What if the person who was meant to protect you was the one you needed protection from?

This week on You're Gonna Want To Hear This, Marie Claire Australia Editor Georgie McCourt speaks with world champion runner Jess Denham, who is telling her story publicly after years of being unable to do so.

Raised in isolation and controlled by her parents, Jess appeared to be a sporting prodigy. But behind closed doors, she was enduring unimaginable abuse. Today, both of her parents are in prison for those crimes.

In this deeply personal conversation, Jess also speaks publicly for the first time about living with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), sharing what it's really like to live with a condition that is so often misunderstood.

This is a story of survival, resilience and reclaiming your voice after years of being silenced. Jess also shares why she's fighting for stronger protections for survivors and helping change the way Australia responds to sexual violence.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains themes of childhood abuse and coercive control. If you or someone you know needs immediate assistance, call 000. For confidential 24/7 crisis support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au. Support is also available through Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or at beyondblue.org.au.

This episode covers:

• Growing up as a homeschooled child prodigy under total parental control
• Living a hidden double life as a champion runner while surviving abuse
• Isolation as a tool of abuse and why escape felt impossible
• Finding the courage to report abuse to police
• Living with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and dismantling the stigma around it
• How trauma shapes the brain and body in survival mode
• Rebuilding trust, identity and community after a lifetime of betrayal
• Healing through art and creative expression
• The fight against victim-blaming and sensationalized media reporting
• Advocating for stronger protection of survivors' counseling records
• A message of hope for survivors: "you're not your worst chapter"

Stay up to date with Marie Claire Australia on Instagram

🎧 Listen to You're Gonna Want to Hear This and follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

👀 Watch and subscribe to You're Gonna Want to Hear This on YouTube 📺 for full episodes and clips.

Credits:

Host Georgie McCourt

Edited by Helen Smith

Head of Vodcasting Rachel Fountain

With thanks to our amazing team at Marie Claire

You're Gonna Want to Hear This is a production of Marie Claire and Are Media.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There comes a point on Tradwife TikTok when the fantasy turns dark. The soft linen, the homemade bread and the children who never cry give way to something else: subservient wives, the manosphere, and a fight over who's allowed to be angry.

Caro Claire Burke went looking, and wrote Yesteryear, the runaway-hit novel about an American tradwife influencer who wakes up in the brutal 1850s. This week, Marie Claire deputy editor Mel Gaudron interviews Caro about the book all your friends are arguing about.

They cover why "tradwife" was a term invented by incels to describe a woman who doesn't exist, why culture adores unlikable men but punishes unlikable women, the Anne Hathaway film adaptation with Amazon MGM (Hathaway is set to play Natalie), writing about motherhood while seven months pregnant, and Caro's rallying cry: women disagreeing isn't catty and it isn't a failure. It might be exactly where we should be heading.

Plus, editor Georgie McCourt on the country-life fantasy that gave her two miniature donkeys.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke is out now. Go deeper at https://www.marieclaire.com.au.

Stay up to date with Marie Claire Australia on Instagram

🎧 Listen to You're Gonna Want to Hear This and follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

👀 Watch and subscribe to You're Gonna Want to Hear This on YouTube 📺 for full episodes and clips.

You're Gonna Want to Hear This is a Marie Claire podcast, produced by Are Media.

Guest host: Mel Gaudron

Marie Claire Editor-in-chief: Georgie McCourt

Supervising Producer: Leah Porges

Head of Vodcasts: Rachel Fountain

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When everyone else swam for shore, Charlie Verco paddled the other way: straight towards a great white shark. On a clear, busy Saturday morning at Coogee Beach in June 2026, the 25-year-old surf lifesaver and elite board paddler was training when a woman, Leah Stewart, was attacked just ahead of him. What he did next made headlines around the world.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains detailed descriptions of a shark attack and serious injury that some listeners may find distressing.

Charlie grew up a North Bondi nipper and is now one of the country’s best ocean paddlers, the youngest ever winner of the Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard World Championships. In this conversation he walks Marie Claire Editor Georgie McCourt through the rescue minute by minute: reading the shark’s behaviour, the moment Leah was dragged under, towing her to shore one-armed when she lost consciousness, and the lifeguards and paramedics whose training saved her life on the sand.

It is a story about courage, but Charlie is uneasy with the word hero. He talks honestly about fear, adrenaline and imposter syndrome, how surf lifesaving and sport trained him to think under extreme stress, what a shark expert later told him, and why he is now urging two things: better shark safety on Australian beaches, and for people to donate blood.

In this conversation, Charlie Verco joins Marie Claire Editor Georgie McCourt to talk about the Coogee Beach shark attack, what it takes to act in a crisis, fear of the ocean, surf life saving, and why blood donation saves lives.

This episode covers:

• The Coogee Beach great white shark attack: what Charlie Verco saw on Saturday 13 June 2026
• Why he paddled towards the shark instead of swimming to safety
• What it is like to come face to face with a great white shark
• How surf lifesaving training and Ironman racing prepared him to act under extreme stress
• Towing an unconscious woman to shore one-armed on a paddleboard
• What a shark expert later told him about great white behaviour
• The beach response: tourniquets, lifeguards and the teamwork that saved a life
• Managing fear, adrenaline and the shakes after a traumatic rescue
• Going back into the ocean: how Charlie feels about the water now
• Shark safety in Australia: drones, detection and what he thinks needs to change
• On being called a hero, and the imposter syndrome that comes with it
• Why he is urging Australians to donate blood, especially O negative

If this conversation raises issues for you, support is available.

In Australia, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 for 24/7 crisis support. To support the cause Charlie raises in this episode, you can donate blood through Australian Red Cross Lifeblood (O negative is especially needed in emergencies).

Donate blood (Australian Red Cross Lifeblood): https://www.lifeblood.com.au

Support Leah Stewart (family GoFundMe): https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-leah-stewart-victim-of-shark-attack-in-coogee

Follow Charlie Verco on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/char1ieverco/

🎧 Listen to You’re Gonna Want to Hear This and follow us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/youre-gonna-want-to-hear-this/id1849312864

Listen and follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Vsxq2nZIMJLnywOXfuxqZ

👀 Watch and subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@marieclaireau

Credits:

Host: Marie Claire Editor Georgie McCourt

Supervising Producer: Leah Porges

Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain

Learn More: You’re Gonna Want to Hear This is a production of Marie Claire and Are Media.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.