Listen to the episode:
When it comes to divorce, does anybody think they got handling the marriage breakdown right? Especially if you add kids into the mix?
When I sat down with Katie Noonan for a new episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories, this is a subject we delved into as she opened up about both what life is like as she navigates her divorce from husband Isaac Hurren. And how she’s approached parenting her boys – Dexter is about to turn 21 while Jonah will be 20 in October – in the process.
“The last two years have been the hardest two years of my life,” she told me in an incredibly candid conversation. “I lost my darling Dad in March 2024 and then in November I was told my marriage was over.
“No one goes into marriage thinking it’s going to end. We were together for 26 years. So that’s basically my entire adult life. So for me, the way I process my emotions – and it has been like this since I was a teenager – is through music. And these songs just fell out.”
Those songs comprise her new album, Alone But All One. In the first single, This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, “I just tried to let the music flow and acknowledge that I am not okay,” Katie said. “I am sad and I am grieving and I’m angry and I’m all the things. And that’s a very normal part of life.”
It’s been 16 months since the break-up. Having “gone into survival mode” in the earliest days she admitted to me that “the worst thing about the divorce is what happens to the children.”
“I’ve absolutely stuffed up and overshared with them and I have regrets about not being my best self at times. But I’m a human and this isn’t what I signed up for and it is a huge loss.”
As someone whose own parents seperated when I was five years old, I told Katie that it feels easier in a way to navigate the converations with younger kids than older ones.
“I honestly think part of my mistake was because my kids are very grown-up, mature, young, beautiful men that I did overshare my feelings,” she responded. “And I regret that now, I really do.”
Writing the album and preparing to release it, she told me, has been cathartic. But it has also added to the fear she has around hurting her family as she heals.
“There’s nowhere to hide,” she said of the raw and emotional first single. “It’s just me and a piano, really letting it out. And I was scared. I was scared about what my boys would think because I would never, ever want to hurt them in any way. They may not be ready for me to talk about this stuff.
“And that’s tough. But this is what I do. It’s what I’ve done for 30 years. I don’t have any other way of processing it.”
Listen to the episode to hear more about Katie’s journey. Not just as a newly single woman but as one who is also navigating the grief of losing her beloved dad and supporting her mum in the process. It’s raw, it’s emotional, and I promise, it’s worth hearing.
Watch the episode:
