At a glance…
- Julia Morris opens up about being diagnosed with ADHD at 56 and the answers it finally gave her after decades of self-blame.
- After navigating divorce, the devastating death of her dad and changes to her TV career, Julia says she has finally “broken through to the other side”. Pasted markdown
- Now happily living in her “girl palace” with daughters Ruby and Sophie, Julia is embracing her health, family and whatever adventure comes next.
- Ahead of the premiere of her new ABC series, Class Clowns, Julia Morris sits down with Tiffany Dunk to speak about I’m A Celebrity, grief, and the diagnosis that changed her life.
It’s a notably different Julia Morris whom The Weekly meets in Melbourne today, three and a half years since our last catch-up. When she arrives for our photo shoot, she still possesses her signature cracking laugh and rapid-fire humour. As ever, she’s quick to poke some gentle fun at herself and the world surrounding her. Yes, she’s lost a little weight, but that’s not what we’re talking about (although she will get into that later). Instead, there’s a sense of centredness to Julia today, a newly relaxed air, as we settle in for a wide-ranging chat.
It’s undoubtedly, she says now, down to her recent ADHD diagnosis. Like many women – especially high-functioning ones – who are diagnosed later in life, she’d skated through the years by building complex coping mechanisms for her condition. For as long as she can remember, she’s had looped thoughts and a shortened attention span, among other things that stem from her neurodiversity.
“You sort of swim like Dory [from Finding Nemo],” she explains. “You swim to the end of the tank, then you forget any of it’s gone on, and it all starts again.”
It was when her girls, Ruby and Sophie, were diagnosed that she finally realised what had been playing out in plain sight for decades.
“I’d sat in these question sessions,” Julia, 58, says of the ‘aha!’ moment that happened at her kids’ medical appointments, “and I had my own extended answers to every question. So, I was kind of like, ‘We can’t get it into a space where it’s much more obvious.’”
She’d lived this way for 56 years, she muses. And yes, there’s a part of her which is annoyed it took this long to gain a diagnosis – even though it was just 15 years ago that she took her eldest daughter to the doctor and was told in no uncertain terms that women couldn’t get ADHD.
“There’s a substantial grieving that I think walks alongside you,” she says of mourning what could have been if she’d had the tools back then. “And the more you gain control, which is very clear with everything I do – you can see it in the look on my face, in the happiness in my bones – it’s a very different place to be. I think having some answers made me stop the self-blaming and start with, ‘Okay, what am I working with and what do we do now?’”
We last caught up with Julia in early 2023. Back then, she was rebuilding her life in the wake of her split from her husband of 16 years, Dan Thomas, and a new season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! was about to hit our screens (her last with Dr Chris Brown). In the background – although she wasn’t talking about it publicly then – her father, Michael, was waging his final battle with dementia. He passed away towards the end of that year.
“My dad was dying for a year and a half,” she says of how overwhelming that period was for her. “It was brutal. Over that time, I was dealing with the divorce, the children not being well and my dad. I flew up to Sydney every two weeks for months. I’d be up there for a couple of days, and then it started to be the case where it was no longer comforting to him for me to be there. It was so hard.”
Her mum, Maureen, she says, was by Michael’s side daily. It was devastating watching her mother farewell the man she’d loved for close to 65 years, but both women knew it was a blessing for Michael to finally leave.
“The grief doesn’t stop,” says Julia. “The spontaneous crying is in another league. I’ll think of something, and it’ll be something that I want to tell him. I miss him so desperately.”
At this she pauses for intentional comedic effect. “But I’ve also got ADHD, so there are a lot of months I don’t remember even existed. Oh God, that was a bad joke.
“Mum is just chipping away. It was a very difficult time, dealing with all those emotions … and then to learn a new way to live. But she’s also super- independent. We’re alike in that way, which is, you just get up and get on with it. Adapt or die.”
Getting on with it has been Julia’s attitude to recent changes in work circumstances, too. Not long before our chat, the news was announced that I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! had been axed by Network Ten (only to be picked up weeks later by the Seven Network).
She had been on the show for 12 seasons – a veritable lifetime in network television – and the regular pay cheque was a boon. Still, Julia says, all good things must come to an end. And while she’d “never say never” to a hosting role in its new home (or, for that matter, a stint as a contestant), it’s not something she’s overly concerned with or invested in.
“I’m honestly surprisingly philosophical about it,” she says of the news. “I look back and go, ‘Oh my God, how much fun did we have?’”
Instead, she’s been focusing on filling that gap with new projects, and also getting ready to launch a new show on the ABC.
Class Clowns sees Julia playing principal as six unruly comedians (Dave Hughes, Matt Okine, Nina Oyama, Becky Lucas, Bron Lewis and Luke McGregor) are put in three class houses and tasked with a variety of school assignments to win the ultimate prize.
C“I’m so breathtakingly proud that this is the next thing people get to see from me,” Julia says. “I like the idea of multigenerational TV. It will bring up lots of wonderful stories in Australian homes where it’s being watched. We all have amazing stories from school, whether we loved it or hated it.
“And we need more joy. This is just absolutely pure, guilt-free laughs to have with your family or friends.”
While Julia has happy memories of her time at school, it was also difficult – not surprisingly, given what we now know about her undiagnosed ADHD.
