Is It Just Me? - GUEST: Gina Liano on her Real Housewives exit ✨

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

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Is it just me? A podcast by a couple of Mitches. Alright, now, this is an interview that we recorded months ago and we weren't able to even talk about it. We weren't able to say who it was with because it was off the back of her project that was unannounced. But finally, we can say Mitch and I sat down with the one and only Gina Liano from The Real Housewives of Melbourne.

I've been waiting for this for so long. Oh yeah, so long. Oh, yeah. So exciting. First, we sat down with her to record her podcast, Judge Gina, which they were keeping under wraps. They wanted it to be a big secret, a big announcement. And so Mitch and I had a dispute that Gina was going to mediate. And so immediately after we recorded her podcast, we borrowed a bit of her time to record something for our podcast.

So you're going to have to head along. Search Judge Gina wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah. But, yeah, Judge Gina, she settled a dispute for us. I wouldn't say settled. Can we just put that out there? No, I don't think that it was settled at all and I was very unhappy and I've gone to the Supreme Court because I'd like it to be overruled.

Let me just say this. Mitch ripped me off and I was seeking compensation. Did not rip him off. It was a fair deal and he brought it to the court of Judge Gina and she just felt pressured by him because she was scared by him. But I'm not going to tell you the outcome. You'll have to listen and make it up for yourself. But, yeah, if you don't know who Gina Liano is,

she was one of the Real Housewives of Melbourne, which I only just recently got into, Real Housewives of Melbourne, which I only just recently got into, Real Housewives of Melbourne. Did you ever watch it, Mitch? Yeah, I loved it. I love all the Real Housewives, but the Real Housewives of Sydney and Melbourne have a very special place in my heart. She's so iconic.

And she left that show. And we talk about that in our interview. But yeah, once she left, I stopped watching. Yeah, I mean, even if you didn't watch Housewives, I feel like everyone knows Gina. She's the most recognisable one from the Melbourne franchise, don't you reckon? Oh yeah, that hair, that head of hair. Iconic. Yeah, I love Gina. If you've never watched Housewives, I'm going to give you a little taste of what Gina was like on the show. As you'll hear in the podcast we recorded with her, she's very poised and put together. It takes a lot to get under her skin there's only been a couple of

times on the show that she was rattled and so they made for the most iconic moments this first one i'm going to show you this was when a new girl sally came on board around season four and sally was calling herself the new sheriff in town and i don't imagine gina would have enjoyed that because she's kind of like the unofficial top dog yeah the Melbourne housewives and so she rubbed Gina the wrong way from the get-go but the whole feud started when Sally dared called Gina a bully and Gina did not like being called a bully oh stop being such a bully you should try to shut her down every single time she tries to talk. Just let her talk. Yeah. Stop being a bully. Who am I?

I mean, who is this woman? Coming at me with her pointy finger and her fucking camel teeth, calling me a frigging bully. Fuck off. I think that Sally having a new hashtag, new sheriff in town, on her social media is actually hilarious. A new sheriff in town. Be the sheriff, Darl.

If you want to come in with guns blazing your flat shoes and your legs spread like a bloke, go for it. I'm not going to hang out with Sally. She can go fuck herself, but I do feel sorry for her because I know she's grieving at the moment. That is the first moment of Ginny I ever heard. You showed me that last grab. I do feel sorry for her because she's grieving at the moment after being a total

cunt i know because sally's husband had died not long before filming and jean is just going her and that's what i love her most for she's got these brutal one-liners we talk about a couple of them in our interview with her one of them of course the most iconic i would say um so one of the other housewives petty fle, was being a real punish. All the housewives were on holiday in Dubai together and one by one Petty Fleur was just pissing all the other housewives off and Gina just decided to put her back in her place. All people are trying to do is explain to her how it is

that she's rubbed them up the wrong way. And all Petty Fleur can think about is how she feels. You're a grown woman. So are you. And you need to snap the fuck out of it. I've heard enough of your indulged bull fucking shit. Every time you're going to cry and fucking suck and carry on. Jesus, fuck me.

