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In a darkened room, Nat King Cole croons as Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton sway along, arms tightly wrapped around each other. It’s not their wedding day. But if you stumbled, unaware, across this scene playing out in The Weekly’s studio? You’d be forgiven for thinking they were newlyweds, firmly in the honeymoon stage.
In actuality, this couple have been married 22 years and counting. And they are still as gloriously in love as the day they walked down the aisle. Their displays of affection are frequent and unprompted, their gazes adoring.
“Love makes the world go around,” beams Jess. It’s now they sit down after a fun-filled photo shoot to take part in what will be the very first episode of our brand new podcast, The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories.
Conceived as a way to share our favourite love stories from around the country – be they romantic or familial, steeped in friendship or community – the aim of this podcast is to explore how love shows up for all of us in a variety of shapes and forms, each equally precious. And this Aussie duo felt like a perfect pair to kickstart the series.
If you look at them on the surface level, Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton shouldn’t work. She’s the flamboyant, costume wearing, cat loving, snort laughing extrovert. He’s the serious and steady face of the evening news. The man who guides us through the events that have shaken our world that day.
But when these two total opposites came together, something magical happened. It’s their beautiful yin and yang which sparked a love that has seen them both through life’s highs and lows while creating a beautiful family unit along the way.
And to think, their love story almost didn’t happen.
How did Jess Rowe and Peter Overton meet?
Back in 2001, Jess was ready to find “the one”. Peter, meanwhile, had only recently come out of a marriage to his childhood sweetheart. He’d also landed the job of his dreams at 60 Minutes. “I was not interested in dating, in any relationship whatsoever,” he says now.
The duo had met briefly, years earlier, when Jess was doing university work experience at Channel 9.
She’d been taken by the friendly sports reporter who was kind and nurturing to everyone on the team. So when Jess spotted him across the room at the TV WEEK Logies, she headed over to say hello. Peter handed her a glass of champagne as they chatted away for a while before, again, heading their separate ways.
“I was thinking, ‘Why can’t I meet a nice man like this?’” Jess recounts with a smile.
An unlikely match maker
Luckily for Jess, Cupid stepped up in the form of Channel 10 sports reporter Tony Peters – her friend and colleague. Knowing she had a thing for Peter, he decided to give the reluctant dater a call.
“He said, ‘Ask her out, mate, she wants to meet a bloke like you’,” Peter recalls of their conversation. “‘She’ll probably end up marrying the local barrister but take her out on a date.’ He kept chipping away at me for 20 minutes. So I said, ‘Alright, if she calls me in the next 10 minutes and asks me out, then I’ll do it’.”
“And I didn’t realise that,” Jess laughs. “If I knew that Petee [Jess’ nickname for Peter] had to be convinced, it might have been a harder conversation, or I might not have picked up the phone.
“But I thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose’. And it’s important for people to get out of their comfort zone. Because what’s the worst thing that can happen? The worst thing that could happen was that Pete said no.
“So for anyone out there who is thinking, ‘Should I?’ Do it! You don’t want to live life with regrets. We have now been married 22 years and built this incredible life together.”
A fateful first date
That fateful first date was a dinner at a little Thai restaurant called Blue Ginger in Sydney’s Balmain. From there, things escalated quickly enough that Peter was introduced to an important figure in Jess’s life for approval … her cat, Audrey.
“We were sitting on the red couch at Jessica’s, and I went to put my arm around her,” Peter says. “And suddenly this cat just leapt and hung off me, like, ‘You are getting in my space here’. Then I had the sleepover. Suddenly, Audrey was hanging off my feet because I had moved in and cut her grass.”
“You adopted Audrey,” Jess reminds her husband. “If you didn’t love cats, I don’t think I would have fallen in love with you.”
Audrey obviously granted permission as things moved fairly quickly from there.
They may have been opposites on the surface – Jess a free spirit, Peter a “stick to the railway tracks” kind of a guy – but at their core, the values they shared would build a solid foundation.
“On the outside, we are very different,” Jess says.
“But what we do share are the same morals, the big things in life that really matter. And that is family, love, connection, respect and advocating for people who don’t have a voice.”
“And what is critical for our relationship is that we care for each other very deeply, but we also care for others,” agrees Peter.
When did Jess Rowe and Peter Overton get married?
After dating for two-and-a-half years, they wed in January 2004. And yes, cats played a starring role.
Their wedding song was What’s New Pussycat – Pussycat being the nickname Peter affectionately gave Jess. Their guests took home a little cat cupcake. The wedding cake was flanked with replicas of Audrey and their new moggy, Alfie.
