She was the golden girl of television journalism, but Talitha Cummins was harbouring a dark secret that threatened not just her job, but her life.
In an intimate interview in The Australian Women’s Weekly, Talitha opens up about coming back from the brink of a 20 year battle with alcoholism and mental illness, and how she rallied after finding herself forced out of her job just when her life was turning around.
She also reveals how love helped put her back on course.
“I’d descended into a life of unimaginable shame,” Talitha tells The Weekly, describing nights of binge drinking four bottles of wine.
“There were only two possible outcomes – I would either end up a dead alcoholic or find the path to come out the other side. There was no middle ground.”
Fortunately, she did come out the other side. When her Chief of Staff at the Seven Network’s Sydney office tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she was coping, the newsreader took herself to Alcoholic’s Anonymous and sought the help she needed.
After meeting the love of her life Ben Lucas – who gave up drinking to support Talitha – and giving birth to a perfect baby boy, things seemed to coming together for the Queensland-born journalist when she got a call informing her she was no longer under contract.
With a nine week old baby, the alternative offer to read the 5am news felt like an attempt to squeeze her out.
“I doubted whether I’d even get a job in an industry known to shameless discriminate,” she says.
After beating her addiction, Talitha wasn’t going to let the network tear her down now.
Read more about how Talitha overcame her own demons, took on TV’s misogynistic culture and learned to love her life in the July edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly, in newsagents and supermarkets now, and subscribe to the magazine by visiting Magshop.
