MKR: JODIE-ANNE’S RAUNCHY PAST – SHOCK PICS
THE LOVABLE COUNTRY COUPLE OPEN UP ABOUT THEIR LIVES BEFORE MKR
Mick and Jodieanne have forged themselves a reputation as the nice guys on the 10th anniversary season of
My Kitchen Rules.
Staying out of the drama and keeping smiles on their dials are the country Victorian married couple’s main approaches to the competition. However, in a revealing and exclusive interview with New Idea, the semi-retired Torrumbarry locals reveal there’s more to their story than meets the eye … and it all begins with how they met.
“At the time I met Mick, I was a topless waitress,” Jodie-anne, 49, tells New Idea. “He used to spy on me from the back of his car and we just started chatting one day! We kind of knew each other because I knew Mick’s mum and we started chatting over the bar one day and three days later I was hooked, Mick was hooked.”
The bubbly home cook reveals she worked as a stripper and topless waitress for a number of years. “I was the one that was doing 50ths and 60ths and 70th birthdays,” she admits, laughing. “I wasn’t what you would call high-end or whatever.”
While Jodie-anne isn’t keen to go too much further down memory lane, she reveals: “We’re certainly far from ashamed about it.”
After Jodie-anne met Mick, it wasn’t long before she gave up her career as a stripper and topless waitress. “Everything moved pretty quickly,” she recalls. “We were engaged after five months and we were married after 12 months!”
Then it wasn’t long before the couple decided to save up and move from Melbourne to Torrumbarry where they purchased a power tool business.
For years, Mick and Jodieanne worked tirelessly to buy their own home and set up a life for themselves.
However, Mick, 47, reveals their hard yakka took its toll on their relationship. “Basically, Jodieanne and I noticed I was getting more short-tempered, I didn’t want to go out, very sceptical of people and I just wasn’t being myself,” he explains. “Jodie-anne kept saying there was something not quite right and that I was depressed. I felt like I was missing something. Life was no longer fun. Being a bloke, I resisted getting help but I ended up going to the doctor because it became apparent that something wasn’t right.”
After undergoing a mental health assessment, Mick says his doctor had a diagnosis, which was extremely confronting. “He told me he thought I had a problem in my relationship, which really surprised me and worried me,” Mick says. “We went and saw a marriage counsellor and we found out that we actually had a third person in our relationship that was causing the dramas, and to our surprise, it was the business. Our business was the third wheel in our relationship.”
So, the hard-working duo made the tough decision to sell their business. “We realised we as good as owned our house, we have no kids, so we decided to spend quality time together,” Mick reasons. “I was suffering depression and it was hurting our relationship and it was all because of the one thing I thought was stable, and that was our business.”
Fortunately for Mick and Jodie-anne, the sale of their business led them to making another dream come true … competing on My Kitchen Rules! “Because we’re semi-retired, that’s why the MKR adventure was able to happen,” Mick says. “If it wasn’t for that, there’s no way we could have done MKR.”
“I WAS SUFFERING DEPRESSION AND IT WAS HURTING OUR RELATIONSHIP”