I grew up with Ali Daddo on my wall. And like so many of us, I looked at that image and thought – that’s it. That’s what it means to arrive. What I didn’t know – what none of us knew – was that even being the ‘it’ girl comes with challenges.

This beautiful conversation really opens up about the pressures we feel as a woman, from the tween and teen years, into motherhood and menopause. We explore Ali’s “standing in front of a 747 jet engine” image of society’s pressure not to age, and what women actually find on the other side of all that noise.

A woman once said to me during a round of brutal hot flushes: “You’re just burning the dross. Every flush is burning away what doesn’t serve you anymore.” I was reminded of it in this conversation with Ali. Because that’s what this whole transition is, isn’t it? Not a loss. A burning. A clearing. And not something to endure or fix… but a transformation.

We also get deep about long-term love – Esther Perel’s three marriages to the same person, (what it takes to reinvent in the third one), and what “making art from a marriage” actually looks like in practice.

We explore:

• The “currency” of appearance: what we inherit, what it costs us, and what happens when the market changes as we age
• The grandmother whale theory: why Ali believes women stop being fertile because they’re meant to lead
• Reinventing long-term love post-menopause
• Aviiana, the wellness platform Ali co-founded with Mary Doube, and the whole vision to help women thrive with confidence
• What it feels like to finally be “out of the game you never asked to be in” – and why that might be the most liberating thing that’s ever happened to us

Ali is a little further down this path than me and I am so grateful to have her shining a light from up ahead. What she’s showing me is that the other side isn’t smaller. It’s more. More voice. More space. More of yourself. 💛

[Recorded remotely]

About Ali Daddo:

Ali Daddo began her career as one of Australia’s most recognisable models and presenters before spending 25 years in the United States, where she worked as a birth assistant and Steiner early childhood educator. She’s the author of Queen Menopause: Finding Your Majesty in the Mayhem, co-host of ‘The Heart of It’ podcast with hubby Cameron Daddo, co-founder of the women’s wellness platform Aviiana, and host of the Foxtel LifeStyle wellness series, Gen Well.

Connect with Ali:

• Website: aviiana.com.au
• Instagram: @alidaddo
• Podcast: The Heart of It