At a glance…
- Poh Ling Yeow graces the cover of the June issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
- Ahead of the 2026 season of MasterChef Australia, she talks about the lessons she’s learned and what she’s doing with them.
- Poh received her second nomination for a TV WEEK Gold Logie Award in 2026.
Today’s photo shoot is second time lucky; originally set to take place a fortnight earlier, our interview with Poh Ling Yeow was uncharacteristically cancelled at the last minute as a vicious virus took hold of the MasterChef Australia judge.
“I’m a soldier-on person, but I was definitely feeling feverish and lightheaded,” she tells us as we reconvene in the aftermath, once again apologising profusely for any inconvenience. “I’m so sorry.”
An apology is far from necessary. Having met Poh numerous times over the years, we can confirm she’s not only one of the hardest-working people in the business, but also one of the most considerate. But long-ingrained habits die hard.
Having witnessed her parents arrive in Australia and struggle to build a small business, whilst simultaneously raising two young children and adapting to a new culture, she says “the migrant thing” has absolutely shaped her “soldier on” attitude. Though she adds that she hates putting things into boxes.
“I think it comes from watching them,” she admits. “I’m always completely baffled by the courage it took to uproot everything they knew and loved and transplant themselves to a new place. So, I think it comes from that, knowing the sacrifices they made. Without having to be told explicitly, I sensed from a young age ‘I better make good of this.’”
The last time The Weekly caught up with Poh, we were in the heart of the Northern Territory, our cover star donning elaborately beautiful gowns for the 2024 Christmas issue. She was opening up on the loss of her beloved mother, Christina, two years earlier, as well as reflecting on how her childhood informed her holiday traditions.
Today, the location is far more intimate. Poh’s mood has shifted as she relaxes into her 50s. There are things she no longer feels like rehashing as her years in the public eye have extended into a new decade, and topics she’s more excited to explore.
“I feel like I’m just at the start of a new chapter,” she says, as we settle into a wide-ranging chat that will take in the joy of living in the now, the brave new world of AI, and how to revert to a simpler life where nature and connection become our touchpoints instead of social media and status.
A life lived more simply
Having spent decades as a creative freelancer, Poh has long attempted to perfect the delicate dance that comes with juggling a personal life and a professional one. And for the most part, she admits, it is the personal that has suffered. That’s something she wants to address in this new chapter.
“Family and friends have become a really big point of focus for me, especially this year,” she says. “I’ve always had to sacrifice those parts of my life to hustle, to make a living as a freelancer. At 52, I realise I really need to learn how to rest and give time to loved ones because they’ve been so unconditionally supportive, and quite simply, it’s their turn to feel my love.
“It feels important to spend time with them, especially since Mum died. That was a hard way to wake up to the finiteness and uncertainty of life. There’s not much that I regret, but that’s one of them.”
Clearing out her mum’s house after her passing hammered home this point about celebrating now. Emptying cupboards, she found things that Christina had clearly been saving for a special day, unused in her lifetime.
“And it was so sad,” Poh reflects. “The mythical ‘special day’ is in fact every day. It doesn’t have to come with a marching band.”
In the Adelaide home she shares with her beloved dog, Tim, she’s made a sanctuary filled with things she loves, which are used with joy and intention. These days, she’s throwing herself into art, gardening, and other creative pursuits when she’s not on set.
“I want to become a decent artist before I’m pushing up daisies,” she says. “I want to paint all the ideas that I’ve had in my head. I want to write more. I’m thinking about the dreadful amount of time I spend on Instagram. I find myself moving through my days through a lens of whether I should capture this in a photo or make that into a reel, and depriving myself of presence. I really need to curb that.”
The social media trap
The role social media plays in her life is something Poh has been thinking about a lot recently. She admits she’s as guilty as the rest of us of enjoying the adrenaline rush that comes when a post resonates with followers, garnering likes, shares, and comments. It’s a commercial tool for her as well – be it to promote her role on MasterChef or as a brand ambassador, raising awareness of an art exhibition or a new cookbook or her Jamface market stall.
“I used to post in such a pure way for my own pleasure, you know. Just sharing things that I enjoyed looking at,” she says. “It’s very difficult not to be swept up in it when it feeds your ego so immediately. Seeing the likes rocket or, sometimes, when a post doesn’t resonate, feeling disappointed. But it’s an insatiable beast that can have you living in fantasy and neglecting reality. I’ve caught myself in moments caring more for the validation of strangers than remembering to return a phone call to a loved one. It’s quite terrible.”
From chatting about social media, we turn to the rise of AI. Like many of us, Poh is concerned about the effect that AI is having on the world – and the kids who are entering AI with no experience of life without it, especially after the pandemic and the social anxiety that came with that.
“Life is about overcoming fear every single day, isn’t it?” she says. “I’m very aware of fear because I had so much of it as a kid who felt different, but I’ve learned to override it. And I think that’s what growing is, right? You just learn to override fear in little ways, and then it builds like a muscle, and you become better at it. It never leaves you, though, because that’s the definition of living.
