Season 3 Premiere | Kate From Episode 1 Gives Us A Fairytale Update!

We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions and the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the nation. G'day everyone and a massive welcome to Season 3 of the award-winning podcast Touched Out. If you're new here, I'm Carter, your host, and if you've been with me for a while, it's great to have you back. I know this season took way longer to drop than I originally planned and I just want to say I really appreciate your patience. Touched Out is a one-dad show and, as much as I love making this podcast, sometimes life as a working husband and father have to come first. Between family work, work and just trying to take care of myself, the podcast had to take a bit of a backseat, but I'm back and I'm so excited for what's ahead this season.

And before we get into the first episode of season three, a little announcement. We have a new theme song Written by season two guest and award-winning singer-songwriter, Ben Drysdale. Ben wanted to create something that really captures what Touched Out is all about A little chaotic, a little traumatic, but full of heart. Plus, it's an absolute banger that will definitely get stuck in your head. So sorry, not sorry in advance. Be sure to drop a comment on Spotify or at TouchedOutcom to let me know what you think of it. So, without further ado, here is season three of the Touched.

Out podcast. Dad became a dad. Now you're screaming at your brother in his Lego underfoot. We're trying to do the best we can, but it's not very good. Daddy's really sorry, he didn't mean to shout. We all get a little touchdown Touchdown. We all get a little. We all get a little. We all get a little touchdown Touchdown.

All right. So today we have Kate. Kate, you might remember from episode one the kickoff of the Touched Out podcast. Thanks for joining us, kate.

Thank you for having me.

You're more than welcome. Some of the listeners might remember that I'd posted a little screenshot of our conversation from a week or two ago, that you've got some pretty big updates and some pretty cool news to share. So before we kick it off, I will just read a little snippet from the first episode to refresh everyone. So Kate is a stepmother to three children, including a child with autism and a stepdaughter with an acquired brain injury. Kate shares her experience of co-parenting with her partner and her stepdaughter's biological mother, and how she manages to balance her responsibilities while taking care of herself, her family and her mental health. So yeah, I mean yeah, we kicked it off. Some might remember Kate and I have known each other for quite some time and, yeah, she reached out a few weeks ago to share some awesome updates and do a little bit of a follow-up podcast, so I'm super excited.

It's very exciting. Thank you for having me back.

First of all, More than welcome, always welcome.

It's awesome to be back. Yeah, I guess I'll jump straight into it. I've had a bit of an update with my stepdaughter from my previous relationships, which is who I was co-parenting with her biological mother At the beginning of this year. Paige come and never left my house. She refused to go back and that was her decision, and her biological mum was in hospital at the time, which unfortunately isn't quite unusual for her. But there was a lot going on for Paige at the time, and so I started a court process and got her biological parents mum and dad met up with. Both of them gave them some paperwork that they signed. Don't think they really read it properly, but it got signed, it went through the courts and Paige is now legally my child.

So good.

That makes me so happy. I'm getting really emotional again.

That's all right. Cry, let's cry. Let's have a good cry together.

Man, it was so full on. I was doing all this stuff for consent orders and at first I was kind of hopeful that I could just get on there with her mum, that we would both have every right to page, because her dad hasn't really been in the picture for long and he's actually reached out that he wants to try and start that process again, which you know good for him. But I just needed to get that process started with her mum and they both relinquished full parental rights to me and we had a bit of setback. The lawyer called me and was like no, the courts said no, this was back in the start of March. They're like nope, the court said no, we need affidavits from both the parents.

And I was like, oh, this is where it's going to get really tricky, because her mum didn't read the paperwork at all. She literally just signed it all, didn't read a thing that she was signing. I thought, right, this is going to be really difficult now. I've given her every opportunity to sign it. But I said to her that she needed to write up an affidavit. She asked me to actually write it for her. So I did and I took it to her and said you need to read this. This is what you're saying and you need to sign it in front of a legal someone who's legally authorized to sign that they've witnessed it Like a JP justice of the peace kind of deal.

And she goes yep, no worries, signed it all. I took it back to the lawyers and I was supposed to hear this. So the next court hearing date was the 18th of April and I didn't hear anything, not a bleep Nothing from my lawyer. I was messaging her all day and she's like nothing, nothing, nothing. And I'm like so I wait for the Friday. Nothing, the day rolls around. I'm like all right, it's the weekend, I'm not going to message my lawyer on the weekend, I'm going to leave it, it's going to be fine. I'm going to leave it, it's going to be fine. I'm just going to manifest some good things, some good shit, put it into the universe.

