This week Nicola and Di chat with the fearless trailblazer, Ita Buttrose. From Cleo to The Australian Women’s Weekly and beyond, Ita has shaped media, championed women, and inspired a nation. In her new memoir, Unapologetically Ita, she shares her incredible story. At just 23, Ita became editor of the Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph. At 30 years old, she launched Cleo magazine and at 33, Ita became the youngest ever editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly. In her extraordinary career, Ita has won countless awards, including Australian of the year In 2013, the highest national honour, Companion of the Order of Australia, along with AO, OBE, 3 honorary doctorates, a place in the Australian Media Hall of Fame, and an Outstanding Lifetime Achievement award for excellence in journalism. She served as Chair of the ABC and is also a passionate advocate for dementia awareness, brain health, HIV education and macular eye disease. Not only that, Ita is also a proud mum of 2 and grandma of 5.

In this episode we get to hear some of the most extraordinary stories from Ita’s career. We go all the way back to when she got her start in journalism at just 15 and how she was determined to dream big and go after those dreams. We chat to Ita about what it was like to work alongside the biggest names in media - Sir Frank Packer, Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch - and what she learnt along the way. 

We hear the incredible story of how Cleo magazine got started almost by accident, after the Packers lost the rights to Cosmopolitan magazine to their rivals. We talk about how Cleo broke so many boundaries, including the first nude centrefolds and Ita shares who her favourite centrefold was. 

Ita talks about her time as Chair of the ABC which she found quite challenging and we also talk about the really important work she’s doing for dementia awareness, brain health and macular eye disease. We get to hear another side of Ita too when she opens up about how much she loves being a grandma. 

Ita has some great life advice and tips for us all and she is truly a role model and inspiration. We were so honoured and thrilled to get to speak with Ita and we hope you love this episode as much as we did. 

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected]

Buy Ita’s book Unapologetically Ita here - https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Unapologetically-Ita/Ita-Buttrose/9781761428739

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