On the day her twin sons were born, The Real Housewives Of Melbourne star Jackie Gillies recalls her husband, Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies, had an epiphany.
She remembers, “I was lying there after my C-section and Ben said, ‘I need to write a book. I don’t want my boys googling me when they’re older and piecing together stories from the internet – I want them to hear it from me. I want to be raw and honest, and I want my boys to be proud.'”
Jackie, who’s also a psychic medium, says Ben’s recent autobiography Love & Pain, which he co-wrote with bandmate Chris Joannou, was a “healing experience” for them.
“This was about Ben being transparent and opening up about his mental health struggles,” explains Jackie, 43, who’s now competing with her hubby on The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition. “He’d never spoken about his alcohol addiction, but he also wanted to celebrate the success of Silverchair because he always says, ‘If it wasn’t for the fans, we couldn’t do what we do.'”
For Ben, 44, putting pen to paper was a cathartic experience. “Writing that book, retracing memories and shared moments, was a mix of emotions,” he says. “Chris and I wanted to be brutally honest and vulnerable. Some parts were like therapy, while others took a bit to dig deep into.”
Ben, Daniel Johns (centre) and Chris found fame as Silverchair.
Digging deep was something Ben and Jackie had to do on the Amazing Race. “It was like being in a pressure cooker,” Jackie tells. “Ben is calm and I have my fiery Croatian side. His collectedness got us through a lot of the challenges.”
While Ben jokes he and Jackie are as different as “night and day”, he believes their differences became their strengths during the race. “When one of us was down, the other would step up,” he says. “We balance each other out.”
Explaining why he was excited by the opportunity to do the Amazing Race, Ben adds, “It’s one of those life experiences you chase – the thrill of the unknown and the sheer excitement of what each day brings.”
While Jackie also loved their adventure, being away from their two-year-old twins Rocco and Bonham proved trying.
“I got really emotional a few times,” she says. “I missed my chipolatas so much!”
Making twins Rocco and Bonham proud.
Ben continues, “It’s the longest we’ve been apart since the boys came into our lives. I missed them too, but they gave us strength – hopefully, they can watch us back one day and be proud of their mum and dad.”
Jackie and Ben went through seven rounds of IVF and suffered a devastating miscarriage on their journey to becoming parents. Jackie recalls, “When I heard the heartbeat, everything was fine. The next time we went and the heartbeat wasn’t there, it really affected me.”
She was 38 when she started fertility treatment and was confident getting pregnant would be easy. She urges women who are delaying having children to freeze their eggs so they don’t endure the same trauma.
Years before she became a mum, Jackie was on TV when she predicted she’d have twins. But even before that, Jackie’s psychic abilities were clear. As a teen, she had a Silverchair poster on her wall and told her mum she was going to marry Ben one day. When she was 29 and still single, she told her father, “I’m going to be married by the time I’m 30.”
“Dad told me I was crazy,” Jackie laughs. “But after running into Ben at a party and then a year of platonic friendship, we kissed. Two days later, he proposed with the exact ring I had on my manifestation board. I was married the day before my 30th birthday.”
Jackie also “manifested” her role on The Real Housewives after falling in love with the Beverly Hills series. She reveals, “Without even knowing an Aussie version was in the works, I’d been put forward by a producer friend. When I went to a casting, one of the directors was testing me. I said her grandfather’s name was Josef. She said I was wrong and that his name was David.
“But after calling her mum, she learnt that while he went by David, his name was originally Josef and he was a Holocaust survivor. She asked, ‘How did you know that?’ I said, ‘Because I’m psychic and I’m going to be on this show!'”
Jackie was the first to be cast for the series, which ran for five seasons from 2014 and is now rumoured to be cancelled, but after The Amazing Race, she hopes to return to TV. “I’d love to do some kind of psychic show where I go to someone’s home and transform their lives.”
The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition screens 8pm Monday to Thursday on TVNZ 2.
