The Hawker College “class of 1995” is planning a reunion soon and there’s one famous alumni – renowned entertainment journalist Jonathon ‘J-Mo’ Moran – who’d love to share his story with current media students or a psychology class.
Jonathon’s life lessons were learned the hard way. What may look like a dream run from Canberra to the Cannes Film Festival is actually a traumatic one of abuse, addiction and depression, told with raw honesty in his book, Mental As Anyone, co-written by Dr Jodie Lowinger.
The born-and-bred Canberran, who used to ride his BMX bike around Turner, could have easily written a book of name-dropping – BFF Katy Perry, Madonna, Carrie Fisher, the A-list is long – but instead he’s made himself the story.
He grew up in Canberra’s inner north with his mum, who was on a single-parent pension, and had a rough time in local public schools and an even tougher time as a gay teenager at the (then) all-boys school Daramalan College.
“Dara wasn’t all bad but there were elements, I think when you get an all-boys school with toxic masculinity,” Jonathon said. “There are memories of Canberra that I’ve suppressed. When I grew up, Canberra was not a big city. It was a place that as a young queer man, it wasn’t a safe place but that’s because of the time it was, not so much because of Canberra. I love this city.”
Jonathon does weekend trips to Canberra every couple of months to visit friends and family and hang out at his favourite cafe, Tilley’s. He also likes to pop into Woden Plaza — a surprise admission for someone with 13.2m followers on Instagram.
“I like going into Big W there and getting my nails done with my nieces,” he said.
From one journalist to another, Jonathon tells me that he has imposter syndrome, despite having a communications degree from the University of Canberra, 20 years in journalism and a job as chief entertainment editor at The Daily Telegraph.
“I still have nightmares to this day that they’re going to call me up and say that they made a mistake and that they want my degree back,” the 47-year-old said.
Jonathon’s lived experience is not something taught in the school curriculum and he’s made an open offer to Hawker College to talk with students. He’s not peddling a self-help book but rather, he’s living proof that life ain’t perfect.
Sure, he personally handed Jane Fonda a copy of his book but that doesn’t mean his world is all roses.
“Between the first and second year of uni, I actually had a nervous breakdown and ended up at Calvary Hospital,” Jonathon said. “I took a year off after trying to take my life, and then I came back to Canberra and got offered a job as an editorial assistant in the press gallery at Parliament House.”
Jonathon and his late mum had visions of him being a foreign correspondent, “being a serious, legitimate journalist”.
“That’s the sort of journalism I dreamt of,” he said. “I worked there for the second and third year of uni, graduated and then applied for a cadetship with Australian Associated Press and moved to Sydney. The rest is history.”
Despite all the red carpet events, mega-famous friends and jet-setting lifestyle, Jonathon doesn’t party or drink. There’s no drug or alcohol addiction, just an obsession with work.
“I need that rush, I need that constant dopamine hit,” he said. “If I let myself get caught up in the trappings of entertainment, it would distract me from the work that I do and the work that I do is far less glamorous than anyone could ever imagine, I can assure you of that.”
Mental As Anyone, by Jonathon Moran and Dr Jodie Lowinger (Wiley, $34.95).
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