I\u2019m seated at the breakfast bar while the former MasterChef Australia <\/a>judge sections a whole poached chicken like a pro despite having no formal culinary training. Her cats, Ghost and Ghoul (or Stephen Ghoul-bert, after the US talk show host), loiter nearby.<\/p>\n Leong is a lover of fashion, as evidenced by her cover shoot with Sunday Life. But at home, she\u2019s more relaxed, dressed down in a mustard Henley tee and jeans, bare-faced and barefoot, her toenails painted a deep burgundy.<\/p>\n The one-time Gold Logie nominee is an enigma \u2013 seemingly everywhere (she posts regularly on Instagram<\/a> to her 373,000 followers), but also private and even a touch mysterious. It\u2019s a balance the 43-year-old has worked hard to maintain while wearing many different hats throughout her life and is a key theme in her new memoir, Guts.<\/p>\n Macgraw \u201cDorothea\u201d top and skirt. Ryan Storer earrings. Michael Kors boots.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford<\/p>\n There\u2019s Melissa the food writer, TV presenter and former publicist. Then there\u2019s Melissa, the daughter of migrants, jiu-jitsu enthusiast and perfume collector. Adding \u201cauthor\u201d to that list did not come easily for Leong, who refused several earlier offers to write her story. \u201cI was so busy that there was just no way I\u2019d have the mental headspace for it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Eventually, the right opportunity came along before Leong had a startling realisation. \u201c[I thought,] \u2018Can I handle everything else that comes with writing a book that\u2019s very personal?\u2019 \u201d she says. \u201cI almost handed back the deposit \u2026 I thought, \u2018I\u2019m a private person. I don\u2019t really feel I want to share these things, or if I do share these things, how are people going to handle it, because my life has not been super rosy all of the time.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n For lunch, Leong is serving Hainanese chicken rice, a dish she learnt to make from her mother, a nurse, and one of the recipes in her book. Asking her to cook was my idea, both as research into her kitchen prowess and to create a safe space for discussing some darker parts of her life. On her left forearm is a tattoo that says \u201cExistence is pain\u201d, a quote from the animated series Rick and Morty<\/a>.<\/p>\n As we each form the perfect forkful, balancing the ratio of tender chicken to aromatic rice and piquant sambal (note: she can cook exceedingly well), we begin talking about one of the most traumatic chapters of her life.<\/p>\n Gucci sweater and skirt, Ryan Storer bracelet.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford<\/p>\n Last year, Leong was invited to an International Women\u2019s Day event to speak about being a woman of colour on TV, when a speech by a fellow panellist, sexual abuse survivor and campaigner Anna Coutts-Trotter<\/a>, struck a painful chord. \u201cI identified with [her story] far too much,\u201d Leong says. Through quiet sobs, she finally realised what she\u2019d long avoided admitting to herself: she herself was once raped.<\/p>\n The assault happened about 15 years ago, when she was working in the hospitality industry. \u201cI was so ashamed that I just pretended it didn\u2019t happen, so I didn\u2019t keep proof \u2026 I just wanted it to all go away,\u201d says Leong, who has not disclosed the perpetrator\u2019s identity. \u201cFor the longest time, I did not identify myself as a survivor of sexual assault.\u201d<\/p>\n While writing Guts, Leong decided \u2013 reluctantly at first \u2013 to break her silence. \u201cThat was a tricky time to be in hospitality,\u201d she says of her time in food PR, long before her first TV hosting role, on SBS\u2019s The Chefs\u2019 Line in 2017. \u201cI let my boundaries be flagrantly crossed, and then I took that blame onto myself for such a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Leong\u2019s decision to go public about the rape comes amid hospitality\u2019s \u201cgreat reckoning\u201d, in which female workers at top Australian establishments are speaking out about their own experiences of sexual harassment and abuse. Though she regrets not speaking up at the time of her own ordeal, \u201cwe didn\u2019t have conversations about consent back then\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been simmering below the surface for such a long time. Enough is enough \u2026 I have huge admiration for the women who spoke up for that story because that was not easy,\u201d she says, referring to a major investigation<\/a> into the issue by Nine, owner of this masthead.<\/p>\n Leong has also learnt, sometimes the hard way, the price of speaking up, especially during her three years on MasterChef, the role that made her a household name. She says she has been portrayed as \u201cdifficult\u201d or a \u201cbitch\u201d \u2013 \u201call the fun tropes that women are saddled with\u201d \u2013 both of which she rejects.<\/p>\n Al\u00e9mais \u201cOphira\u201d gown, Ryan Storer earrings.Credit: Jesse-Leigh Elford<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve thought to myself \u2018you don\u2019t get it\u2019,\u201d she says, fighting back tears. \u201cI would never do anything \u2026 that would make it harder for other people [of colour] to come in after me. And if you don\u2019t understand that, then, what can I say? \u2026 I\u2019m not sad, I\u2019m angry.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, working on MasterChef was a mostly happy time for Leong, notwithstanding the shock 2023 death of her colleague<\/a>, Jock Zonfrillo, and intense speculation around why she left the show<\/a> soon afterwards. While conceding that \u201cpeople want to know about how the sausage is made\u201d, she wrote about MasterChef much like the rest of the book: on her terms.