Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Entertainment journalist Jonathon Moran on his candid new book

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Join Jono, Ben & Megan for an intimate and powerful conversation with entertainment journalist Jonathan "J-Mo" Moran as he opens up about his deeply personal new book exploring mental health, trauma, and the man behind the sparkly, vibrant persona. He also shares the rudest celebrity he ever met!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

J Moe good morning. Yeah Lovely to have you on now a new book mental is anyone a toolkit for surviving and thriving on the chaotic Rollercoaster of life. I mean aren't they fabulous words that I've chosen to think Nightmare for a publisher to put on a book on a book cover Yeah, but mental is such a cool word thriving surviving chaotic Yeah, but mental is such a cool word thriving surviving Chaotic rollercoaster it kind of sums up. I don't know if it sums up any of your lives But to me it is completely my life

Well, yeah, and you like we're getting to know you a lot more over the side of the Tasman But yeah, you know, you're well known over in Australia Entertainment reporter for over you know, 20 pretty much 20 years show host, podcaster, media personality. Now you're an author as well. So you've done a lot. Mate, I'm not going to lie. I'm exhausted. I haven't stopped for 20 plus years and yeah, I need to pull stumps at some point. So yeah, I think you can have a bit of a relax and a chill. But yeah, no, look, now this being an author is a weird, it's probably the weirdest of all the bits of life that I've achieved. I think it is very strange. It's a completely new world. We work very fast in breakfast radio and in journalism

in general. And this book world is just very strange. Yeah I bet. Now because you're very open and vulnerable in the book about your struggles with mental health and your history and what could have potentially led to that. You said you've been busy for the last 20 odd years. Do you think that was a way to sort of ignore what had gone on in life? Yeah, yeah I do. I look I pride myself in the fact that despite the fact that my head was broken in so many ways, and that my world behind the scenes was crumbling, that I kept not unique, I'm not special, I'm not anything different to anyone else that's at the traffic lights picking their nose next to me while they're listening to you guys on radio breakfast. I am just a person trying to survive in this chaotic world and yes I've had, I endured abuse as a kid and yes I have dealt with addiction and I've had suicide stuff happen in my life,

depression, ADHD, all of these things, but that is, it's all relative and I'm not special in that sense. So I'm trying to normalize the conversation. That's the point. I'm reclaiming the word mental as a word to be celebrated. I wanna celebrate our differences. We've taken the conversation. We haven't taken

the conversation far enough. Too many people are taking their lives because of mental health and we need to drastically move the needle on this. And if that means me being more vulnerable, then lay me down in the middle of the road and I will just be that vulnerable person for you. That's awesome that you what you're doing. That's great. What point because I think like for us, especially we're like entertainers and we try and be happy and positive people all the time. At what point, because I think it's hard and it's brave to talk about your mental health,, at what point were you like, do you know what, I'm just gonna rip the bandaid off, I'm gonna be real.

You hit the nail on the head, it is you know as entertainers we put on our brave face and we step out there but I don't know about you guys but I step in the door at home and my battery is very small and depleted so we really need to look after ourselves too. So a lot of us do, a lot of us mask our pain. For me that point was once I'd come through some therapy and I know that a lot of people are also going through their pain and they're not at the right point where they're able to be as loud and vocal as I am but I have had a lot of therapy. I have done the work. I have been through it and come out largely the other side. I spent a large part of my life not wanting to be alive. Now I want to be alive most of the time and I'm going to

cop a day and the goddamn shit out of it. Yeah. As I said, incredibly brave and so good and it will help so many people. You're talking about it and writing this book as well and so many things you've talked about as well. But one in particular that was it a shopping addiction that you had? I am so bad. I went into I Love Ugly, the New Zealand store. I'm obsessed with them.

I am obsessed because I love the idea of reclaiming the word ugly. Like what is ugly anyway? What is ugly? I'm ugly. We're all ugly. You're talking about ugly inside, outside, whatever. And so it's the same as my love of the word mental. And so yeah, look, I have, my name is Jonathan Moran and I'm addicted to shopping. It is the dopamine hit. I have about eight Labooboos at home. I have the crybaby dolls at home. I know, I know it's hit New Zealand, this craze and I am, I'm guilty. It's the hit that I need. I went into I Love Ugly and I bought a lot of clothes. I don't need clothes. My boyfriend's going to be very cranky when I get home. But I was needing a dopamine

head. I can relate 100% to that. I went shopping at the weekend and afterwards I felt so good and I was like, this is not right. It's not right. But I care? No. Yeah. There's worse things. It's consumerism at its worst. It's working its way on you. Now you spent a lot of your time as we mentioned as an entertainment reporter, hung out with Madonna, Robbie Williams, Myman Shear, you name him. We just did. Who was one celebrity that you really connected with? I thought you were going to ask me who I didn't connect with and who I didn't like.