And then, sunday morning so that's the 21st of April Paige had been at her best friend's house the night prior for a sleepover, for her birthday, for her best friend's 13th birthday, and at 9.47, I got a phone call from my lawyer sunday morning, bawling her eyes out, and I'm like no man, what's happened now? And she's like we did it. She's yours, she's your daughter, you don't have to answer to anyone else. She doesn't have to answer to anybody else. She's yours, we've done it, it's done, you've done it. You did all the hard work and I, literally, I just pulled my eyes out, man, I just.

I sat there on the phone crying to her for a good three to five minutes. I just couldn't stop thanking her and she said to me she goes, I'll send you through everything today, but it's been stamped backdated to the 18th so you can apply for everything from the 18th First certificates, passports, whatever you need, she's yours from the 18th. It was funny because as soon as I got off the phone from the lawyer, I heard the front door and it was Paige and my husband, my now husband, kyle. He'd gone to pick her up, my now husband Kyle.

He'd gone to pick her up Just before. We kind of get sorry to interrupt just before we get into like you telling Paige and how that all went. I just want to ask because I think we did discuss it briefly. I just want to ask if you know the statistics of how goddamn rare it is for a non-birth parent to gain full legal custody of a child in Australia.

Yeah, so, look, it could be slightly different state to state and my lawyer is based out of Brisbane but she works predominantly for New South Wales and Victorian clients. But she told me that it is less than 5% that get custody, but generally for full sole custody with no other parent involved, because Kyle's not involved, it's just one parent on her now, which is me, and it's less than 3% for that as a non-parent.

That's so incredible.

So everything poor Paige had to endure her whole life and you know everything that we went through together on this journey to get here. You know the courts actually really saw it and they've they've recognized how dire it kind of was and they've gone. Yeah well, this kid's much better off and this child has everything that they require from this one person. And there's so many people on this side of the fence that have let her down, including the system itself for a very long time. Just yeah, constant letdowns, and it's so nice that the court actually saw that. And to be one of those you know three to 5% of people that actually succeeds and doesn't have to go through that anymore. It's just incredible. I couldn't believe it when she told me the statistics. That was insane.

Yeah yeah, it's absolutely wild. I'd be remiss in not mentioning that it sucks for the 97% of other people with good intentions and love in their heart that want to provide a better life for a child but can't because of different scenarios. But I am so, so pleased for you and your family and I'm so, so happy.

Thank you.

That Paige gets to have that fairy tale ending that's so elusive. A lot of these heartbreaking stories.

Yeah, and you know what Like not to toot my own horn, but you know for her as well. You know she's finally got that stability and we know that we're the right home for her, we're the right family for her, the support, the love. You know everything she needs and we know that in our hearts that we are what's best for her. And she knows that and she's known it for a long time. And just to have it recognized by the legal system finally was just incredible and yeah, it's so good for her. Yeah, Okay, it was hard for me and it was a really tough battle for me mentally as well, but at the end of the day, it wasn't about me, it's about her and her safety and her wellbeing. And yeah, that was something else, but I will just get back to when I told her because it's actually hilarious.

Yeah, no, please do.

I was hysterically running down the hallway bawling my eyes out, and she's walked in the front door and she's looked at me and she goes are you okay, mama? And I'm like my God, paige, I'm crying and I'm blubbering all over and I'm hugging her and Kyle's looking at me like what's going on? Has someone died, has someone been born? Like what's going on? And I grabbed her face and I held it and I was pushing her hair back behind her ears and I said to her I'm like we did it. I'm like my lawyers called me. We've done it. Like you don't, you never have to go back, you never have to leave here. Like I'm your mama, like you never have to go anywhere again. It's all legal.

It's all happened because I was very open and transparent with her throughout the whole legal process of what could and couldn't happen, what might happen, what might not happen, what was likely to happen, and she hugged me really, really tight and she didn't really show much emotion. And then I couldn't let her go because I was just hysterically crying. And then she looks up at me and she goes, mum, and I go, yeah, and she's like she goes. I need to poop. And the first thing Carl did was look at me and he goes she's your kid, she's like she's yours, like there's no doubt about it, like biology means nothing, she's yours. And she was like I'm really excited, but I've got to go. And I'm really excited, but I've got to go and I'm like all right. So she goes and yeah, she comes out and you know, made us.

Sometimes we just need an excitement dump. You know, I just it was so funny.

