Inside the 'difficult relationship' between Tziporah Malkah and her estranged mum.

The past year has seen the ‘comeback’ of Tziporah Malkah — formerly famous as supermodel and former fiancee of James Packer, Kate Fischer.

Gracing our screens on I’m A Celebrity, Tziporah shared the story of how she disappeared from public life, embraced a new identity and built her life back up from rock bottom. Australia was captivated: post-traumatic stress disorder, bulimia at the age of eight, her time spent in a women’s homeless shelter. Many of these events, she said, were consequences of events in her childhood.

Tziporah’s depiction of her mother, Pru Goward, was less than flattering; she painted Goward as a hard career woman who “was not motherly”.

Now, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph’s Stellar magazine, Goward has shared her own insights into the difficult relationship between the two women, and how it reached this point.

Describing herself as a loving mother, Goward admits she always had concerns about the accelerated timing of her then-teenage daughter's life as model living away from home.

"I was very concerned about her going into modelling so young. I thought she should wait, but it wasn’t to be," the now Minister for Family and Community Services tells Stellar.

At 16, Kate had dropped out of school against her mother's wishes and moved to Sydney. She soon became internationally famous.

"For many years it gave her access to a wonderful world, but today there are quite different rules around underage children modelling. Back then it was a bit freer, and for parents it probably made it more difficult," Goward adds.

Listen: Why Tziporah made such an impact on I'm a Celebrity. (Post continues after audio.)

Goward's views on Malkah's five-year engagement to the then-heir to Australia’s largest fortune, James Packer, echo a similarly protective sentiment.

"I like James, these very high-profile relationships are tough on young people," she says.

"They were so young… how can they possibly have [had] the space to develop a relationship with the scrutiny?"

Though Malkah proved a compelling figure in the I'm A Celebrity jungle earlier this year, Goward says she couldn't bring herself to watch the reality show.

“She’s 43 years old, she can make her own decisions," she said.

"I know that she’s very able, a very clever girl. She was always very good at maths, good instincts, good with people.”

Goward also spoke of the challenge of juggling her life as a mum with her busy career — she was the first female political correspondent for ABC TV’s The 7.30 Report, and ABC Radio’s AM, PM, and The World Today shows.

“I used to feed [my daughter] in the morning before I started work at 6am to be on air at 8.30am. I’d get to work and then express before I went on air, freeze the milk and give it to my mother," Goward tells Stellar.

“No one’s sitting there wagging their finger being disapproving. But if I’d taken my whole maternity leave entitlement, I wouldn’t have got my slot back, because you can’t have a radio slot empty for 12 months. It’s very competitive."

Raising children so close to the epicentre of Australian politics had some interesting moments, but Goward insists Tziporah and her sisters enjoyed growing up "at Parliament house".

"Some days they caught the bus from school and I’d take them to afternoon tea. [Bob Hawke’s advisor] Col Parks always let them sit in Hawke’s chair," Goward says.

“I recall Katie picking up the phone when Paul Keating called to rouse on me. He said: ‘It’s Paul Keating here,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, and I’m Father Christmas. Mu-uu-um, there’s this guy who says he’s Paul Keating on the phone!’”

Although the interview sheds some light on how the relationship between Malkah and Goward deteriorated to such an extent, whether the two will ever be able to reconcile is still uncertain.

“We’ll see," Goward said. "We have quite a few years to go."