Ever since bursting out onto the Australian television scene on New Faces at just 17, host of Ten’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Julia Morris has never been one to pull a punch or go quietly – always taking the chance to speak up and make an impact.
Now, with her fourth Gold Logie nomination, the comedy queen, jungle ringmaster and absolute firecracker is once again in the spotlight. And while she’s been here before, the thrill hasn’t dulled.
“It feels very, very exciting,” Morris tells B&T. “It’s certainly not lost on me, just because it’s happened a couple of times. It’s very exciting to still even be noticed, to be honest.”
She was quick to poke fun at the politics of award shows, “I flip from one side to the other every year”.
“One of the most common questions on the carpet is: What does this mean to you? And I want to say ‘absolutely nothing’, it’s a tremendous honour, but in terms of what it means in my life, what I’ve been through over the last five to ten years, it doesn’t actually mean much,” she said.
Don’t be fooled, while she may not be playing the game, she will never be one to shy away from an opportunity.
“I just encourage people to vote for me so I can get up absolutely unmedicated and do a speech,” she laughed. “Would I be allowed back on TV after that? Probably not. But it’d be a blaze of glory.”
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Exactly what she’d say remains to be seen, as she confessed herself, “the thing about ADHD is that you can’t make a plan”.
But if she were to give a speech, it would be fair to guess that it would make huge waves one way or another.
That cheeky defiance has powered Morris through nearly four decades of showbiz, from Full Frontal to I’m A Celebrity, from the Edinburgh Fringe to Sunday night primetime. But behind the punchlines is a woman who’s spent her career fighting for something much bigger than airtime – with her own unique and always hilarious flair.
“Starting 40 years ago, I don’t think I would know a way into this industry now,” she confessed. “I’m not even sure the industry would accept having me in it, but to anyone wanting to enter the industry now, I can tell you, I have left it a whole lot better than what I found it”.
“I’ve spoken up for women in the workplace. I’ve made sure that men do not speak to us on set with anything other than high-level respect. And anyone who doesn’t? The Black Widow will strike.”
“To young people coming through, observe and work hard”.
“The dream is a 24/7/365 commitment. You’re running a business out of your own head, it’s nonstop, and hopefully you’re medicated when you’re making the proper decisions”.
Morris has taken her unfiltered honesty to a different level over the last few years, opening up about struggles in her personal life. Ending her marriage with British comedian Dan Thomas four years ago after 16 years, she has been candid about the stress of solo parenting her two teenage daughters, Ruby and Sophie and the compounding grief of losing her father in 2023.
To compound the matter even further, when Robert Irwin was announced as her new co-host of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! back in 2023, Morris was hit with a barrage of negative commentary.
“There were a number of people who were incredibly disrespectful, telling me, ‘you better not flirt with him. You know you better not touch him,” she recalled, recognising that it was the kind of comment you wouldn’t hear toward a male counterpart in the same position.
“It wasn’t one or two people, it was a number of people who warned me to behave. I was just like, wow”.
She let her silence do the work, and their joyful partnership silenced the critics and proved to be a relationship that Morris holds near and dear. “I just shut my mouth and let the chemistry do the talking.”
After enduring a period of hardship that could break the strongest of people, she revealed the simple mantra that has kept her grounded.
“Everybody go and get fucked,” she said, confessing that if you want something to change, sometimes it is better to just change it yourself.
Today, personally and professionally, Morris is thriving. “My girls and I are in a really fantastic space. We’re living the dream people hope they’re going to have with their children, and I don’t even have to wear a Juicy Couture tracksuit for them to think I’m cool.”
“I’ve shown them by example that it doesn’t matter how difficult your life is, or how people speak to you, or how they treat you, there is always an option”.
After all these years, Morris has nothing to prove, but still plenty to say. And if Australia’s ready to hand her the Gold Logie, she’s ready to return the favour. Unfiltered, unmedicated and sure to be unforgettable.