“I mean, my parents were called into the school in Year 12, not long before the HSC, and told that because of my personality I had slipped through the system, and so not to expect great results,” she says. “And honestly, I feel like that’s followed me through my life.
“Back then, I was constantly in trouble for not handing in work and therefore looking lazy. I wasn’t a truant, and I was happy. But the system is not set up – and still all these years later is not – for teaching neurodivergent students.”
That has led Julia to advocate fiercely for her girls, and for other kids who are struggling in the system. She’s soon to speak at an educational symposium about ways in which – through her observations as a parent – the system is not working well.
“It’s a tricky space,” she says, choosing her words carefully. “The system isn’t set up for these children; there’s no wiggle room. The teachers are trying to do as much as they can. They’re absolutely stretched to the max. But [changes] are going to have to happen at the curriculum-setting stage.”
Her openness, as always, is classic Julia Morris. She’s a woman who has always shown her battle scars, wearing any flaws with pride. Not that she doesn’t keep plenty of things private. But she doesn’t see the point of not sharing the reality of the hurdles she’s faced, especially if it helps someone who needs to hear it in that moment.
Comedy, she says, has been a wonderful avenue for that, as are interviews like this one. But she’s equally as open with fans who approach her on the street to ask questions – even if they’re questions that aren’t what you’d think people would ask a stranger.
Lately, Julia has found it has been about her weight. She’s been many sizes and shapes during her time in the public eye – and has been allowed to, she adds. In recent years, she’s been slim. But the treatment for her ADHD has helped to regulate many areas of her life, including her eating. Gone are the days of mindlessly eating a giant bag of jelly snakes. In are the days when she’s future-proofing her health by having an egg on toast when she’s hungry rather than the chips in the cupboard.
She’s gone down a “half size”, she reckons. But it hasn’t been conscious.
“When I get stopped in the street, the first question I get asked is which of the medications I’ve been taking,” Julia says. “But I find the conversation shuts down straight away when I say, ‘No, this is not [weight] medication. This is all trauma. Would you like to hear about it?’ Which they don’t.”
It’s hard not to get defensive about the topic, she adds.
“Two years ago, I set up a whole heap of photos in an album for exactly that, for people approaching me on the street going, ‘You’ve lost so much weight.’ And I’m like, ‘No, you’ve just never seen me.’ Or, ‘It’s been a while.’
“I want to say, ‘I don’t really talk about my weight,’ but then you’re having some super-awkward moment with someone who was only being lovely at the airport.”
Julia has been in our lounge rooms for so long, she reasons, that the fact people ask her such personal questions isn’t unexpected. She’s also talked about herself so openly and honestly that she understands the curiosity, as well as the need to connect. And she doesn’t plan to stop sharing the tough bits in the hope she can go on helping others.
“I try to tell the truth,” she shrugs. “Obviously, there’s a load that I keep to myself. But I’m an oversharer when I know there are people going through similar things. And I want them to know, which I don’t think I could find at the time, that there is another side. You are going to get out of this nightmare at some point.”
For all those who heard Julia talking about waking up in a marriage that was over, you’ll be pleased to know she can declare that she’s “definitely broken through to the other side”.
She is relishing living in her “girl palace” with her daughters who, she says, do lots of looking after their mum. She’s also taking active care of her health and feeling a million bucks for it. Her doctor, Julia says, recently talked to her about getting her cholesterol under control.
“I remember him talking about banking into your health super,” she recounts. “You know, people sort of get to their late 40s, and they start to think about, ‘Far out, I’d better get my super in order.’ Well, he said it’s the same with your health super. What are you doing? Are you doing a little bit of exercise? What are you banking into this account? Are you eating more protein? And are you drinking more water? Are you doing everything on the tick list? Because every one of those dramatically affects how the brain works through the day for neurodivergent people.”
Ruby and Sophie are now 19 and 17 respectively, and Julia is deservedly proud of how she has solo-parented the two of them through recent years.
She’s been on hand to emotionally support them in every way; to make sure that they can have open and honest conversations and feel seen and heard at home.
Growing up, Julia got her strong morals and love of giving back to those less fortunate from her mum and dad. But with her own children, she says, she’s trying “to do the things perhaps that I didn’t feel that I had as much of and was what I needed” at the same age.
She’s quick to add that’s no disrespect towards Maureen and Michael – she wouldn’t have known how to ask even if she’d known what she needed – but it definitely marks a generational shift in parenting.
“These girls are so emotionally mature,” she says with pride in her daughters. “They know how to ask about things. They know how to approach things and negotiate, and I have full trust in them.”
Her children are at an age now where it’s likely they’ll be spreading their wings in the not-too-distant future. So is Julia ready for the girl palace to become a residence for just one?
“When they do move out, I’ll be like, ‘Let’s go for the next adventure,’” she laughs. “At the moment they both want to go live in London for a while. So I’m like, ‘Well, maybe we’ll just go over there. You don’t have to live with me. But I like the idea of being nearby.’
“You blossom in your 20s when you finally get your own agency. So I’ve allowed that to happen inside my house.”
Class Clowns premieres on Wednesday, September 30 at 8.30 pm on ABC TV and ABC iView.
This feature originally appeared in the October 2026 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Subscribe so you never miss an issue.