“And I think so much tech and AI are encouraging the opposite. It’s suppressing courage. Because you can do so much without ever having to come into contact with humans or feel anything you don’t want to feel. You can totally live in your fear and avoid any negative emotions. But what people have forgotten is that to experience joy, you must also know grief. What makes us strong is when we have to adjust to the world. But when we demand that it pander to our subjective experience, it actually makes us weaker.”
Poh is quick to state that, as someone without children, she may not be qualified to speak to raising kids. But she is fearful of the effect that “not having to do anything that you don’t want to do” is having on a new generation.
At this, Poh turns to nature as an example. “It’s a bit like a seedling that has been raised hydroponically,” she suggests. “When you plant it in soil, exposed to the elements, it wilts because it will only grow in artificially controlled conditions.
“But when you plant something in a natural environment, where it gets beaten by the wind, it will throw its roots down to hold itself strong and be able to search for water. The elements actually make it thrive. And I think that’s how we are.
“When there’s no resistance, it’s a very dangerous way to raise humans because the world is not sympathetic. There is a place for a bit of hard love, I think.”
Midlife magic
Poh is enjoying the freedom of her life right now. She’s single and happy but also open to love should the “unicorn” present itself (although it won’t be from seeking it out on a dating app).
“I’m not pessimistic about love,” she says. “I feel more like … I’ve done it twice [with Matt Phipps, who she was married to for nine years, and then Jono Bennett, who she was partnered with for 12].
“It’s been equal parts beautiful and heart-wrenching. I’ve learnt so much, and I love them both still, which is the accomplishment, so I don’t think I need to go there again. But love reimagined is something I’m interested in.
“I saw somewhere that the best thing about love later in life is that there doesn’t have to be an end goal, and that really resonates with me.”
Rehashing her marriages is a topic Poh doesn’t want to discuss. But when we ask who her “go-to” person is, she’s quick to point to Matt – who is “her person” as well as her ex and also her manager.
“We’ve been through such stormy seas; we are unbreakable. The domestics still flare up from time to time because the volatility that broke us is also what makes us dynamic business partners. Our creative symbiosis is unique and undeniable.”
Realising that she’s over halfway to 100 has also encouraged Poh to live her life with what she describes as “more zest and honesty”.
She’s learning to be more outspoken. To speak up when she has an opinion. To lean into honesty and not be afraid of offending someone if they don’t like what she says.
Fans of MasterChef Australia have found Poh the breath of fresh air the reality juggernaut needed to continue to evolve and find new audiences while retaining die-hard fans. Interestingly, Poh felt she wasn’t the right fit when she was first approached to take on a hosting role in the show that launched her into public consciousness.
“It’s taken me a few years to get used to, but I’m loving it so much this year,” she says. “The amount of times I stand back every day and think, ‘I can’t believe all these people are here to make me look like I know what I’m doing!’”
She’s quick to add that it’s not impostor syndrome. She loves mentoring contestants and can see the incredible full-circle growth that has happened since she was a contestant in 2009.
Instead, it’s the struggle she has sometimes to express herself in a concise and punchy “TV” way, to train her thoughts to deliver consistent lines. “I’m a waffler, which doesn’t work well for commercial TV,” she says. Whereas previously she struggled through, now she’s asking for help from producers and leaning on her co-hosts for advice, especially Sofia Levin, who she’s formed an incredibly close relationship with.
“I always want to do better so I like to be told the truth. I can handle the truth. What I fear most is someone thinking I think I’m better than I am and for that reason I’d rather be hurt than delusional.
“I’m being more proactive now, rather than stewing,” she explains. “I had a big history of stewing because I grew up in a cultural environment that was very much about being silent and ‘face’. But I’ve realised now that, to find happiness, you actually have to be a bit of an agitator. It’s an act of bravery, for sure. Because you have to be willing to make other people uncomfortable to fight for your own peace.”
And it’s this she wants to pass on to other women watching her journey and, hopefully, reading this article.
“I really want middle-aged women to know that they can shapeshift at 50,” she says. “Now is the time to break convention, shed obligation, be more honest in the way you express yourself – in the way you choose your words, your clothes, your company.
“It takes us so long to figure ourselves out. If not now, then when do we use the hard-earned lessons and refine them for what we’ve wanted all along?
“And I think it’s so interesting that everything you take for granted when you are young, you only appreciate when you’re old and it’s all falling to s**t: great skin, thick hair and 20/20 eyesight – the eyes stress me out the most,” she adds with a laugh.
The other day, she says, she was on the MasterChef set when she glimpsed her reflection. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on?’ I could see my skin starting to do all these cascading things in the wrong light.
“It’s a weird feeling to see time expressed on your body, feeling the same on the inside.
“I’m enjoying having a sense of humour about getting older. I’m cool with menopause. I would take a few slight side effects for the love I now feel for myself any day. I’m surprised because everyone expects to feel old in their fifties, but I actually feel new in the way a pebble keeps getting polished smooth by a river torrent.
“All the jagged edges have fallen away, and life feels like it’s distilling into a clearer, stronger essence, and I’m grateful.”
Watch MasterChef Australia on 10play on demand.
This article originally appeared in the June 2026 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Subscribe so you never miss an issue.
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