Jenny-May: THIS IS ME

The big-hearted Breakfast presenter shares why she feels a responsibility to use her platform wisely. By Siobhan Downes.

THERE is nothing scripted about JennyMay Clarkson. On the morning of our interview, she’s just returned to Breakfast after being off sick for a few days. But there was another reason for her absence – she’s been looking after her husband, Dean, who was injured when one of their four-year-old boys jumped on his stomach. She told the story on air with relish. ‘‘He’s not in a good place. The little one thought it was funny.’’

As co-hosts Hayley Holt, John Campbell and Matty McLean made sympathetic noises, Clarkson added: ‘‘That’ll learn him, because they’ve done rough and tumble, and he jumps on him all the time. So I was like, it’s your fault, mate.’’

Speaking after the show, she is just as free-spoken, stopping the conversation at one point so she can undo her belt. ‘‘Oh god, sorry, I’ve got really tight pants on,’’ she groans.

The TVNZ presenter admits she was ‘‘dumbfounded’’ to be approached to be interviewed as part of the Stuff-Westpac NZ Women of Influence series, ahead of the awards later this year. In fact, she had initially told her publicist she didn’t want to do it. ‘‘It’s a privilege to be thought of in that way – don’t get me wrong. But I guess I don’t see myself in that space.’’

But it’s exactly that refreshing honesty that has made Clarkson a favourite among viewers. In December, while wrapping up the final episode of Breakfast for the year, she broke down in tears as she passed on a message to those who were missing loved ones over the holiday season. It was obviously from a personal place – the previous year, Clarkson lost her older brother to bowel cancer, and just a few months later, her father Te Waka Coffin died of a heart attack.

That emotion resurfaced earlier this month, when American writer Clint Smith was interviewed on Breakfast about explaining the Black Lives Matter movement to children.

Smith spoke about how he first realised things were different for him when his father stopped him from playing with water pistols, explaining the serious implications of such a game for black people.

In a poignant TV moment, Clarkson said the story hit close to home because it made her think about how her own father had refused to give his children Ma¯ ori names because his own name had been mocked when he was growing up.

Witnessing his pain made her determined to give her own children Ma¯ ori names, as it was their birth right, she said.

‘‘They have their names and they will feel strong about their names because they know where they come from, and they can explain that to people. But we’re all part of the revolution – the conversations that we have here in New Zealand, with our children, how we discuss things like race – we’re all part of that conversation. It’s not a brown thing, it’s not a white thing – it’s all of us. And we can all make a difference.’’

It was personal, powerful and, according to Clarkson, not at all premeditated. The words had simply tumbled out of her mouth, straight from the heart.

‘‘I guess I’ve always been that way – I’ve always thrown my own experiences out there. I thought about the pain that my father must have gone through of wanting to name his children after him, or Ma¯ ori names from our own tu¯ puna, but going, ‘no, because I don’t want my children to feel the same way that I did’.

‘‘We have a saying that my Dad used to say all the time which was, ‘ko au ko koe, ko koe ko au’ – ‘I am you and you are me’. So when we look at our names, ‘I am those who came before me’. To not feel like you could gift your child a name that they have a right to… I felt my father’s hurt in that moment.

‘‘It wasn’t an easy conversation to have, but it was an important one to have.’’

Clarkson wants to make it clear she is by no means a mouthpiece for all Ma¯ ori. But she recognises she has a platform on Breakfast, and she sees it as her job to use it responsibly.

‘‘I think about me growing up in the small town of Piopio, did I ever think that I would be in this position today? No, I didn’t – because I don’t remember seeing anyone like me on television. I understand that, and I understand that responsibility, and I don’t take it lightly.’’

Clarkson says she’s always felt a ‘‘calling of service’’ – it’s just taken different forms over

‘But we’re all part of the revolution... It’s not a brown thing, it’s not a white thing – it’s all of us. And we can all make a difference.’ JENNY-MAY CLARKSON