And she comes out to me and she goes. I thought about what, what cause she goes. She flops between Kyle and dad with Kyle and she goes. I thought about what Kyle said when I went to the toilet and I really am your kid, just that real excitement poop. You know, mom, I was like yeah, thanks, like really out in me.

But um, that was just so exciting and she was really excited, she didn't cry or anything, she was just relieved and, like you know, she said to me she goes, I'm just, she goes, I don't feel so tired. That's the first thing she said was I don't feel so exhausted anymore because I'm not stressed 12.

She's 13 in july, yeah, so the whole thing was just great. You know we called family and friends and you know she called her best friend and told her and you know her best friend was just like. I can't believe my second mum's now really my second mum and that was really sweet of her. She's a great kid and it was just amazing. That's my big big news and big big news, it is yeah.

Yeah.

So we'll just keep on Paige for a few more minutes because I've got some other questions. So I mean, the whole process in itself would have been extremely draining for Paige because you know she's at an age where, like, stability is so friggin important and she would have a pretty profound understanding of all of the intricacies of of what it took to gain custody of her and it seems all along that's never been like a push from you or anything like that, like you have really just followed what Paige wants. So was there a specific conversation that Paige had discussed with you where she was like I want you to be my mum, my only mum, or was it more of a like I just don't want to fucking go back there?

That conversation kind of happened about four and a half years ago when she was eight, nine years old and we started homeschooling. She was just like I just want you to be my mum, I don't want to go back, kind of thing, and that was a big conversation back then. But you know just the constant back and forth for her and the difference in environments. And then, yeah, at the start of January it got to a point Well, it wasn't even the start of January, it was just after Christmas and she went camping with one of her friends for a few days and she come home here because her mum was in hospital and she's just like I'm not going back. She goes, I'm not doing it, just done, just done.

She's like I don't want to, I don't think I have to, I don't think anyone can make me. So I said to her I'm like, do you want me to contact someone and see what the legal side of that is? If anyone can make you go back and she goes, well, I want to know that if I stay here, are they going to try and charge you with kidnapping me? And that was her biggest thing was me getting charged with kidnapping her? And I said to her I'm like, right, let's do it. And I called the local police station and they said to me it's tricky, but we can't forcibly remove her from the home. The best option you have is to start going through the family court, though, because as soon as family law is involved, cops won't touch it. They'll look at it and go, nope, not happening, we're not going to be anywhere near it. There's family law involved and we refuse to touch it because family law trumps pretty much everything. They said our biggest suggestion is that you start a case in the court of law.

And then I went back to the family court sorry of law. And I went back to Paige and told her that, and she said can we do it? And I said, yep, if that's what you want and I did say to her I'm like I'll give you the night to think on it. It's a big decision. You are quite young, you are 12. But you do know what you want and I do believe you are smart enough and old enough to know that and I want you, I do really want you to think about and write a pros and cons list and come to me in the morning and if it's still what you want, we'll do it great we did awesome now.

You and I did discuss the conversation between Paige and her biological dad. Are you comfortable talking about that on here? Yeah, yeah, cool. So how did that all go down when he signed the papers?

A lot better than I expected. To be honest, he and I had had no communication since she was five, so that's seven years I haven't spoken to or seen this man. That's a lifetime really, when you think about it. I mean a year goes by and people change so much. So in seven years it was huge.

So I reached out to him, told him that I had paid full time since this date and I wanted to have a chat with him about getting full custody of Paige myself. And he was really respectful with the messaging. He said he wanted to confirm some things and wanted to go over some things. And I kind of expected the worst from that, knowing him the way I did know him and he just kind of said to me you know, is it what she wants? And he even said he goes. I don't have the capacity to have it full time. He goes. I wish that I did and I wish I was a better father to her. He goes, but I don't and I think she's best off with you. So if this is what's happening, send me everything. I'll sign whatever I need to he goes. I do want to build a relationship with her, but if she doesn't want to build a relationship with me. I won't push it because she doesn't have to, she doesn't know me, I haven't been around.

And then we met up eventually, after back and forth messaging and stuff, and he signed the first round of papers and then we met up again and Paige actually said to me she wanted to come with me and I said to her I go, okay, I go, it could bring some stuff up that you don't want it to. Again, just being respectful of her and letting her know everything you know. And she's like nope, that's fine, I want to come, I want to come for the day, I want to see him and I go yep, cool. So we went and met up with him and he was very respectful to her and he read every single page, every single word. We sat there for about two hours while he went over it all and he, after every little thing that he had to put his initials next to, he, looked at Paige and said is this what you want? Is this 100% what you want? You know, are you happy with this? Are you happy with that? And I was really thankful for that because it showed that he actually did care about where she would be at in the world, regardless of whether or not he was in it. So I did. You know I respected that a lot, that he did care enough about what she wanted, whereas, unfortunately, when her mum did all the signing, it was literally just signatures, which was really upsetting, paige, and for myself to see that happen. But it is what it is.

