Ita Buttrose: Love, life and secrets

Susan Duncan, Ita’s friend and colleague and a former editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly, gives her unique insight into the magazine icon who’s suddenly back in the spotlight.

Ita Buttrose was once the most famous and influential woman in Australia. With a lisp that did as much to set her apart from the pack as her huge blue eyes and an unshakable belief in her ability, she blazed a trail for women’s liberation in the 70s and set the tone for a new generation of women who wanted more.

Now, after a couple of decades of relative obscurity and as she hovers on the brink of 70, she is back on the public’s radar after the hit ABC series Paper Giants catapulted her into the media limelight once more. A new generation has discovered the woman who was once a household name and who arguably helped to shape us into the nation we are today. And it is fascinated. Last week, more than one million people tuned in to the ABC’s Australian Story to discover the “real” Ita.

Who is this glamorous tall poppy whose career in the media spans five decades, including several years in the 80s as a columnist for Woman’s Day? Why did she “disappear” after being one of the most powerful women in the country? And why would a woman, who could still pick up the phone to call prime ministers and get an instant response, name Kerry Packer’s long-retired secretary as her “best friend”?

Ita is the first to laugh off suggestions of her “disappearance”. “I haven’t been anywhere. I’ve been around,” she says. She has been quietly living in Sydney, taking on small projects such as a book on etiquette, making speeches for causes she believes in. Struggling, like most ageing women, to keep her weight under control. Out there – but until Paper Giants, no-one really gave a damn.