Osher Günsberg’s is walking his talk for the stigmatisation of mental illness on Saturday.
The veteran TV and radio presenter, 50, said his earliest memory of visiting a psychiatrist’s office is from when he was just 5-years-old, so that he will be taking part in Tread As One at Sydney’s Centennial Park this weekend.
The fundraiser will see participants clock up as many kilometres as possible to raise funds and awareness for suicide prevention charity, R U OK?
Osher was delivered the devastating news that both his Channel Ten shows had been cancelled in May.
The TV host confirmed the axing of primetime reality television shows The Bachelor and The Masked Singer Australia on 2DAY FM’s Hughesy, Ed & Erin.
Asked if he had any advice for Aussies struggling with losing work amid the cost of living crisis on Friday, he told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I never talked about being in a struggle.
‘I was very clear about me speaking about losing those jobs. I never spoke about it being a struggle.
‘If you go and explore what I said and watch the videos I put out, or the podcasts where I talk about it, I never said it’s a struggle.’
Osher Günsberg (pictured) will be taking part in Tread As One at Sydney ‘s Centennial Park this weekend to raise awareness for mental health
‘I chose a job in a seasonal industry. I chose a gig where you work for 10 weeks at time, alright? You get paid what you get paid because the work’s not regular.
‘I’ve been a freelancer for all of my life and so is my wife. We had planned for this and we knew it was coming, so we are OK. It doesn’t mean it’s not hard… I’ve got no problem telling you that.
‘It means by thinking ahead and considering that this is definitely coming, we were able to give ourselves space to invent the next thing that’s happening. It allows you to be in acceptance.’
‘Even though it is a different time,’ he continued, ‘and the holidays we aren’t taking are the holidays we aren’t taking, I can’t be mad at a industry.’
‘The only thing I would say to people who are doing it tough is I know what that’s like, I’ve been on the dole before, it’s tough.’
The fundraiser will see participants clock up as many kilometres as possible to raise funds and awareness for suicide prevention charity, R U OK?
The Australian television fixture and his wife Audrey Griffin, who listed and sold their $2.15m Bronte investment property in 2022, later said ‘our power bill is through the roof.’
‘I’ve got an electric car, I’ve got an electric bike, I’ve got a sauna, so my power bill is next level.’
‘Going for a walk isn’t going to make my bill more affordable, but, going for a walk will allow me to put some space around that problem.’
He was explaining the mental health benefits of daily movement and his own commitment to commuting to work by bicycle, running, and going to the gym.
The Masked Singer, which was hosted by Osher, was understood to be expensive to produce due to the elaborate costumes, high production quality and international talent required to put on the show.
This, coupled with a tough advertising market, brought the viability of the franchise into question for Ten.
‘There’s been very little that people are talking about when it comes to masculinity that is healthy or productive,’ Osher said
Further, The Bachelors and its various spinoffs – also hosted by Günsberg – were not been given dates for 2024 – despite being announced at the Upfronts.
‘It’s not the first time I’ve lost work. There’s a line in the Godfather 2,’ he quoted, ”This is the business we have chosen’.’
‘I’ve chosen a career that is fluctuating in its certainty.’
Currently, the media multi-hyphenate is writing his second book and recording new episodes for his podcast Better Than Yesterday, which will feature guests Danii Minogue and Olympic boxer Harry Garside in the coming weeks.
He praised the depth of his conversation with bronze medallist Garside, who was found not guilty of a domestic assault charge against his ex-girlfriend, Ashley Ruscoe.
‘There’s been very little that people are talking about when it comes to masculinity that is healthy or productive,’ Osher said.
‘I think we’ve done an amazing job, certainly in the last 30 maybe 50 years, of providing nuance and validity to what a woman’s role in society can be. We work very, very hard on that.
The Australian television fixture is pictured with his wife Audrey Griffin
‘You can be a homemaker. You can be a mum. You can be a CEO. You can be hot. You can be not hot. You can be super sexy. You can not be sexy at all. You can be glam. You can be grab. You can whatever you want. You can be all of those things at once, or none of them.’
‘I don’t believe we’ve given the same amount of nuance to what it is to be a man in our community,’ he said.
The nuance of options afforded to women, according to his examples, includes at least three similes for being conventionally attractive. Or alternatively, ‘not being’ conventionally attractive, per those adjectives.
Whereas a man’s gender role, Osher continued, is: ‘You can either be a lone wolf here to destroy, or you’re a wimp. And there’s very little in-between and it’s a bit sh*t.’
In his 2018 memoir, the former Australian Idol, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette host opened up about his lifelong struggles with panic attacks, weight issues, anxiety, and depression.
‘I worry a lot about young men in our community because so much of what makes them a man, normal traits of their masculinity, can get labelled very quickly as bad – often unfairly.
‘We shame men in our community for literally just being a full expression of what their masculinity appears as. We are driving men into these weird dark corners. Because today 29 people in Australia will die by suicide and 17 of them will be men.
On the flipside, he added that ‘nobody wants their son to be a perpetrator’ of gender-based violence. ‘We absolutely have to give men more options.’