I just love her. Gosh, she's good. We didn't actually get much of that energy in the podcast, which will play the interview with Gina. Which I was kind of hoping we would. Yeah, me too. But, no, if you listen to her podcast with us in it, we definitely get more of that Gina.

She's playing her role in her show. But in this interview, it was actually really earnest and quite, she was very warm. It was nice to hear this side of Gina. So, yeah, I hope you guys enjoy the chat because we loved it. Yeah, basically what I learned was that Gina is actually very lovely, but fuck, you don't want to get on her bad side. That's what I figured out.

Amen, amen. So go over and listen to Judge Gina. Give it a search. Mitch and I are on the episode. By the time you're listening to this, it'll be out. Otherwise, enjoy, yeah, our chat with Gina Liano. These are the fabulous Real Housewives of Melbourne. Give it a search Mitch and I are on the episode By the time you're listening to this It'll be out Otherwise enjoy Yeah our chat with Gina Liano These are the fabulous

Real housewives of Melbourne I'll give you my opinion But you'd better be ready to hear it Oh my god Mitchell I'm so excited for this How are you feeling? Because I know you're excited For our guest

I mean I thought the day Would never come That we'd get Gina Liano On the podcast But she's bloody here She's here Gina Welcome to the show. Hello, guys.

How are you? We are so good. You know Gina from The Real Housewives, of course. I mean, everywhere in Australia. Her fragrance at Chemist's Warehouse. My God. I'm feeling a lot more relaxed now because we've actually just wrapped up recording on Gina's podcast, Judge Gina.

So you're going to have to go listen to that because Mitch ripped me off and I've brought it to Judge Gina to help me out here. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but you're going to have to go hear the podcast. I'm feeling a lot more relaxed now. Yeah, well, you are, but I'll tell you what, my heart rate's already high as it is, Gina. My blood pressure is through. I've got my GP on the line. I need to get some new medication because that was tense, Gina.

You do a great job. Did you think so? Yeah. Just sharing a bit of the love for my day-to-day job, I suppose, with everybody. It was funny because when we were trying to tee this recording up, your producer would say, oh, you know, we can't do this time, we can't do that day because Gina is actually a barrister. The word actually was thrown around a lot as if that's something that people couldn't possibly believe. Do people think that that was just for TV or something?

Not sure what people think. I can't possibly believe. Do people think that that was just for TV or something? Not sure what people think. I can't really say. But I have been accused of being other things other than a barrister, I must say. Is that not accurate? You are actually a barrister, right? I am. I'm a practising barrister and I'm in court every day.

It showed. It showed. Oh, did it? Oh, my gosh. You were fantastic. I mean, it's a podcast. It's entertainment. But I thought I was in a real court of law.

I mean, Mitch said to me after, he went, why are you dripping? And I'm sweating. I feel like I'm being grilled. I'm going to have to go wear a Holter monitor now for a month after that. Do you get recognised in court? Do people say to you, holy shit, that's Gina Liano, even if they're there because they've done something wrong? Yes, people recognise me in court quite often,

and I am often asked for photographs, but I don't do them. I say, no, no photos in court. And the main reason being is because people tend to put things on social media. And if they do see me in court, and I practice predominantly in the children's court or the family court. And so a lot of the requests come from children. Yeah, right. You know, teenagers. Requests come from children.

Yeah, right. You know, teenagers. And if they post it on social media and they say, saw Gina in court, people will ask them, what are you doing in court? And that sort of gives the game away that maybe there's issues there in their life that – so I don't want to burden them with the responsibility of that, but I'm always flattered. And if they can catch me outside, then I'm always willing and able to get a photo with them.

