As she resumes her hosting duties on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Australia, Julia Morris has opened up about the breakdown of her marriage.
WATCH NOW: Julia Morris at the 2019 TV WEEK Logie Awards. Article continues after video.
How did Julia Morris and Dan Thomas meet?
The 55-year-old met her ex-husband, Welsh comedian Dan Thomas, two decades ago at an Aussie expat weekly get-together event in London called Club Sunday.
Impressing her on-stage with a Goldfinger impression, Dan caught the attention of the Aussie comedian. Although Julia later admitted that moment made her determined to kiss him at some point, he had to rush off to other plans that night.
But fate stepped in and the pair later reconnected through friends at Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe.
“The first night was overnight romance!” the star told our sister publication WHO in 2018 of their first hook-up.
“But he called me the next day, so we were already on the right track. I’d usually date someone and get around five or six months in and be bored, though I never got sick of him.”
Julia married Dan in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve in 2005 and they share two kids (Ruby, born 2006 and Sophie, born 2008).
Why did Julia Morris get divorced?
Speaking with our sister publication the Australian Women’s Weekly, Julia revealed that there was nothing “dramatically wrong” with her marriage. But she realised they were “not necessarily growing in the same direction”.
“Once you’ve got that [knowledge of not growing in the same direction] in your headspace, the other person starts to become quite a pest,” she said.
“I think that’s where patience starts to wear down to, ‘I’m not living like this. How is this an example for my girls that this is an okay life to lead? No thanks,” she said.
Ultimately, Julia reveals the decision came down to one question: “How do I want to live the second half of my life?”
“Is this me?” she recalls thinking to herself, in her chat with The Weekly. “What is it? I should feel happy. I’ve got a job, my children are healthy, [and] my husband is nice. It’s not like he’s a beast. He’s not a nightmare. So why am I still not happy?”
Ending things on good terms…
While divorce is never easy, Julia reveals that her split from Dan has been amicable.
“He literally said, ‘Oh my God, I feel the same way, this is amazing’,” she says of their decision. “And then we sat down and ordered new bedside tables for the apartment we rented to do the ‘nesting’.”
Nesting is the process the pair adopted to make the split easier on their family. It involves keeping the kids at home, while each parent takes turns staying in an apartment on designated days and nights.
“We were both, like, let’s try to make our way into this new arrangement as smoothly as we can,” Julia says.
On the Sooshi Mango Saucy Meatballs podcast, Julia doubled down on her comments about their amicable split.
“We’re in a good place thank God ’cause I’m hearing horror stories about [divorce] but, my god, the freedom,” she told the hosts.
“I don’t want to brag, but oh, it’s everything you’re dreaming it’s going to be.”
Feeling “free” as a single woman
In a rare interview on the subject with Stellar Magazine, Julia provided some candid insight into the personal growth she had experienced since her divorce.
“I have become an Olympic medallist in running him [Dan] down. But to be honest, I have been trying to stop doing that because I don’t want to let him into my life at all anymore. I’m free.”
The comedian went on to add that she “wasn’t married to the person” she thought she was.
Just prior to her Stellar interview, Julia made another shocking confession on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, revealing that she was no longer interested in sex.
“I think I’ve shut up shop,” she joked.
Then in January 2024, the comedian shed new light on how much she was loving life as a single woman.
“Linda Evangelista saying she never wanted to partner up again because of sleeping in silence, it’s hit a really raw nerve with me,” she shared with The Herald Sun.
“A nerve of pure happiness,” she joked.
Then in yet another radio interview on The Kyle and Jackie O Show in March 2024, the mother of two made a not-so-subtle dig at her ex, revealing that Dan “hated her”, much to the surprise of listeners, the shock jock hosts and her I’m a Celeb co-host Robert Irwin who was joining her live on air.
That same month, in yet another interview, this time with our sister publication WHO, she revealed that she was “the happiest” she had ever been in her life after her breakup.
“I can’t encourage people to get divorced but my god…No wonder you’re not allowed to talk about it because it’s fantastic.”
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