Jess and her sister Emma were being savaged on social media before the first episode of My Kitchen Rules even went to air. And Jess admits it hurt.
“We were just being ridiculed for being ugly, and that’s really ruined the experience for us,” Jess tells TV WEEK.
“In the 31 years I’ve been alive, I’ve never had anyone come up to me and tell me I’m disgusting or ugly. But, wow, the trolls online were out of this world.”
Jess and Emma have been attacked by bullies on social media.
She reveals her family members have also come under attack.
“Mum just said that she was proud of us, and she had 200 comments from people saying horrible, hideous things about us and then about her,” Jess explains.
The MKR contestant obviously could have chosen to avoid social media altogether. But through her job as a real estate manager, she had known Australia’s Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson, who took her own life in 2014 after being cyberbullied.
“Charlotte was one of my tenants, and she was one of the most beautiful people you’d ever meet,” Jess says.
“To have her go the way she did, with all these people just relentlessly bullying… I thought to myself, ‘If you can try and change a few people, get people to see the real you, they’ve got to understand it’s a TV show.'”
Prior to her death Charlotte was targeted by online trolls.
Jess’ plan worked – to some extent.
“I had trolls who were horrible to me, but now they private-message me and we’re friends,” she smiles.
But one woman kept posting “downright nasty” messages online, no matter how much Jess tried to reason with her.
“My brother-in-law actually looked her up and she’s a nurse,” Jess says. “He wanted to confront her. He said, ‘I was just going to rock up to her work and show her boss everything she was doing.'”
Instead, Jess posted online that she had reported the woman to the police.
“I wanted her to see that, because then she stopped,” she adds.
For Jess, the attacks on her appearance cut deep, because she’s struggled with self-esteem throughout her life.
“My sisters have always been 46 kilos and absolutely gorgeous, and I’ve always been the [reality TV star] Khloé Kardashian of the family – big and out of place,” she says.
“So to start hearing all that horrible stuff, it plays on you.”
Jess has previously revealed that she and her husband, Jason, were on the brink of divorce when she left him at home to look after their four-year-old son, Ethan, while she was busy with MKR filming.
“Now, when I get all this ridicule and he sees it, it hurts him,” she says.
“He’s like, ‘What was it all for? You’ve had your whole world ripped apart. You’ve had people calling you ugly. What’s it worth to you?'”
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