So it's outside the court. Fair game, but not inside. Outside the court. Yeah, not inside. Yeah. Good. I've got to say, that podcast we just did with you, part of me was kind of hoping that you'd insult me at some stage because that was my favourite thing about Real Housewives of Melbourne

was your comebacks, your disses. Calling you an insignificant arsehair or something. Yes. Exactly. Or something like that or snap the fuck out of it. Yeah, that's another great one. I reckon my favourite diss from Housewives of Melbourne was one of the other ladies said that you had a vulgar mouth.

Well, saying hashtag vulgar mouth. But you have a vulgar mouth. Well, I don't agree and I think that you've got a vulgar heart. Oh, you liked the vulgar heart. There you go. That was my favourite. There was just something so classy and elegant about the insult. And so, hey, we've still got a little bit of time left.

Feel free to insult me before we wrap this podcast. It would make my fucking day. She's brewing on one. Yeah, you don't know what you're asking for here. Oh, I do and I would love it. I can see the cogs turning in her head going, what can I say? What can I tell him? What can I tell him?

But wait, Gina, where did the idea for the podcast come from? Was it yours? Did IHART come to you? Where was the idea brought? Well, it was an interesting thing because, you know, I've noticed very much on social media that there's still a lot going on with housewives, a lot of images of me, voice recordings of things out of the housewives, my one-liners.

And so I can see that there's still a big following there. It's trending on Twitter. I get Google notifications and one of them was that I'd had 38.7 million views on, or it might have even been 48.7 million views on, it might've even been 48.7 million views on TikTok or something. I follow an account that has just constant housewives quotes and references. They live on.

Yes. And so, and everyone I work with says, oh, you know, my friends and I, we send each other messages and we're quoting you all the time. So I thought, okay, well, I've stepped back from housewives, which I loved and I met gorgeous people

and I adored it. But I thought, well, well, I've stepped back from Housewives, which I loved and I met gorgeous people and I adored it. But I thought, well, maybe there's some other things that I can do. And I happened to be having my – I was getting my nails done. I was at a nail salon and there's this gorgeous girl sitting next to me. And she said to me, Gina, we love you at work. Are you going to do anything else? And I said, well – she said, oh, I shouldn't ask you. I said, no, no, you can ask. And I said to her, well, I'm not going back to Housewives at this

stage. It was a big decision to step away. I know it is a bit sad, but I said, I wouldn't mind maybe doing radio or something like that. And she said, well, that's interesting because I work at ARN. Really? What are the odds of that? Wow. And that's how the introduction happened. And we talked about a podcast and I said, well, I've always wanted to do a Judge Gina, like an agony auntie where, you know, if people not really caught situations, but you know, situations where... Petty shit like the situation we were in?

Well, just, you know, if you've got a beef with one of your friends or you need to settle a score of some sort, you know, who's right, who's wrong. You know, the beef could be you had a party and you bought all the beer or all the alcohol and your friends drank it all. So maybe the friend should contribute to the alcohol, you know, or something like that. And we try and quantify things. So, I mean, I haven't had a case like that, by the way, but, you know, that sort of thing where it's usually two friends who have got just this little tiff going on and they need it settled. And most of the people will walk away and accept the decision that I've made.

Most? Yeah, I'd say most. No, no, no, we won't spoil our verdict. No, I know. People are going to have to go listen. No, I won't. And I think most people are happy or they can see the rationale behind it and accept that that is the final decision and that the argument is now over.

So there's some satisfaction in that. It's a lot of fun. But what I do find is that while I am going through the motions of cross-examining the parties because obviously they're self-represented, so I need to quiz them, they tend to fall apart pretty quickly and I think they feel quite intimidated. It was as soon as you asked me to recall dates that I was like, fuck me, I don't even know what date is today.

No. What have I got? They feel quite intimidated very quickly and if not, I pull them into line and make sure they do. You called us by our surnames, which made it feel even more real. I was Mr. Chury, you were Mr. Coombs. You would have had to have studied for a very long time at uni or whatever to become a barrister, right?

