POLLY'S TRANSFORMATION 'IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START AGAIN'

After retraining and lots of therapy, the radio legend reveals her surprising new chapter

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There were many years during her stellar radio career when broadcasting legend Polly Gillespie simply couldn't have imagined doing anything else. Radio was her home. It was where she felt most at ease, and where her ability to entertain and connect with listeners cemented her as one of the industry's finest talents.

Yet after a rollercoaster few years, Polly has stepped away from the mic, relaunching herself into a new career and finding true fulfilment in the process.

“I'm a happy little soldier,” she tells us at our photoshoot in her hometown of Wellington, where she introduces us to her beloved grandkids, Roseanna, seven, and Malone, two.

It's been a big few years for the inimitable star, who proudly shares that she's traded in the airwaves to become a qualified counsellor and therapist. While the prospect of reinvention was daunting at first, Polly feels she's landed right where she's meant to be.

“What I’m doing now feels very meaningful,” she reflects. “I’ve always been interested in therapy, I’m certainly no stranger to trauma and I just love people. I love hearing their stories and being of some help. And I’m genuinely at peace that my radio days are possibly over. I never say never, but I have no regrets.”

Polly’s change in direction came after the shock 2023 closure of Today FM, the talk radio station where she hosted a popular evening show. She was upset to lose her job overnight, but not hugely surprised given it was her third redundancy in about as many years.

If anyone understood the tenuous nature of the media industry, it was Polly, who'd earlier been made redundant from More FM and lost a regular writing gig thanks to the COVID shutdown.

“I'd got pretty good at losing my job,” she says with a wry laugh.