Melissa Leong has shared her New Year’s resolutions amid a period of career upheaval.
The former MasterChef Australia judge, 42, hinted that busy times are ahead as she revealed her 2025 plans.
‘I am taking it a week at a time, so I am trying to white knuckle it to the end of the year’ she told the Daily Telegraph on Sunday.
‘Hopefully I will be able to celebrate with some friends and just have a little bit of time off to enjoy the weather – should Melbourne deem it to be so’ she added.
It comes after Melissa revealed why she thinks people find her intimidating.
She made the comments when she recently appeared on the Mental As Anyone podcast.
Melissa Leong (pictured) has shared her New Year’s resolutions amid a period of career upheaval. The former MasterChef Australia judge, 42, hinted that busy times are ahead as she revealed her 2025 plans
‘I am aware that sometimes, by being a little verbose, being a little wordy, word nerdy, that it can intimidate people,’ she remarked.
Melissa went on to say that her style and the way she carries herself were also ways in which others might think she has a superiority complex.
‘Looking put together makes other people feel like they’re less put together and that is never the intention,’ the television star said.
‘I think sometimes when we meet someone who we find a little intimidating, we need to sometimes break that down.
‘What is it about this person that’s holding a mirror up to myself and that I feel less than adequate in front of them and kind of work on the critical thinking about that, and suddenly you see them as being maybe a little bit more human and being a little kinder to yourself and hopefully you meet somewhere in the middle.’
It comes as the celebrity food critic might be returning to MasterChef as a judge, but on one very awkward proviso.
According to a well-placed insider, Leong is putting wheels in motion to return to the cooking competition show, but only if another judge isn’t there.
‘Melissa told Ten that she’ll go back to MasterChef Australia when Andy Allen goes,’ a TV insider told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I am taking it a week at a time, so I am trying to white knuckle it to the end of the year’ she told the Daily Telegraph on Sunday
It comes as the celebrity food critic might be returning to MasterChef as a judge. Pictured with former co-star Andy Allen
‘I think the idea of returning to what the show once was for her seems a bit daunting and the only way Melissa would ever return is if the whole format was revamped.’
Melissa left MasterChef Australia last year under a cloud of suspicion about an alleged feud with her former co-host Allen.
Following revelations of backstage tensions between Leong and crew members employed by Ten’s production partner Endemol Shine in 2022, came news she was no longer in the MasterChef Australia line-up.
Leong shocked fans when she shared news of her departure to Instagram one day before the network’s 2024 Upfronts.
‘The changing of the guard is one I always planned to embrace, and I’m so glad to do that on my terms, today,’ Leong penned last October.
Meanwhile, affable Allen returned to the show this year alongside three new judges.
Media darling Poh Ling Yeow, Michelin-star chef Jean-Christophe Novelli and Melbourne food critic Sofia Levin have all joined.
Leong’s departure came after claims she had been axed following a string of publicised off-camera dramas.
Leong infamously had a blow up with the program’s hair and make-up team along with a substitute freelance hairstylist in 2022.
‘Andy has no beef with Leong,’ the source told Daily Mail Australia. ‘But he previously expressed his former colleague wasted a lot of time in hair and makeup.
‘He felt her control over what was filmed was compromised by her perfectionism.’
Channel 10 and Endemol Shine did not respond to any of the allegations when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.
