‘My advice to others? Stand by the river and the bodies of your enemies will flow’.

Forty years in Australian television is no small feat. But for Julia Morris, it’s been equal parts hustle, reinvention, and survival, and now, another Gold Logie nomination to add to the mix.

This marks Morris’ fourth nod for the top prize. And while she jokes and jabs her way through any red carpet, underneath the sequins is a performer with grit, sharp instincts, and a long memory. Very long.

“On the 7th of June this year, it was 40 years on Australian television.”

Let that sink in.

The survivor mindset: rent, ratings, and resilience

Morris tells Mediaweek that her career longevity didn’t stem from a masterplan. It came down to showing up, saying yes, and doing the job… whatever it was.

“I guess my modus of survival has just been that I needed the wages. Really. In the early days, I took every job that came my way because that was a good worker.

“That was someone who I’d turn up to gigs and they’d be like, can you do a headstand and leave one leg out? I’d be like, yes, I’m a can-do person,” she said.

Today, she’s a consistent presence in prime time. Co-hosting I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! alongside Robert Irwin, Morris helped drive the show to 3.9 million viewers in its 2025 season launch week, 2.26 million on launch night alone.

But being on screen doesn’t mean being immune. Especially, she says, as a woman in media.

Morris explained: “The Australian media and the media landscape as a whole is not kind to women as they age. They’re not particularly kind to opinionated women or women with a loud laugh. They are specifically vitriolic to anyone who has the self-confidence to stand up and say, I think I might be funny.”

Not that she’s let that stop her.

Public life, private battles

The past couple of years haven’t been easy. After nearly four decades in the industry without incident, Morris found herself blindsided by scandal headlines, none of them, she says, with basis.

“Last year was one of the most difficult years because some non-deplume at a certain publication decided to turn on me, literally after 39 years of there never being a breath of scandal about me, never, ever,” she said.

“And then all of a sudden, a story started last year that I was a monster on set. And then another story this year that backed it up and that backed up last year’s story, but coincidentally, were both by the same person.”

But she doesn’t shy away from naming the emotional cost of those stories, or how they’ve changed her.

“The Julia Morris now when compared to the Julia Morris who started in this industry is not as big a people pleaser. I think it’s naturally in me anyway, so I sort of can’t help it,” she said.

“The Julia Morris now can also read nasty like The Matrix. As soon as someone’s doing something to my face where I’m like, ‘oh, wow, okay, we’re going there’. But you’re going to have to get up a little earlier to bully me, because I’ve been bullied by the best in the business. Literally by the best in the business.”

On women, work, and the long road to solidarity

Despite championing women throughout her career, Morris is blunt about how slow the industry has been to do the same.

“This whole women supporting women shit, that’s really only just started to float to the surface properly with action, I’d say in the last five years, because the rest of it was all talk.”

Morris told the story of how she was “bullied ferociously by other women” in one of her early jobs.

“They’d do stuff like yell, ‘Julia, there’s a camera out in the hallway and you’re not in the photo, are you going to be okay?’ Or they’d all hang out in the dressing room and close the door in my face,” she said.

But Morris is certain she will have the last laugh: “She’s got a long memory, bubs. She’s got a long memory”.

Julia and her fellow Gold Logie nominee Poh Ling Yeow

Reading faces, raising eyebrows

For Morris, her connection with audiences, and her read on the industry, isn’t magic. It’s micro-expressions. And it’s years of watching reality TV.

“I think reality television has helped us with our bullsh** metres,” she said.

“I think we have watched people’s faces up closer than we would see a human being if we were chatting to them. And we’re watching those nuances and those micro-expressions. And so now we know someone’s faking it or putting on their mask.”

Why this nomination matters

Though she’s been nominated for the Gold Logie before, this one feels different. It comes after a period of public challenge and private recalibration, and with a visible sense of purpose.

“Each nominee, including the most gorgeous gentleman alive [Hamish Blake, the only male to be nominated], has put their back into it, and each nominee is a specialist. They have done the 10,000 hours. They have worked out a way to fit into this system without absolutely selling indignity down the river,” she said.

With her trademark mix of frankness, resilience and gallows humour, Morris remains both a disruptor and a survivor. But what about her best piece of advice to anyone else trying to survive in it?

“Stand by the river and the bodies of your enemies will flow.”

Classic Julia. And this time she’s not joking.