For more than 30 years, she built a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most compelling broadcasters before that door slammed shut.
In 2023, Today FM announced its immediate closure and her redundancy – the third she’d faced in as many years. Gillespie decided enough was enough. She had to walk away from radio.
Grant Kereama and Polly Gillespie dominated the airways before a wave of redundancies forced reinvention. Photo / File
Now, three years after the end of her broadcasting career, the 63-year-old is confident she made the right call, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss the highs.
“I do miss the connection with the audience. I miss that part – but those times are gone,” she says.
“I was so lucky and I didn’t appreciate it at the time. It was an era when radio and TV were it. Before social media, YouTube, Netflix and the like were important.”
The broadcasting veteran says she is glad to no longer be dealing with radio’s competitiveness.
“It was cutthroat – radio was like being in Miss New Zealand every day of your life.
“You were constantly told you had to do well in the ratings. Sometimes you did, sometimes you didn’t. You become very self‑critical, ‘What did I do wrong?’ I don’t miss that.”
When the rug was pulled out from underneath her, she took it as an opportunity to reassess what mattered to her.
Gillespie retrained as a counsellor and therapist, deciding to use her own tragedies and triumphs to help others as a trauma counsellor.
“I’ve been through a lot and survived it and learned so much about people. I find people really interesting.
Polly Gillespie is working as a trauma counsellor, hoping to use her own experiences to help others. Photo / NZ Herald, Hagen Hopkins.
“I’ve had so many misadventures, maybe I can help other people through theirs.”
She found therapy helpful in dealing with her mental health struggles, which she says started as a teen battling anxiety.
The host also suffered the loss of a child in a late-term miscarriage in her 30s, and her sister Jeanette died of flu complications in 2000.
Gillespie says she’s also suffered “a different kind of trauma” when it comes to dating “bad men”. But she’s quick to note ex-husband Kereama is exempt, calling him a “good man” and “great friend”.
Now, though, she is ready for her next misadventure. Gillespie has signed up to be a castaway on Celebrity Treasure Island New Zealand.
She admits people might be shocked to see her there – after all, her brand has never exactly been associated with “roughing it”. But she’s not there to change perceptions, she’s just there to write her next chapter, even if it’s short; “I’m expecting I won’t be there for a long run,” she says with a laugh.
After Covid, Gillespie admits she was scared to say yes to things. Saying no made her feel safe after the trauma of the pandemic and job losses.
“But there’s no growth in that. So, when Treasure Island came up, I thought, just do it. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe break a rib or fall off a cliff? I need to do more things that challenge me instead of sitting back and always saying no.”
She also has a personal reason for being there: her chosen charity, Kidney Health NZ. She says she knows all too well how life-changing kidney donation can be.
“Grant donated his kidney to a close friend,” Gillespie says through tears, recalling the gift her ex-husband was able to give rugby legend Jonah Lomu in 2004, 11 years before his death.
Both of her former sisters-in-law, Kereama’s siblings, have also recently donated a kidney; one to Gillespie’s nephew and one to a friend’s child.
“They’re just good people,” Gillespie says of the family, noting that among Kereama and his three siblings, there’s “only five kidneys between them now”.
Polly Gillespie is heading to Celebrity Treasure Island. Photo / TVNZ, Matt Klitscher
She shrugs off the idea her ex would be proud of her charity choice, admitting she kept her casting a secret from him so he wouldn’t try to talk her out of it.
“My daughter is going to tell him soon, but by then I’ll be on the island, and he won’t be able to text me, ‘Get on a helicopter and get out of there’.”
But she explains she’s going into the game with a new mantra, “no expectations”.
“I’ve been made redundant several times and found out a partner was a bad man, so I have no expectations about anything anymore.”
Gillespie is also considering a move into politics and has spoken to several party leaders about a potential campaign in this year’s election.
“I’m in limbo,” Gillespie says, adding her motivation to run is rooted in feeling like the country is caught between two parties “who just don’t want to offend or upset”.
“I think it’s time for new ideas and bravery, and having an authentic voice that’s not trying to pander and not lose votes.
“I’m just intrigued that perhaps another party might be able to really begin some change and ignite some passion in politics again.”
Asked where she stands on the political spectrum, Gillespie says “we need to give hope to the middle and working class. People are really struggling”.
But with politics comes scrutiny about your past, present and future. Is she worried about what might be dredged up?
She says she’s not bothered in the slightest about her dirty laundry being aired – everyone has already seen it hanging out to dry anyway.
Gillespie is also aware of the online chatter and rumours about her, but she tries not to read the comments because, these days, it’s not the truth that stings, it’s the lies.
“One of my son’s friends told me someone wrote online that I left my old shoes in a shoe shop. I was furious – because it never happened.
“You could call me fat or stupid or overly Botoxed and I’d shrug, but accuse me of leaving old shoes in a shop? Horrendous.”
– Celebrity Treasure Island screens on TVNZ 2 from Monday, April 27