Madeleine West thought she was entering menopause when her doctor confirmed the near impossible.

At 47, Madeleine West was experiencing what she thought were the unmistakable signs of menopause. Hot flashes. Mood swings. Hormonal chaos.

After raising six children and decades of bringing characters to life on Neighbours and Underbelly, the actor-turned-activist believed her chapter of midnight feeds and nappies was firmly closed. Until those two lines appeared on a pregnancy test she'd taken almost on a whim.

"My first thought was maybe this is a symptom of menopause that I haven't heard about yet," West told Mamamia's No Filter podcast.

Still disbelieving, she visited her GP, who confirmed what seemed impossible.

"His eyebrows went through the roof," she said.

First, listen to Madeleine West on Mamamia's No Filter podcast. Post continues below.

While the pregnancy, considered a "geriatric pregnancy" in the medical world, is "higher risk", it's not uncommon. Nearly one in five pregnant women are aged 35 and older.

After West shared her news, congratulations were quickly followed by warnings about the challenges ahead — even from her own mother. But with six children already, West isn't naive about what lies ahead.

"I think as I've as I've grown older and hopefully wiser, I've come to choose my heart because life is hard," she said. 

"Everything about life is hard. We've got all so many pressures on our shoulders, and yes, there are so many things I want to do with my life, but I don't for a moment believe the presence of this precious little miracle in my life is going to stop me doing what I want to do.

"If anything, it's going to push me harder to do what I want to do to make the world a better place, a safer place." 

West is excited to welcome her seventh child. Image: Instagram/msmadswest.

The darkness that shaped her.

This fierce determination to make the world safer for children stems from West's own childhood trauma.

From four to 11 years old, West, who was known as Melanie at the time, was abused by her neighbour Peter Vincent White.

"No one would dream that this wonderful, generous person who held fabulous parties and invited everyone in the neighborhood, who'd pop over — and he was a plumber by trade — would fix your block toilet without batting an eye, was using that public, that very positive public facade, to hide the most horrific… heinous, cataclysmic crime you can imagine," West said.

For years, she tried to outrun her past. She even changed her name to Madeleine in a desperate attempt to distance herself from that traumatised little girl.

"I spent my life trying to keep that under wraps, which is why acting was a perfect profession," she told No Filter.

"I spent most of my life putting masks on, pretending to be anyone other than myself, because I so despised myself, and that self that I despised originated from a tiny little girl who had horrible things happen to her that she absolutely was not to blame for."

But eventually, the pain became impossible to ignore.

"You reach a point in your life where the white noise of what happened to you is so loud you can't function anymore, where memories start to resurface and you can't tuck them away or push them down anymore," she said. 

When she discovered her abuser had grandchildren, something snapped inside her: "It stops with me."

Madeleine West has opened up about the abuse she experienced as a child. Image: Instagram/msmadswest.

The path to justice.

It took years before West told anyone about the abuse. When she finally broke down and revealed the truth to her then-partner, something shifted within her.

"It gave me a sense that this isn't something I've brought on myself. I'm not a bad person," she realised.

In 2018, West made the courageous decision to report the abuse to the police. The process forced her to confront memories she'd long repressed.

"Once you knock that scab off and you dig in there to that long-festering abscess of trauma," West said.

She frequently found herself collapsed in her wardrobe in tears, consumed by the weight of her trauma. 

"But once you hit that rock bottom, you're acutely aware that as hard as this is … this too shall pass. It can only get better." 

The most extraordinary challenge came when police asked her to wear a wire and confront her abuser directly. When Peter opened the door, West knew immediately she had him.

"His face dropped, and I knew in that moment, 'I've got you. You've been waiting. You've been waiting so long for one of us to rock up on your doorstep'," she recalled.

During their 45-minute conversation, Peter claimed he couldn't remember the abuse but apologised nonetheless — unaware that West was recording everything.

Madeleine said confronting her abuser in court was a healing experience. Image: Instagram/msmadswest.

In December 2023, Peter pleaded guilty to 33 child sexual abuse offences against seven children aged between four and 14. He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

Finally, justice was being served.

West stood tall in court as she faced her abuser one last time, finally shedding the burden she'd carried for decades.

"That for me was allowing me to shrug off the cross of blame and shame and depression and self-hatred that I'd carried my entire life for the first time," West said.

"I literally said, 'I'm dropping this bag back, this backpack. I'm leaving it here. I'm leaving it here, and you can take it back to your cell with you, where I hope you rot and die'.

"I could literally feel little Melanie by my side, and I could feel thousands of women and thousands of men who've never had an opportunity to say the words to discharge that trauma. I could feel them behind me in that moment, and I'll never forget it. It was life-changing.

Image: Getty.

Rising from the ashes.

The impact of West's childhood trauma manifested in years of anorexia — not about weight, but control.

"That little girl had had her body violated so vilely, had no agency over her experience. So the one thing I could control was what I put in my mouth, and when I didn't put anything in my mouth," she said.

Now, West dedicates her life to child safety. Since sharing her story publicly, she's been contacted by more than 40,000 Australians with similar experiences.

"I'm just one person walking around on the planet. If I can be a magnet for that degree of disclosures, then how big is this issue? And I tell you right now, it is enormous, and it does not get the traction that it deserves."

When she spoke to No Filter's Kate Langbroek, West was about two and a half weeks away from giving birth. Her new child will be the first to enter a world where their mother is finally free from her cloak of shame.

"I see myself living large, laughing loud, loving, hard with none of the barriers that stopped me doing that," she said. 

"My focus is very, very firmly on being the best mum I can be and being the best person I can be to continue being a contributing global citizen."

Madeleine West spends her time helping to educate parents, students and teachers about online safety. Image: Instagram/msmadswest.

West continued: "I like to feel, in my own small way, that what I've been through has enabled me to leave a legacy, to continue that work and just be present.

"To really just be present and to appreciate every moment for what it is, and stop rushing headlong into the future, to be right here right now, and to be so grateful to be right here right now, so to live gracefully and gratefully without apology."

With her trauma behind her and her new baby on the way, West can finally embrace that little girl, Melanie, who lives on within her. 

"She's with me always, she's in me now," she said. "I feel like I'm a babushka doll that is being perfectly put together, and the jigsaw puzzle that makes up my life is complete."

Feature image: Getty.