Back when she was a uni student, Melissa Doyle was sent into Bathurst Gaol to talk to the prisoners. She was keen to find out what crimes the men had committed.
“I remember a guy saying, ‘Oh, I jump counters,'” Mel tells TV WEEK. “In my ignorance I’m like, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ And he’d been a bank robber.
“I think a lot of us are just intrigued by a life that we will – hopefully – never experience.”
That was more than three decades ago, when Mel, having just finished school in Sydney, was studying to be a journalist. It would turn out to be the perfect career for her. Mel has always been intrigued by other people’s lives. Even now, when she’s being interviewed by TV WEEK, she can’t help asking the interviewer questions (“Do you have kids?”).
Mel’s latest project, presenting Life Behind Bars, has given her another chance to satisfy her curiosity about prison life.
(Image: TV WEEK)Mel’s latest project, presenting Life Behind Bars, has given her another chance to satisfy her curiosity about prison life.
The documentary series takes a glimpse inside three NSW jails, including Dillwynia Correctional Centre, Australia’s largest prison for women. One of the things that really affected Mel was seeing female prisoners who were missing their children.
“That must be really, really hard,” she says. “If that’s not incentive to get yourself together and well, so that you can be reunited with your children, then I don’t know what would be.”
Mel, who’s married to John Dunlop and is mother to Nick, 20, and Talia, 18, is very grateful to have had her whole family around her over the Christmas break. Nick is attending college in the US, but was able to make a trip home. Everyone did their best to avoid catching COVID.
Mel has a book coming out, How To Age Against The Machine, featuring women sharing the joys and challenges of getting older.
(Image: TV WEEK)“My daughter turned 18 just before Chrissie and we were a little bit like, ‘Oh, don’t go anywhere and risk getting it!'” Mel says. “Christmas the year before, half our family was in lockdown. We were determined that there was no way we were going to miss Christmas of 2021, so we all just lay low and it was lovely.”
After Christmas, Nick went back to the US. Mel admits there were tears.
“There’ll always be tears,” she says. “I don’t think that will ever change. Nick moving overseas, going to college, at the end of 2020, right in the thick of COVID, oh, that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But we had to do it. You have to let them go and spread their wings and live their life.
“They work it out. Nick’s now sending us photos of the meals he cooks for himself. He’s quite the gourmet. I’m like, ‘Where was all this when you were living at home? Thanks very much!'”
As for Talia, she’ll be starting university this year. Mel says it’s a “really strange feeling” being mum to two fully fledged adults.
“It’s fantastic in so many ways because my relationship with them is different and it’s better and it’s wonderful. But it’s hard to let them go because I just want to be Mama Bear and hug them to my chest for the rest of our lives.”
She says she misses her children being young and wanting to hold her hand.
“You go to cross a road or you go somewhere and their little hand reaches out for yours… that’s probably the thing that I miss the most.”
Mel is married to John Dunlop and they share two kids; Nick, 20, and Talia, 18.
(Image: Instagram)Mel turns 52 this month, and the topic of ageing has been on her mind. She has a book coming out, How To Age Against The Machine, featuring women sharing the joys and challenges of getting older. She knows she’s one of the lucky ones.
“I’m healthy, I’m in a relationship, I’m loved, I’ve got two beautiful, healthy, happy children who I’m so proud of and I’m really grateful that I’m able to do what it is I enjoy doing workwise,” she says. “So yeah, I count my blessings every single day.”
Over the past two years, Mel has had plenty of time for reflection. She’s spent more time at home than any other point in her career, thanks to COVID. Although she struggled at first with the idea of not being able to jump on a plane whenever she wanted, she soon “sank into it”.
“For me, it was just going, ‘Well, okay, this is the universe’s way of saying, ‘Just chill for a bit.”‘ I’ve wanted a puppy for ages, so we got a puppy. I’ve spent time in the garden and pottering around the house. I’ve never had a break this long, so I’ve just really savoured it.”
After spending more than a decade hosting Sunrise alongside David Koch, she’s not looking to return to breakfast TV.
(Image: Seven)Of course, Mel has had more going on in her life than gardening and cleaning up after a puppy. As well as her book on ageing, she has another book coming out – 15 Seconds Of Brave – plus a weekend radio show on Smooth FM.
She’s also “cooking up ideas” for more TV projects. But after spending more than a decade hosting Sunrise alongside David Koch, she’s not looking to return to breakfast TV.
“I don’t harbour ambitions to go back to something I’ve already done,” she explains. “I did it, I loved it, I had a ball, and then I left that and I moved onto Sunday Night, which was one of the most satisfying, incredibly amazing parts of my career.
“Jobwise, it’s like, ‘Okay, what can I do next?’ So hopefully I will continue to try new things and evolve and grow.”
