By Annette Witheridge
Pictures by Chris Bott
Next week sees the start of a new column in Woman’s Day with world renowned psychic John Edward, who talked exclusively to us about his special gift.
When psychic John Edward was growing up he assumed that everyone spent time chatting to dead relatives. What seemed ‘normal’ to John was in fact a gift that helped make him into one of the world’s most successful mediums, reaching millions of people with his shows Crossing Over With John Edward and John Edward Cross Country.
Fans are prepared to wait seven years for a coveted private reading, and now John, 38, is joining the staff of Woman’s Day to write a regular column relaying his inspirational messages from your loved ones beyond the grave.
We caught up with John and his dance teacher wife Sandra, 36, with whom he has two children — Justin, 5, and Olivia, 1 — at his new office on Long Island, New York.
Are you looking forward to visiting Australia again later this year?
John: I love Australia. I consider it to be my second home. You people are so outgoing, honest and direct. And you have a wicked sense of humour. I love Perth, it’s the California of Australia, and Brisbane. And I always feel drawn to Sydney. The landscape and skyline remind me of Manhattan.
Sandra: We always say if we had to live anywhere else but here, it would be Australia. We took Justin when he was 18 months old and have some wonderful memories of Sydney Zoo. He couldn’t get over the koala bears and kangaroos.
Tell us about the column you’ll be writing every week for Woman’s Day.
John: I’m very excited. I used to bring out a newsletter four times a year but I’ve never written a column before. I hope it will be insightful and thought provoking. I like to teach, I hope to show how we all have the ability to talk to our deceased loved ones. We just have to learn how.
Do you get messages from the other side unexpectedly or do you have to sit down and concentrate?
John: Things pop into my head all the time. My staff and I joke that we’re not the TV news station CNN — we’re PNN, the psychic news network. It’s like I get news flashes from the other side. It’s not my job to shock people. I get a message and I give it to the person exactly as I get it. I don’t like to interpret things, I guide. Sometimes people don’t want to hear things. But I can’t help it if I get realistic information that someone has cancer or whatever. My uncle’s ex wife read tarot cards and she once asked me why my answers were so negative. I can’t help it. I just have to pass on the messages I get.
Your desk is spotless. There isn’t a thing out of place. Are you a neat freak?
John: I know. It’s freaky. I do phone readings at this desk and I can’t have clutter in front of me. Everything has to be put away.
Sandra: Unlike me. My desk is the opposite. I love clutter, so my office is full of stuff.
How did you two meet?
Sandra: We’ve known each other since 1992. I was his dance instructor. Students asked me out all the time but I had a rule that I didn’t date them. John and I were doing the rumba when he suddenly asked if I wanted to go to see Les Miserables on Broadway. I meant to say no but I heard myself saying ‘Sure.’ It was meant to be. I come from an old fashioned family, so I didn’t really date. John was my first real boyfriend.
Did John sweep you off your feet at dance class?
Sandra: John is really good at everything he does. After learning to dance, he became an instructor. We ended up competing against each other in a competition. He beat me! We married in 1995 and I have to say he is the perfect husband. He is not into sports, so I don’t have to deal with football. He doesn’t drink so he doesn’t like bars. He’s also sensitive and we enjoy the same things, like going to Broadway musicals. I am lucky to have found him.
Is there anything you disagree on?
John: Yes, vacations. I travel so much for work that when we are on holiday I want to do absolutely nothing. I have no desire to go sightseeing. I just want to lie on a beach in the Caribbean. The most I’ll do is walk down to the sea.
Sandra: I love to go everywhere and see everything so we’ve reached a compromise. If I want to go somewhere, I go with friends.
You’ve just spent a year renovating this old house to use as an office. Any unexpected visitors from beyond the grave?
John: We have a ghost. He switches the lights on and off. The house is 100 years old and I believe the spirit is a tomb maker who used to work at the cemetery nearby. I haven’t spoken to him, as such, but he is friendly.
I told my son that if he was nice and asked the ghost politely perhaps he’d put the lights on and off. The ghost did it. Then a friend, who’s psychic, came to visit. She walked in and the lights went off. She simply said, ‘That’s not funny’ and the ghost stopped.
Tell us about a typical day in your life?
John: No day is ever the same. If I’m at home I take my son to school, then I might go to the gym for an hour before coming to the office. I’m involved in every aspect of my work from the TV production down. I have to green light everything. I usually pick Justin up from school and bring him back here. He has a computer upstairs and he likes to pretend it’s his office too. Sometimes I finish work at 6pm but it can be 11 before I get home. If you work for yourself you wind up working more.
If we’re filming I spend nine days in the studio taping. There’s usually two hours of readings a day, then the follow ups…meeting with families who’ve appeared on earlier shows, that sort of thing.
When did you first discover you had a gift for talking to the dead?
John: When I was 15 I visited a psychic, who said I had the ability to do what she did. To be honest, I thought she was insane. But I went to the library and borrowed every book I could find. Looking back now I realise that as a kid the dreams I just thought were normal — when I saw dead relatives who told me about family events — was me having our of body experiences. As a kid I was always coming out with weird stuff. I knew about family history that I could not have known about. I once asked my mom about the time she cut her leg when she was with her brothers at the beach. She was 13 at the time, so she wanted to know how I knew that. I couldn’t answer.
Was anybody else in your family psychic?
John: Not at all. My father was a career military man who became a New York City policeman. He expected me go into uniform and he was disappointed that I didn’t. I was told later that he was proud of me but he never said it. We weren’t close. I think he resented me because I was so close to my mom. My parents eventually divorced. I don’t talk to my father on the other side in the way I do for clients but I do have a better relationship with him now than I did when he was alive.
As a child you told your parents that you’d been to college before you’d come to them? Was that you talking about a previous life? Have you ever been regressed to a former life?
John: I’ve been regressed a couple of times. One was odd. I didn’t regress into someone who was alive, I regressed into a spirit guide.
Do you get pestered by people at parties to give readings?
John: Yes and it drives Sandra nuts. If I was an actor or a musician, people would simply say they liked my work and that would be it. But I get people telling me they love my show and wanting a reading there and then. It’s inappropriate and I won’t do it. It’s like doctors, they’re constantly questioned by strangers over illnesses at dinner parties.
Obviously when I am doing readings that is different. I don’t mind being asked the same question over and over by different people because I owe them. If someone has lost a relative I have to pass on the message.
Do you still do private readings?
John: At one point my waiting list was seven years, so I’ve stopped taking new bookings. I spend anything from 45 minutes to an hour with a client. One of the reasons I am so excited about my new column in Woman’s Day is that I will be able to reach more people and hopefully inspire them to make a difference.
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