Natalie Bassingthwaighte has turned off comments on her social media and put the ‘malicious’ and ‘bitter’ haters of her same-sex relationship with Pip Loth on silent.
The Rogue Traders singer, 50, celebrated her milestone birthday on Sunday, and after being whisked away to Cairns on a surprise ‘birthday holiday’ by her partner Pip, got real with her fans about the impact of ‘intentionally malicious’ comments about her relationship and children.
Natalie shared an old film photograph of herself to her 217,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday and revealed that the young woman in the picture is ‘lost’, ‘afraid’, and ‘doesn’t like herself.’
The film photograph is roughly 30-years-old, Nat wrote, as she penned a lengthy and soul-baring letter to her fans and bullies.
‘Came across this pic the other day. This is a picture of me 30 or so yrs ago! I am sad, lost, fragile, afraid. I don’t like myself. I don’t know who I am! I lost the ability to use my words or even know what is was I wanted to say,’ she began in the caption.
The photo shows a tanned, smiling teenager or young adult, in a school dance pose with a friend’s arms wrapped around her waist.
In the picture, a young Natalie is fresh-faced and wears a floral halter neck dress with her blonde locks pulled back into a bun. She smiles for the camera’s flash and it reaches her eyes.
Nothing in the photograph indicates the young person in it is struggling.
It would be a few more years until that girl from Woollongong shot to national fame by joining the cast of Neighbours in 2003, as Erinsborough’s lovable schemer Izzy Hoyland.
Australian actress and singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte pictured about 30 years ago, in a photo from a time the 50-year-old said she was fragile, sad, lost, and afraid
The Neighbours star and Rogue Traders singer shared a lengthy and vulnerable letter about her experiences with internet trolls over the past year in the photo’s caption
‘It has taken me a long time to come out the other side,’ of those feelings,’ Natalie continued in her post.
‘I have done the work and I will continue to do the work on myself. For me and those around me. Sadness can come from many areas in life: tragedy, trauma, LIFE!
‘You don’t know where people have been or where they r [sic] going. What they have been through. Their traumas their triggers, their struggle to not only stay afloat but to keep swimming can resurface at anytime.’
This is the second time “Nat Bass” – as she’s affectionately known by Aussies – has used her platform to address the ‘viscous hate’ she’s received online in the past 12 months.
In November of last year, Natalie came out as being in a queer relationship.
That news, shared in a candid interview with Stellar magazine, came as a surprise to many, given she’d recently ended her 12-year marriage to husband Cameron McGlinchey.
Natalie then announced her relationship with stage manager Pip Loth, who she met while performing in the Jagged Little Pill musical in 2021, by sharing a couple’s selfie on Instagram.
The tabloid circus that followed pushed the singer to breaking point, as she grappled with inadvertently becoming the poster girl for ‘late blooming lesbians’, and an easy target for keyboard warriors.
‘I want it to stop,’ she pleaded with ‘trolls’ in a heartbreaking two-part video, also posted to Instagram, last November.
Natalie Bassingthwaighte and her girlfriend Pip Loth looked more loved-up than ever as they made their first ever red carpet appearance at Sydney’s Take My Hand premiere on August 20
Nat Bass ‘came out’ in November 2023 in Stellar Magazine after separating from her husband of 12 years in 2022
Almost a year later, Natalie and camera-shy Pip proudly made their red carpet debut as a couple in Sydney, and yesterday Nat shared a smiling loved-up selfie with her ‘kind and beautiful’ partner in Queensland.
She gushed over their romance in its caption: ‘Pip Loth, you have opened my mind, my soul, and my heart,’ Nat wrote, captioning the photo with a red love heart and rainbow emojis. ‘#NeverToBeTheSameAgain’.
‘It was brought to my attention yesterday that some people felt the need to comment on my post with my girlfriend. It was intentionally malicious,’ Natalie announced in Tuesday’s post.
‘My page is for people who want to feel loved and supported. Who don’t judge. Who don’t belittle or make people feel like a bad person.
‘My mental health has been a struggle and I have come out the other side but I manage it daily! I have had close dear people commit suicide because of people like you! Enough now!
Natalie shared this loved-up selfie of herself and Pip on her ‘birthday week’ holiday on Sunday and on Tuesday, penned a lengthy letter on social media to the people who left ‘intentionally malicious’ comments on it
‘If you don’t have anything nice to say to people don’t say anything at all!
‘My mum taught me to always treat people how you would like to be treated and to me that is with love, kindness, respect and without judgement.’
Natalie shares and co-parents two children with her ex-husband, Harper, 13, and Hendrix, 10.
Revealing her pain and outrage, the Amazing Race Australia contestant wrote: ‘How dare you suggest I am not a great mother or a great person or comment on how I look!’
‘It has taken me a long time to love who I am and I will not let you take that away.
‘I won’t lie, your hurtful comments set me back but I will be brave again, pick myself up as I always have and move forward.’
Nat revealed she’s lost close friends to suicide because of people like the ‘trolls’ in her Instagram comments
She said that it’s taken a long time for her to be able to love herself and that she won’t allow the negative comments about her ex-husband, her partner, or her children take that away
Ultimately, the singer said she forgives these people and hopes they ‘look inward’
After 12 months of reading strangers’ ‘hurtful and ‘uncalled for’ opinions about ‘my relationship with my partner, my ex, and my children,’ Natalie called time on copping it and disabled comments on her Instagram.
Only people who she follows will be able to leave comments on her posts.
‘We have all worked incredibly hard to get where we are and I am proud of all of us for that. We r safe we are happy and we are well.’
‘Don’t tell me I am a bad mother because I am not. If you don’t like the way I look, don’t look. If you don’t like the love I share through pictures and words, unfollow.’
‘My kids are loved and they love without judgement. They are kind, empathetic and inclusive. And that is the people we are shaping.’
Natalie offered her apologies to her fans and ‘wonderful people who send their love and support’, but told them not to worry about the move. ‘I will feel all the love anyway.’
She went on to say that she ‘forgives’ the people ‘compelled to live a life full of bitterness and hate’ for their ‘attack’ and empathises with how ‘hard’ it can be to ‘peel back layers’ of our beliefs.
‘I can only imagine what you have been through, and for that I am sorry. I only hope that you take this and look inward and do the work.’
‘It can be painful to revisit and relive things from your past. But to come out the other side surrounded by incredible people who love and support me keeps me going everyday,’ she concluded.
Natalie will be spending her ‘birthday week’ in Cairns, Queensland with Pip.