Next, they got to the business of starting their family. And like many couples, it didn’t happen as easily as it does in the movies. After two years of trying to fall pregnant naturally, they embarked upon an IVF journey that was gruelling and far from straightforward. The effects ravaged Jess physically, as she kept fronting up to work at Nine’s The Today Show every morning. There was also a series of disappointments, ones which saw them almost give up on their dream of having children.
Peter recalls a drive they took down the NSW South Coast, waiting for the news of whether their third attempt had taken. When the phone rang, and the nurse told them there wouldn’t be a baby, “I turned to Jess and said, ‘I’m really cool if we don’t have children’,” he says now of the emotional moment.
“‘Because I don’t want to see you go through all this pain. I can just love you, and we’ll be wonderfully happy for the rest of our lives.’”
How many children do Jess Rowe and Peter Overton have?
Jess, however, was determined to have one more try. And it was their fourth IVF attempt, which saw them conceive Allegra, who recently turned 19.
Peter was in Milan on a job for 60 Minutes when Jess phoned him to let him know the news. He cries freely now as he remembers the moment.
“It still gets you,” he says, wiping his eyes. “It was the best, so special.”
When their second daughter, Giselle (now 16), was conceived naturally, it was completely unexpected. In fact, Jess was impatiently waiting for her period to arrive so that she could restart the IVF process again.
It was late, so the next time she was at the chemist’s she bought a pregnancy test just in case.
“Well, that and some Caramello Koalas,” she laughs now, of another giveaway sign that maybe baby number two was on the way.
It’s clear the pair adore being parents – their girls are never far from the conversation. While they love each other intensely and have love for many others in their lives, it’s this “purity of love” for their kids, as Peter calls it, which has opened up their hearts in ways they’d never imagined.
Having known he was “the one” since they first met – although she jokes he took a little longer to get on the same page – Jess says his love of their girls has only strengthened their relationship.
“That deepens the love we have for each other,” she says. “He’s a beautiful role model for our girls.
For them to see what a good, decent man is? To grow up with that and to see how he talks to me and how involved he is with them? All of that means so much to me.”
What does Peter Overton do?
They don’t talk about work at home, they say, but that doesn’t mean the entire family aren’t incredibly proud of Peter’s latest achievement. As we chat, he’s entering his 36th year at Channel 9, having won the nightly Sydney news ratings for an incredible 15 years running.
Peter is visibly uncomfortable when we congratulate him on the milestone, saying the win is down to an entire team, it’s not his alone.
“He’s being humble,” Jess interjects. “He always looks out for everyone else. I want to applaud you, Pete, because you put an enormous amount of yourself into your work and it’s something you’ve wanted to do since you were a little boy.”
Watching her husband guide us through the sometimes traumatic news events of the day also makes her remember why she fell in love with him all those years ago.
“I love your humanity,” she says to him now. “Pete’s interested in everyone. He asks people questions – and he’ll stay for the answer. In everything you do, your humanity and decency and goodness shine through. And that’s what I fell in love with. It’s so intrinsic to who you are.”
What happened to Peter Overton?
Recently, Peter suffered a serious wrist injury which required a four-hour operation involving a bone graft, three metal plates and several screws. It’s still painful today, although he’s headed back to work. But it did lead to one particularly poignant moment.
Recovering in the emergency department and having been given some fairly strong painkillers, Peter came to and saw his worried wife by his side.
“He’s looking at me, and he goes, ‘Oh pussycat, I love you so much, I think we need to renew our vows in here’,” Jess says with a signature snort-laugh. “I’m like, ‘Maybe not right away’. But isn’t that lovely?”
The injury led to some temporary changes at home for the pair. While Jess is the proudly self-titled “Crap Housewife”, Peter prides himself on being much more of a domestic god.
“He likes to do things,” Jess says with a grin. “He’s very organised and tidy, and when he got home from the hospital, I would have to say, ‘Will you please put the vacuum cleaner down? Do not empty this kitty litter. You’re supposed to be resting your wrist!’”
Creating a love that lasts
Peter was also unable to drive due to his injury. As he recovered, Jess was enlisted to ferry him to and from work – something that he didn’t enjoy at first due to her being an incredibly slow driver. But it has also allowed them to connect and once again deepen their relationship, something they intend to continue doing as the pair head into the next 22 years of their lives.
“We talk all the way home, we cover a lot of turf,” Peter says. “I love the ritual of when we have time together because I think it sustains us. Date nights, walking the dog, laughing together.”
“I love that Petee brings me a coffee every morning in bed,” adds Jess with a smile. “It’s such a beautiful way to start my day, but also a lovely touchstone to know that he’s thinking of me, he knows what I need, and I want that to continue being made with love.”
Watch the episode now:
The article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Subscribe so you never miss an issue.
The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast is supported by Vixin.
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