That's coming up next. That's keeping positive, that's keeping positive. One that I love, and she's not with us anymore, is the late great Carrie Fisher, and she is an icon and Princess Leia for those of us that are too. I saw you talking about this yesterday on the New Zealand Herald interview you did with Ryan Bridges. You ended up in a really wholesome way in her hotel room. Do you want to know a secret?

Yeah. Yeah, of course. For the radio, you can tell anyone. I think she was, I became friends with her, but I really am not sure whether she just wanted to be friends with me or whether she wanted me to be hook up with her assistant, because I did. Oh, assistant? Oh! Did you hook up with the assistant? Oh!

She's trying to hook you up. It was a sneaky way of getting me to, of her being a wingman. No, I'm joking. But did you hook up with the assistant? Yes, of course I did. So did you actually want to be her friend or? The point of obscurity in the book. No, I know things were messed up in Star Wars a little bit as well. There was like, Alicia's sister brother Luke and the dad was, you know, there was a whole lot, there sounds like there was a whole lot going on there too.

Yeah. Well, you know, I am, my head is discombobulated, my friend. Can I tell you who my least favorite celebrity is? Okay. You guys can tell me what you think. My least favorite is Emily Radikowski, the emirata number one. Really? Yeah, she and I had a massive fight on a red carpet once and it went global because I went on my Instagram and posted that I didn't like her and she was the least favourite celebrity that I'd ever met and then she called me misogynistic, which I'm a lot of things.

You can label me a lot of things, but not that. And so it wasn't pretty, we're not friends. What was the disagreement about? Am I getting her confused for Emma Ratacano, the… She's not the test player. Yes, different. Yeah, she's the actor model. Yeah, you've seen her in many things. And the new Lena Dunham Netflix show. And what was the disagreement about?

She kept me waiting for three hours, or a few hours for an interview and a photo and then she got to the red carpet and decided that she wasn't going to do the interview or do the photo and I then was like, who do you think you are? You've got myself, a photographer, a videographer and a publicist standing here for three hours waiting for you and so I called her on, and it didn't go down so well. That exact thing happened with me and Catherine Heigl. She did the same thing. Wow.

Did you call her out? No, too scared. No, I just saw her and smiled and walked away. Too many publishers have us over a barrel these days and they, they basically all blacklist us if we do like step out of the box, but I'm too old and too tired and if someone misbehaves. And I mean, I don't know, like we all have bad days, right? But if you're going to be blatantly rude, then let's try and be nice.

I mean, you've probably seen, you know, the good and the bad and celebrities and they are real people too that I think a lot of people forget, but who was the one that you were most sort of starstruck by sitting next to and talking to? Madonna. Madonna, without a doubt. I know everyone bangs on about how she looks and how much botox she's had and funny Instagram posts and all that sort of stuff, but she is literally the most iconic for me, a gay boy growing up in, I'm not going to say when I grew up, but I grew up listening to her and she is like God for me. I don't believe in God. So when I look at her, she is God.

She is God. Madonna is God. Oh my Madonna. Was she like a, what's that? I was deceased just being in the same room as her. Just like, are you kidding me? Did she actually speak to you? Yes! We're best friends! No, we're not really.

I did my 20 minute interview for her album and it was pretty cool. I flew to LA to do it because she did two interviews for Australia and it was me and Sonia Kruger, who you would know as Tina Sparkles from, well yes Big Brother, but also she was in Baz Luhrmann strictly for this. Oh yes, of course. As I said, I'm admitting my age, but she and I flew over and Sonia actually got, she was so nervous that she had tummy troubles and that's in the book as well. Sonia will be pumped about that.

I got permission to put it in there. I did ring her and said, Hey Son, babe, I'm going to put it in there. And she's like, yeah, well it happened. Oh, that's really awesome. Well, congratulations. I'll give between, I'll put you on the spot here, between fame, mental health, family, fashion, your story's got many layers. If your life was a movie, what's the title of your movie going to be called? Mental as anyone, of course. I mean, I'm sticking with the theme. And of course Brad Pitt would play me. Yeah, that's a good option. Good option.

My boyfriend wouldn't agree. And after traveling and eating my way across New Zealand and eating my way across Australia, I'm not sure my wife would agree, but I'm going to give it a crack. Lovely chatting with you, Jonathan. Good luck for the book and thank you for being so vulnerable. You guys are legends. Thank you so much for having me on.