My Life

The Channel 7 presenter has been at the frontline of news reporting during the pandemic for the past two years in Melbourne.

She has done live television crosses from abandoned CBD streets and an empty MCG, fought back tears when reporting on the outbreak of Covid-19 in Melbourne aged care homes and posted thousands of social media updates on her Instagram page keeping Victorians abreast of restrictions and case numbers.

“I’m grateful I was able to work because so many people couldn’t work, but it’s been hard,” Jacqui, 39, says. “It was all-consuming. For the first time in people’s lives, the news truly affected every single thing that they did. Sometimes people can be really critical of the news, but in this instance, it has been part of everybody’s lives for the past two years.”

At times, the responsibility of reporting the news in recent years has been a heavy burden for Jacqui.

A journalist for the past two decades, Jacqui admits there were moments it became too much — such as when she was trolled on social media by the anti-vaccination community and when she and her husband were trying to juggle home schooling their daughters,

“If you want to do something, just do it.”

JACQUI FELGATE

Maddie, 9, and Georgia, 4, with busy careers.

“That feeling of heaviness when you’re reading the news every day and there is nothing good to report, after 18 months of it, it can get a little overwhelming,” she says.

“I did also have a lot of vicious, vicious trolling and that made me feel a little anxious. But you just focus on the good and positive, and the people you can help.”

@JACQUIFELGATE7

Buying a retired racehorse called Red was a ray of sunshine for the avid horse lover.

Having grown up in country Victoria and ridden horses for years, Jacqui had always dreamed of owning her own horse. “It was the thing that got me through the pandemic,” she says. “You have to go out and feed them every day and ride them, so that gave me an opportunity to have that window of time where I wasn’t thinking about Covid and I wasn’t being totally consumed by news. It was a great escape for my mental health.”

To maintain her health, Jacqui also loves spending time outdoors and most mornings will rise early and go for a run before work. She also does pilates and paddleboarding with her family during the summer months.

Michael with daughters Georgia and Maddie. For the passionate sports lover and Brownlow Medal host, it was a night out celebrating the Geelong Cats winning the 2007 premiership that brought her and Michael together.

Excited the club had won its first flag in decades, Jacqui sent her best friend a text saying it was the greatest day of her life. Her mate responded it would be — if she also met her husband. “And I met Michael that night,” Jacqui says with a laugh. “I went to a bar on Chapel St (in Melbourne) and Michael was there with a friend I knew and we started talking and that was it.”

Jacqui is feeling positive about 2022 and is planning a big European bash for her 40th birthday later this year.

“I think what this experience has taught us is to do those things that maybe you were putting off,” Jacqui says. “If you want to do something, just do it.”

Jacqui intends to take her European holiday with her husband, Michael, and their two daughters after they had to

cancel plans to spend their 10th wedding anniversary overseas due to travel restrictions last year.

“In our family, we both work incredibly long hours so the pandemic has taught us you need to make more time for yourself and your children,” she says.

The family are in the middle of building a new home in Melbourne and Jacqui is also excited about travelling to Beijing in February for the Winter Olympic Games. “That is going to be an interesting experience because we will still be dealing with restrictions and being part of the Olympic bubble, so that will be a rather unique Olympics — but it will be great to travel again.”