Melissa Leong 'It's Not My Shame'

Melissa Leong is a celebrated food writer, TV host and judge, best known for bringing warmth, intelligence and honesty to Australian screens. The daughter of Singaporean-Chinese parents, Melissa has built a career that celebrates culture, creativity and courage, using food and storytelling as her way of connecting people to what really matters. In this episode, Melissa opens up about growing up different and how feeling like an outsider shaped her sense of self, embracing individuality as a lifelong journey. She shares the importance of releasing shame that isn’t ours and the healing that comes from owning our stories with honesty and grace. Melissa also reflects on why failure is essential to growth and why learning to say no is such a vital part of her self-care. Know someone who'd enjoy this episode? Why not share it with them by tapping the 3 dots above ⬆︎ and passing it on LINKS: Melissa's memoir GUTS is available now wherever you get your books If you loved this chat with Melissa we think you'll love Jess's conversation with Julie Goodwin here If you love what we do, why not follow the show, and rate and review on Apple or Spotify CREDITS: Host: Jessica Rowe Guest: Melissa Leong Executive Producer: Nic McClure Audio Producer: Nat Marshall Digital Content Producer: Zoe Panaretos The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show acknowledges the Gadigal people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we recorded this podcast, and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples here today.

You can listen to Melissa Leong 'It's Not My Shame' online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Melissa Leong 'It's Not My Shame' is an episode from The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show by A Crap Housewife Production .

This episode is 49:48 long.

This episode was published on Oct 28, 2025.

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