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t necessarily feel like I wanted to write about some of that [MasterChef] chapter, only because it\u2019s too fresh; it\u2019s not even in the rear-vision mirror yet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The experience reinforced to her how far the industry has to go in terms of accurate representation. \u201cI\u2019m not saying the needle\u2019s not moving,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m just saying it\u2019s not moving fast enough.\u201d She also learnt to be more comfortable taking up space. \u201cNow, if you want to put me in the centre of the room, under a spotlight, I will stand there because I know that I deserve to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n Raised in the predominantly white suburbs of Sydney\u2019s Sutherland Shire, Leong is the eldest daughter of Singaporean migrants (her brother, a doctor, is five years her junior). Her childhood, while mostly happy, was tempered by her father\u2019s strict parenting style, which included physical discipline.<\/p>\n She says it\u2019s greatly influenced her decision to remain child-free. \u201cIf I had kids, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d be able to correct the multi-generational damage that has occurred, so I\u2019d rather just err on the side of trying to live my life well and with truth,\u201d says Leong, who speaks to her mother often, and has a goddaughter, the daughter of close friends.<\/p>\n If you want to put me in the centre of the room, under a spotlight, I will stand there because I know that I deserve to be there.<\/p>\n Melissa Leong, TV personality<\/p>\n \u201cPeople just expect that if you\u2019re polished and you are well presented and you appear \u2018unbroken\u2019, that you must have grown up in a solid [family] environment,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful in many ways [for how] I grew up. But I\u2019m also pretty f—ed up by it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebuilding herself after a setback is a theme that runs through Leong\u2019s story. In her teens, she gave up on dreams of a career in music due to chronic repetitive strain injury. She pivoted to a degree in economics and social sciences at Sydney University, before working in make-up artistry, advertising and food writing, which ultimately led to her TV break.<\/p>\n In her book, Leong writes honestly about her battle with an eating disorder, an autoimmune condition and mental breakdown. In her early 30s, she spent two years living in Tasmania, where she began to heal from the trauma of her younger years, work she says is ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can\u2019t be vulnerable, you can\u2019t have real relationships,\u201d she says. \u201cI had hardened myself so much that I was never going to be able to have real, proper human connections and relationships with people beyond a certain level, if I didn\u2019t deal with it then.\u201d<\/p>\n Officially, Leong, whose three-year marriage to bar owner Joe Jones ended in 2020, is single. Still, I ask her about a recent Instagram post seeking advice on where to meet prospective partners (the responses ranged from running clubs to Bunnings). She confesses that she has been on a few dates with one of the men who direct messaged her. \u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d she says, with a grin.<\/p>\n Not that she has much spare time. Leong has just returned from New Zealand, where she filmed a new reality show, Taste of Art (\u201cLego Masters meets MasterChef,\u201d she says). Since 2023 she\u2019s hosted Ten\u2019s Dessert Masters, and competed in this season of The Amazing Race, a WhatsApp group helping her stay connected with her co-racers after filming ended. Then there\u2019s her genre-busting roles co-hosting UFC Fight Week on Kayo Sports, and starring in SBS docu-series such as The Hospital: In The Deep End (2024).<\/p>\n Away from the camera, Leong\u2019s passions include Pilates and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. \u201cI like martial arts because I have felt very weak in my life \u2026 and I don\u2019t ever want to feel that way again,\u201d she says, alluding to the trauma she has endured.<\/p>\n She also finds contentment from podcasts, watching the odd TV series (she\u2019s just revisited Only Murders in the Building), reading and, of course, cooking and enjoying food. \u201cI\u2019m definitely more aware of balance and rest and tempering activity with recreation and things that are good for my mind,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time prioritising other people\u2019s feelings and comfort beyond my own. And so now it\u2019s time to be a little bit more selfish, a little bit more self-focused, in a constructive way, in order to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n Guts: A Memoir of Food, Failure and Taking Impossible Chances (Murdoch Books) by Melissa Leong is out on September 30. Melissa Leong will appear in conversation with Melissa Singer for the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, on October 1, 7pm. wheelercentre.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1800 RESPECT<\/a> (1800 737 732); Lifeline: 13 11 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fashion editor: Penny McCarthy. Hair: Brad Mullins using Hask. Make-up: Aimie Fiebig using Charlotte Tilbury. Fashion assistant: Abbie Stockwell<\/p>\n Stockists: Al\u00e9mais<\/a>; Gucci<\/a>; Macgraw<\/a>; Michael Kors<\/a>. <\/p>\n Get the best of Sunday Life magazine delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. Sign up here for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Macgraw](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1759038550_520_58e7f3815e7b127482c1ef6680d6deb91cb49f07.jpeg\")
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