It Was the Most Challenging Thing I Have Faced Peter Overton Reveals the Health Scare That Changed Him Forever – and How Wife Jessica Rowe Stood by Him
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APRIL 8, 2018 Jesinta Franklin goes old-school Nicole da Silva shares her baby news Jason Clarke: Aussie rules It was the most challenging thing I have faced Peter Overton reveals the health scare that changed him forever – and how wife Jessica Rowe stood by him AN EXPERT’S GUIDE TO FOODIE GETAWAYS F AST ITALIAN MEALS FOR A WEEKNIGHT COULD MATT PRESTON TURN VEGETARIAN? STR08APp001 1 29/3/18 6:15 pm cover “My mind went to places I didn’t want” eter Overton vividly recalls the abysmal.’ Jessica said: ‘Go to the GP.’ So I got an appointment moment his doctor uttered the word, the next morning. He looked at it and then he said, ‘I’m really and remembers exactly what he concerned about this, Peter. This could be lymphoma.’” thought once it was said. “Is this what Unable to reach Rowe, who was busy at work, Overton it feels like?” The question ricocheted went alone to have his CT scan. On the way, he phoned through his head as he absorbed the Nine News director Simon Hobbs. That’s when the reality diagnosis from his GP. He could have of the probable diagnosis hit him. It was hard for Hobbs to lymphoma. Cancer of the blood. hear, too. “It’s like the world just stops for a second,” Hobbs During his years reporting for tells Stellar. “I could hear how scared he was.” 60 Minutes, Overton has interviewed Hobbs says that only “two or three key people” at the many people about their own cancer network were told what Overton was facing – the rest of diagnoses, and was touched by their stories. Now the tables the newsroom were led to believe he just had a heavy cold. had turned. The strange symptoms he began to experience A stalwart at the network, where he has worked since 1991 Plast August had finally forced him into his doctor’s room, and and is marking 10 years at the desk for the 6pm edition of were pointing strongly towards that very disease. Nine News in Sydney, Overton is widely liked. Every day he His mind flashed back to Dr Chris O’Brien, a respected enjoys a cup of tea and a chat with the cleaner. He spends surgeon who had died of an aggressive brain tumour. And to time with the security guys, talking about their families. And Olivia Lambert, the six-year-old who died in 2012 from a rare though he has his own office, he prefers to be in the bustle of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. “Having done all the newsroom where he can better mentor young reporters. those stories, I was suddenly in Chris O’Brien’s seat thinking, That is why, Hobbs says, he took pains to keep Overton’s ‘I wonder whether he felt the same way when he got his illness a secret. “It would have been like putting a rocket diagnosis,’” Overton tells Stellar, talking about his experience through the newsroom,” he says. “Because people really care for the first time in the hope he will spur others to see a for Pete. He’s genuinely good – the Mr Nice Guy that everyone doctor if they have their own health concerns. “I had never sees. You would find very few newsrooms around the country been in that situation myself. I have reported on it. I have sat where people are as loyal to their leader as they are to Pete.” in front of families with kids dying, and with Chris O’Brien. One colleague who knew the truth was Georgie Gardner. “But suddenly my mind was there. It wandered to places “I felt sick to the core,” confides the Today show co-host, who I didn’t want it to wander. I was calm, but it was going. This filled in for Overton for the two weeks he was away. “But was the most challenging thing I have faced.” I tried to be as positive for him as possible. Filling in was During that unnerving check-up on September 12 last year, business as usual, but on a personal level thinking about for the first time in his life Overton had no questions. He what Peter was going through was very much front of mind.” merely listened as the doctor got on the phone and began Gardner has been friends with Overton and Rowe for years; making urgent appointments with various specialists for as such, she says, “The first time we all met up, all three a barrage of tests. Hopefully, they could explain the lumps of us hugged for a little bit longer than normal.” that had suddenly sprung up all over his body, why he felt Later in the same