting ride ever since.”
Finding Freedom
This new-found liberty has led Melissa to always embrace the new. “I’m excited by the opportunity to do different things, which I’m loving after being locked in a role for so many years,” she says.
“When I left Channel Seven, it just felt like all these opportunities were opening up and I could do whatever I wanted. I feel very grateful that I’m in a position where I can pick and choose what I want to do and what matters to me. I think you reach an age where you feel you’ve accumulated enough experience, skills and wisdom to be able to do that. Now I don’t have to do things I don’t care about or stories I’m not interested in.”
The inspiration for her latest book, 15 Seconds of Brave: The Wisdom of Survivors, came out of the turmoil of 2020. It’s an insightful collection of stories about resilience and how people have overcome extraordinary circumstances. “I was, and we all were, completely thrown off course [by the pandemic],” recalls Melissa. “Everybody was going through a degree of something, whether it was job loss, illness, isolation from family and friends and we didn’t know what was going to happen. Everything just felt weird and off kilter.”
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It was also during this time that Melissa turned 50 and her son, Nick, 21, moved overseas (Melissa also has an 18-year-old daughter, Talia). “Smack bang in the middle of the pandemic!” she says. “I couldn’t even walk him to the airport gate. It was really hard.” In that moment, Melissa went back to something she felt most comfortable with: storytelling. “I’m a journalist and I tell stories, so I decided that’s what I was going to do. It was my way of taking control of things. And I just love storytelling; I love it in any form.”
Possibly the most rewarding aspect of her job is having people trust her with their stories. “That feels really precious,” she says. “When a person sits down and talks to you about what’s happened to them, and they trust you to treat that carefully and be true to their story, I feel like that’s the biggest responsibility ever. I also feel incredibly humbled that people have trusted me.”
She also credits the people and their stories for having a defining impact on her. “I feel all of them, in their own little way, have shaped me. Every story, every person I’ve encountered has bumped, chipped, added or rubbed off on me and I hope I’m a better journalist for it.”
At An Ideal Crossroads
While Melissa looks the picture of cool, calm and collected, inside it’s a different story. “I always feel like it’s a bit of a pinball machine in there,” she says, referring to her ever-curious mind. “There are days when I know I’ve totally bitten off more than I can chew, and I have too many things going on. But, still, I feel I like being busy. I quite like doing things I’m not very good at, just not [doing things],” she says, laughing. “But, I also look at it like I have this opportunity and I’m a believer in making hay while the sun shines. Who knows what might happen in the future?”
To that end, Melissa recently completed a company director’s course, “which was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done”. “I like learning, I love doing things that I’ve never done before and throwing myself in, boots and all, and just giving it a go. I guess it’s also a bit of an age thing. I find myself at this lovely crossroads in life where my kids are older and they don’t need me as they did 15 years ago. I can try things and give it a go. What’s the worst that can happen?”
But when things do get hard, “I’ll have a really good cry,” she says. “I’m such a crier. I remember coming back from the Beaconsfield mine disaster in 2006. We flew from Tasmania to Melbourne and I was standing in the hotel shower just sobbing. I just let it out. I’m glad I can still cry. I think the day that I can’t, that I don’t get affected, means I’ve become so hardened that maybe I should go do something else. I’m grateful I still have that in me.”
Discovering Herself
Melissa says she’s loving getting older and she delves into the perceptions and pressure that society puts on us around ageing in her podcast, Age Against the Machine. “I remember interviewing one woman [on the podcast] – we were the same age and in the same line of work – who said to me: ‘I never tell anyone my age, not because I’m ashamed of it. I just don’t want to admit it.’ She said she didn’t want those younger around her to look at her and think of her in that way. I thought that was an interesting point.”
By comparison, Melissa feels grateful for reaching each new birthday. “Thank goodness that we get older because, if we didn’t, I don’t really want the alternative just yet. I’m active, I can still do things. I go to the gym, so I’m strong enough to move the lounge room, if I want to move the furniture,” she says, laughing. “I don’t go to the gym for vanity reasons. I go because I want to be capable of doing things. I love walking the dog because I can go to the park and stand
there and watch the birds and the blue sky.
“As I’m getting older, I know who I am, I know what I’ve done and I’m proud of what I can do and what I’ve achieved and what I can do in the future. When I was younger, I lacked a lot of confidence and was really lucky that I got the chance to do what I do. Now I think, ‘I can do that,’ or ‘I don’t have to do that.’ There’s a lot of things I can’t do, don’t get me wrong, but I know what I can do – and that’s a good place to be.”
Exploring New Things
How does she stay healthy? She laughs. “Oh, I don’t know,” says Melissa. “It ebbed and flowed over the years, depending on life circumstances, kids and what’s happening [in life]. I do my best. We eat well, I try to walk the dog every day. I wish I could tell you that I’m a yogi or that, you know, I drank kombucha, but, no, I don’t. I just do my best, have a glass of wine and love it. I guess moderation and I just keep trying.
Right now, Melissa is thinking about her next adventure. “I just want to keep learning things, keep exploring and discovering things, asking questions or finding answers,” she says. “I’m just a naturally curious person and that keeps me going. Just knowing that there are so many extraordinary people that have stories to tell and I can still tell them. I still love it.”
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