Jessica Rowe's secret to marriage success
'We've been married for 14 years which I can't even believe. I just love him so much'
She has one of the strongest marriages in TV, and Jessica Rowe says it’s all down to one thing – having the same core values as hubbie Peter Overton.
“We agree on the big things in life, we have the same moral code,” she explains. “Our approach to what we believe in and what matters to us – our family, our kids, care, compassion, giving back… we share all of that.
“Because we agree on the big things, all the other stuff doesn’t matter as much.”
Despite their closeness, the self-confessed ‘crap housewife’ says she and Pete are very different people.
“We’ve been married for 14 years which I can’t even believe. I just love him so much. We are great friends and we ‘get’ each other even though we are very different,” she says. “We balance each other out.
“I drive him up the wall sometimes. I’m not a great driver and frequently have bingles. The other day I crashed into our driveway because the girls were fighting in the car. Then I tried to hide it from him,” she laughs.
“He’s just a wonderful, decent, good man and there’s no way I’d be who I am without him,” Jess shares. “He grounds me and we round each other out nicely.”
Since leaving Studio 10, Jess has been revelling in spending more time with her family and working on her hilarious podcast One Fat Lady & One Thin Lady, with her dear friend Denise Drysdale.
“I met Neesy four years ago and we’ve become best friends,” Jess explains. “It has been such a joy for me as you don’t often meet great friends later in life.
“[In our podcasts] we talk about life, beauty hacks, cooking, cleaning… it’s like eavesdropping on a conversation. What’s really exciting is that we’ve had about 150,000 downloads. And we’re in top the 10 comedy podcasts in Australia. All of that we were not expecting at all.”
A firm believer in keeping it real, Jess shares all her ups and downs candidly, particularly on her Instagram page. “I like to focus on the positives of social media but let’s not all put a Valencia filter on our lives,” she says.
Jess recently teamed up with Kenwood and is an ambassador for their new kcook MULTI Smart, which prepares and cooks a full meal.
“What I love about this appliance is it actually helps me cook yummy food in a relatively short space of time,” Jess explains. “You just add the ingredients, push the buttons and walk away.”
When it comes to cooking, Jess says she likes to keep things as simple as possible. “I’ll never be a Masterchef but I do want to cook yummy food for my family that’s not going to cause me stress.”
As anyone who follows Jess on Insta will know, staple meals such as spag bol, schnitzels and pasta are all on high rotation in her home.
“I don’t think you have to be a gourmet chef because there’s nothing more soul-destroying when you go to all this effort and the kids don’t eat it,” she says.
“We live in family homes and there will be mess and dodgy meals and that’s ok. We need to focus on what matters, our families and connecting with them.”
Nicola Conville has worked as a journalist and editor for more than 20 years across a wide range of print and online publications. Her areas of expertise are parenting, health and travel. She has two children; Lucy, age eight, and Nathan, age five.
