Totally Xposéd: Daniella reveals alarming honesty
Iremember the first time seeing Daniella Moyles, then 20, among the group of shiny TV presenter potentials on the set of Total
Xposure in 2009 and thinking, ‘She’s pretty. I like her hair. Is she going to take my job?’. Ah the memories. The constant threat of being replaced by Xposé’s newest next presenter. Total Xposure was the latest incarnation to find a starlet who could ask, ‘Tell us, who are you wearing?’ with a little more gusto and glitter, without breaking into a yawn.
Little could I have imagined the turmoil raging within this natural beauty’s mind and gut. All was not well with Daniella as she painstakingly sets out in her memoir, Jump, which, funnily enough, never mentions the
Total Xposure chapter of her eventual flourishing media career. Success on radio and €120,000 in the bank earned through modelling and influencer gigs did not, however, bring about a sense of inner peace. If anything, unresolved family issues expressed themselves in ways that could be interpreted as ‘having the craic’.
For instance, not knowing when to go home after a night out at Krystal with flatmate and fellow It Girl Georgia Salpa, taking too many drugs, pushing everything to the limit, including a one night stand with a kind of friend’s boyfriend and the humiliation that followed.
I wasn’t expecting such alarming honesty. I finished the book in two days, a feat for any mother of three (step to the side and curtsey). Ernest Hemmingway advised: ‘Write hard and clear about what hurts.’ Jump is a raw examination of a young life that on the surface looked enviable and fast paced but masked a relentless unhappiness and gnawing anxiety that led to a full blown panic attack on Dublin’s M50 motorway when Daniella was 29. This breaking point led to a brave, solo world tour where Daniella repeatedly overcame her fears, from a bungee jump in Costa Rica to finally facing her repressed anger issues through yoga in Thailand. She reveals: ‘I was angry with my dad for his own emotional immaturity and lack of self-awareness, for allowing his unresolved pain to manifest as his own unrestrained anger, for taking no responsibility for that energy he expended into my young, impressionable world.’ The book is dedicated to her dad who clearly equally believes in the art of honest writing to permit his flaws to be laid out for the benefit of collective learning.
We all have the potential to heal those parts of us that need help and this is a book filled with compassion, vulnerability and insight. Before you go healing the world, heal yourself. It’s possibly one of the greatest lessons of our time. It’s clear now why Daniella stood out so much that day all those years ago in TV3. She’s got star quality, except the only validation she requires these days is from within. Nice work, Daniella.
Jump is a raw examination of a young life that looked enviable