I did. I did three degrees. I did a Bachelor of Business in Marketing and I did a Bachelor of Arts where I majored actually in visual arts. Really? I'm a Bachelor of Arts where I majored actually in visual arts. Really? I'm a qualified art curator. Wow. And I did a law degree as well.

But I'm also a celebrant and I did a course to become a celebrant. Oh, my. How many gay weddings do you get asked to do, Gina? I mean, I'm sure you've done this. I've done many. I've done many same-sex weddings. So I think it was the 7th of December of 2017, the legislation changed. Oh, yeah.

And it was no longer the union of a man and woman. It was the union of two people. And generally, a couple needs to give 30 days notice in order to marry, and that's 30 days before the ceremony. notice in order to marry, and that's 30 days before the ceremony. And so I actually conducted my very first same-sex ceremony about 35 days after the legislation was ratified. Oh, wow. So I got the notice of intended marriage in that week, and we had the wedding pretty much a month later. So I was straight in.

They would have had that notice and that email draft ready to go. They had the idea years ago to get Gina to marry them. Yeah, it was fantastic. So I've done about 80 so far. I do same-sex mainly, and it's mainly boys, actually. I do get a lot of girls, but I think the girls aren't getting married as much as – Those gay boys. No, we love it.

The gay boys love a wedding home. The matching suits and the bow ties and the dogs walking down the aisle. But, you know, it's a lot of fun. Getting on, the matching suits and the bow ties and the dogs walking down the aisle. But, you know, it's a lot of fun. I love it so much. And it's so different to what I do in my day-to-day job because generally in my day-to-day job there's not a lot of love. I can imagine. And so this is really refreshing.

Do you travel to do weddings? Yeah, I travel as well interstate. Yeah, I do them all around Australia. Does it make you happy watching the seasons after you on Housewives not be as successful knowing you're gone? Well, there's only been one season after I left and the feedback is that it wasn't quite as successful to the point really that there wasn't a reunion,

whether or not that was success-based or not. I'll give you the feedback from my own mouth. It was fucking dog shit without you. You really ruined the series for me, Gina, honestly. But I get it. It made a difference. Oh, yeah. I'll have to accept that. Did you watch much of it? I watched a little bit of it. And I didn't find it quite as entertaining as, and not because I watch myself and I'm entertained. I think it was just the dynamic of all the girls in the seasons prior to that. I think the girls tried and they, you know, they, they put

in a good effort. Um, but it was, I think it was just a tough act to follow. We were just a great cast. Uh, you know, Sydney struggled, New Zealand struggled and we were just a great cast. It was a good dynamic. Um, you know, and everyone could, uh, there was, there was no competition really. We all had different things to offer. So, you know, I think just all round it was great. So that's disappointing, I suppose. I did maybe let a few people down, so I'm sorry about that. No, no, Gina.

Hopefully on my podcast I can reconnect with the audience. Oh, you will. Here's what you can do to make it up to me. Yeah, what's that? I've heard rumours that because the latest Melbourne season without you was a little bit rubbish, they're like, we might give Sydney another crack. So what you need to do is move to Sydney in time for production

so that you can be on the revamped Housewives of Sydney deal. Well, I've got a feeling that if I said that I would come back to the show that they would do it in Melbourne. Wow. And I wouldn't need to move to Sydney. Okay, so could you grab your phone right now and send the text because I need a new season. Call Andy Cohen.

Get him on the phone and say you'll do it. The power that you have, Gina, to reboot a franchise by saying yes, I mean, come on, make you sleep all night. Well, I've got some ideas about what I could do in relation to Housewives, but it's not as a cast member. So we'll keep that in. I'll keep that in the can and maybe we'll have something else to talk about down the track.

Oh, I like that. Maybe should we do a reunion episode? Oh, my God, host. Yeah, host it. Well, that'd be fun. I would actually love to do that, to be honest. You'd be perfect for that too. You'd call them out on their shit.

