I Found A Secret Window Into Happiness

Australia’s favourite funny lady, Julia Morris, has a revealing chat with Jenny Brown about the freedom she’s found at 50, the importance of raising two strong girls, and the personal encounter with sexual harassment that left her speechless.

For once, quick-witted Julia Morris was lost for words. When a married man she scarcely knew groped her under the table, on a rare night out with her husband and friends, the comedy queen was literally shocked into silence.

“How weird is that? Someone did something to me and I didn’t say anything,” marvels Australia’s favourite funny woman, who has spent more than 30 years reducing hecklers to red-faced shame on the stand-up circuit.

“I didn’t call him on it … I got such a fright that I kind of thought, you know, if I tell [husband] Dan, I don’t want him to feel like he has to rise to protect me or absolutely blow the night apart. But I was fascinated that I didn’t say anything until we got home.

“I sort of felt like it was more grown-up just to go, ‘Do you know what? That guy’s a f***wit and he will never ever get to spend any more time with me.’ The fact that he’s like that is his own life punishment, because he’s going to come badly undone.”

Nowadays Julia, who turned 50 earlier his year, sometimes does feel quite grown-up. At the very least, she’s a fizzing Catherine wheel of a work in progress, juggling a juggernaut career with a loving 13-year marriage and motherhood to two growing girls, 12-year-old Sophie and Ruby, aged 10.

“Happy ever after,” she chuckles contentedly, settling down for a chat about achieving her half-century in the notoriously ageist TV industry. “I wish I was 50 sooner. I think 50 is the secret window into happiness if you can get through the ‘I’m not young anymore’ bit.”

Finally, she has come through menopause and, thanks to cognitive behavioural therapy and clinical Pilates, emerged calmer and happier on the other side. “I started to see a psychologist and it changed my life. Oh my God! Who knew?”