You won’t be seeing Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne or Rebecca Gibney on the cover of the Australian Women’s Weekly any time soon.
One of Australia’s most popular women’s magazine is boycotting some of the countries biggest stars – and it’s all because of Jessica Marais.
Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe is refusing to feature any talent represented by Sydney agency RGM, who represents some of our country’s most recognisable faces. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the boycott is a result of a dispute which began a year ago, in the wake of the magazine’s interview with Love Child actress Jessica Marais.
Mamamia wrote about Marais’ interview at the time: Don’t start celebrating Jessica Marais’ admission of bipolar just yet.
Marais sat down for an interview with AWW as promotion for tele-movie Carlotta, in which she plays transgender actress and cabaret star Carol ‘Carlotta’ Spencer.
Marais spoke candidly about her battles with mental illness, telling the magazine, “I was diagnosed at one point with bipolar. I have developed ways to talk myself down from any ledges I find myself on…I just think it’s important to talk about depression. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. And the more we talk about it as a community, the more we remove the stigma.” The trouble was, this was the first time Marais had spoken publicly about her mental health.