Yeah. I would host the reunions, yes. I would do that for sure, yeah. Is it just me? A podcast by a couple of mitches. So talk to us, what have we missed? You haven't been on Housewives in the most recent season. It's been a few years since then, apart from, you know,

going to work, doing the law thing as per usual. What have we missed? What's been happening in Gina's world? So I suppose being a marriage celebrant and doing, you know, practising in law has been my main gig. And then we were in lockdown for a little while. You know, as you know, we all were. And in Melbourne in particular, I think we were in lockdown a lot longer

than you guys were in Sydney. And I think we just lost connection with everybody really for about three years, it feels like. So out of the last, since I did Housewives in 2018, I suppose the last two years have been, well, the year before lockdown and the last year has really just been in practice and now doing this podcast and being a celibate. Did they suspend all of the court stuff during lockdown? Or were you doing Zoom trials? All Zoom. Oh, God, that would be painful. Webex, actually.

Webex. So Zoom, there was a breach of security with Zoom. Oh, my God. So it became Webex meetings, yeah. So I would be sitting with my robe and wig on in my kitchen with a virtual background doing county court. Did you find it easier to hand down a verdict digitally than it was in real life? Well, I wasn't handing down decisions because my practice is as a barrister,

I'm not on the bench. Got it. And so I don't hand down the decisions. I cross-examine or lead evidence. I make opening and closing submissions and I run cases from woe to go. And predominantly I prosecute in the children's court. So it was interesting. My dogs loved it. I apologise for getting your job wrong. This is a true story. Once I applied for a job as a barrister thinking it was barista

because I needed work. It's a true story. You wanted to make coffee. I wanted to make coffee and then I almost ended up doing your line of work, not that I ever could do it. Right. Well, that's interesting because they don't advertise jobs for barristers because you're a sole practitioner,

so you go into your own business and a practice. So if anyone ever sees a job for a barrister, know that it is not. It's not legit. It's not. So you have to be admitted to practice. You have to pass the bar exam and sign the bar roll and get your practicing certificate. No, that's not us. That's not our line of work, is it?

It's a bit of a process. Not really. Well, listen, if you want to get the podcast, you can go and listen to our episode now. It is available, Judge Gina, on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. Great to have you on, Gina. This was so much fun. Before we let you go, we've got to ask one important question. We ask all of our guests this same question.

Yeah, we do. We do. Yes. We just want to know a little thing in life that you appreciate, a little self-care thing, something like that. We get all our guests to contribute to this list. It's called The List of Things Better Than Drugs and Dick. Yes.

Oh, okay. Because we don't want any of our younger listeners becoming obsessed with either of the two. There's more to life. Way more. So things like fresh bed linen. So better than what? Drugs.

Drugs and dick? Drugs and dick, yeah. But essentially it's just a little thing in life you appreciate. I'm probably not really in the running for either of those at the moment, so I would say chocolate. Chocolate. Yes. And dogs.

Oh, I love that. No one said that before. Chocolate and dogs. I tell you what, if I've got chocolate and my three dogs on the bed and they all lie on their back snoring and they're so content and happy and I say, God bless you, darling, and I kiss them and I hug them and they're the happiest little souls. And then have a bit of chocolate.

But when they hear me say, you need to snap the fuck out of it, I'm sick of your indulge bull fucking shit. They run and they hide. Oh, I would too. They recognise my voice from the show. Oh, God. But, yeah. All right, add it to the list.

And our last chance to insult me before we go, please. Okay, well, no, I'm not going to insult you. What I will say is you're better than an insignificant arsehair, both of you. So thank you for being on my show and it's been a pleasure to be joining you. Oh, bless you, Gina. That's lovely.

Wow, I want that on my bloody gravestone, better than an insignificant arsehair. A significant arsehair. Thank you, Gina. I appreciate you coming on. Pleasure. Thanks. Is it just me?

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