day of his diagnosis, Overton’s GP called so rundown all the time, and why his neck had swollen so with more bad news: the scans were also pointing towards much that he struggled to button his shirt collar. Despite all lymphoma. So when Rowe pulled up outside their home that, Overton, 52, confesses he had to be pushed into seeing that night, he raced out to her car. He was mindful that a doctor by his wife Jessica Rowe, 47. sharing the news with his wife inside would distress their “Typical male,” he laughs. “I thought I had an ingrown hair. daughters, Allegra, 11, and Giselle, eight. I thought I was just overtired. One night, I recall saying to my “I only knew that he’d gone to see the GP,” Rowe tells Stellar. colleague on set: ‘God, I can’t wait for the news to be over, I feel “I didn’t know any of this other stuff had happened. He came 9 STR08APR18N009 9 29/3/18 5:39 pm Peter Overton and Jessica Rowe talk for the first time about the health scare that upended their lives last year – and brought them even closer together Photography DAMIAN BENNETT Styling GEMMA KEIL Interview SIOBHAN DUCK PETER WEARS Country Road shirt and pants, countryroad.com.au; Christian Louboutin shoes, (02) 8355 5282; his own socks JESSICA WEARS Rebecca Taylor dress, (02) 9327 3377; Georg Jensen earrings, georgjensen.com GISELLE WEARS (left) Country Road top and skirt, as before; Pandora necklace, pandora.net ALLEGRA WEARS Notes du Nord dress, (02) 9327 3377; Pandora necklace, as before; Converse shoes, converse.com.au 8 stellar STR08APR18N008 8 29/3/18 5:39 pm cover says. “I then got up and was Googling lymphoma. I was “If you agree on those writing notes. I was making lists of things to do, like ring the accountant and the insurance guy. I went and knelt in Allegra’s room and just stared at her. Then I went to Giselle’s big issues in life, room. This was all at 3am. I was thinking worst-case scenario. Your mind does run. But then I just went into a calm and it then you can weather was everyone else who was [stressed].” The family spent several nervous days waiting before the all sorts of things” results arrived. When the call came, Overton was in the garden (“raking or mowing”), his chosen location for when he needs out the front and I wound my window down as I was still to alleviate stress. This time around, the news was better. It trying to park the car. And he said, ‘Now, pussycat… I have to wasn’t lymphoma, but a particularly vicious virus that had go to see a specialist and have tests.’ I was just stunned.” Rowe knocked him sideways and given him the scare of his life. says she put on a brave face. Inside? “I was sick to my stomach.” Overton’s parents, both in their 80s, also struggled to digest verton can’t recall a time when he the news. He speaks to his father John, a retired professor didn’t want to be a reporter. As a boy, of paediatric anaesthesiology, every night on the phone as he’d practise interviews at home a matter of course. That night he could detect the worry in in the mirror. At 15, his mum took John’s voice when he explained what was going on. He heard him to the Sydney studios where it again from his sister Rebecca, herself a GP, when she called. he now works to watch Ray Martin Overton was determined to remain positive until his test tape Midday. “I did a Bachelor of results were complete, but admits that panic set in during Economics at Macquarie University, the early hours of the morning. “I didn’t sleep very well,” he but all I wanted to do was this. [I wanted to] soak up television.” OHe has interviewed politicians and celebrities – Tom Cruise once famously told him to “put his manners back in” – but arguably his strongest work has been with everyday people, folks like Dr O’Brien and Olivia. Overton, who is still a part of the 60 Minutes team and compiles several reports for them each year, believes everybody has a tale to tell. It is his own story that he has found hardest to share, and confesses that he felt more nervous about sitting down to speak with Stellar than he did facing off against even the most adversarial interview subject. Rowe agrees, throwing a knowing sideways glance at Overton before proclaiming, “He is so generous and giving and caring to everyone. He just struggles when it comes to talking about himself. When Petey meets someone it’s more than just an interview. He does so much work for Chris O’Brien’s Lifehouse [cancer treatment centre] and with Olivia’s family.