But her dad kind of just said I want to be in her life, I want to be a part of it, but if she doesn't want me to, I understand that and I said, look, I've told her. She knows. She asked him a few questions. He answered them. Obviously, things conflicted with what she'd been told by her mum. And yeah, when we left, you know, during the interaction he did keep referring to himself as dad, which she actually she got to be uncomfortable about and she went really quiet while we were with him. And then when we left, she was like I didn't like that and I'm like what didn't you like? And she's like the whole dad thing. She goes, kyle's my dad. She goes Kyle's been my dad since you and him first met each other. Like I didn't even have to know him, he was my dad. And I was like, yeah, and she goes yeah, and I loved that.

Me too, because that's how we know each other. We know each other through Paige's biological father, yes, and I have my own pretty negative past with him, so hearing that Paige was like you know, my dad yeah, and my inner dialogue's like yeah, fucking suck it.

And I'm so here for that. I mean, you know, in my heart it made me realize I'd made, first of all, the right choice about kyle, that she loved him so much, and second of all, you know everything that he and I kind of went through and you know, look, there's no bad blood between me and her biological dad. Now I don't, I'm not gonna hold resentment and things like that that just weigh me down. But after everything that kind of happened and you know him kind of leaving her and abandoning her as such whether that was through him or the biological mother, whatever um, in my head I was just like fuck you, yeah, fuck a lot of you. And in my head.

I was just like fuck you. Yeah, fuck the son of a bitch.

And in my head too. I was like you know what? You had the chance to save this child seven years ago and you fucking walked out on her. So fuck you, you don't get to call yourself dad, and she knows that.

Yeah, and that was kind of my fucking moment. Not only that, but he's also since in that seven years, had another child who he has also abandoned. Fuck that guy. Yeah, Anyway that's enough of that. That's not what this podcast is for. It was my little fuck you moment.

Yeah, paige, being just like I didn't like that. He's not my dad, but you know respect for him actually wanting to try and signing it and asking me if it was for that, and I said, yeah, I go, look, there's big respect there and hopefully that means he's grown up a bit and that's great. But in my head I'm sitting there like yeah, just little monkeys in my head doing this on the way home.

She's just she's giving the finger, by the way, for anyone listening sorry that's okay, just went silent there um, yeah, no, awesome.

So what an absolutely great outcome and I'm so, so happy for you and it fills my heart and I'm so proud of you and I'm proud of page and I'm proud of Kyle and I'm proud of Paige's siblings and she just she's always been just such an awesome little girl and it's awesome to see that she she's getting everything that she truly does deserve now. So there is now more updates on on your life. So when we recorded our episode together, which was around about 14 months ago, I want to say you and Kyle were just dating.

Yes.

But now you're married.

Yeah, we're married. I'm not Kate Rance, I'm Kate Roberts. Everyone can know who I am, I don't mind. Yeah, I'm a wifey.

I'm an actual legal mum and a legal step mum now.

Congratulations, thank you. I was always one of those girls, you know, man, that was like I'm never going to get married, like I'm just one of the boys, I'll always be single and, you know, no one's ever going to want to love me like that, come on, like I'll just drink beers with the boys on the weekend and do my things. All my friends are boys bar two and uh, yeah, this, this fella's gone and changed my whole dialogue and now I have to change my whole depressing storyline. And but no, it was amazing and it was such a good day.

So was it a surprise wedding? Had he proposed to you prior? What's the lead up to marriage?

No, so I reckon that when we did our recording I reckon we'd just gotten engaged. Actually I think we might have just gotten engaged. He engaged me, he proposed to me. Just gotten engaged. He engaged me, he proposed to me on.

Target engaged yeah.

He proposed to me on Christmas Day a couple years ago and then, yeah, it was just a whole lot of planning and stuff and then we realized, gee, it's actually really soon because we booked in the date, because my date was non-negotiable. I wanted to get married on my nan and pop's wedding anniversary and my nan is someone very special to me, you know. She's just my best friend in the whole world. My pop's been gone a very long time now 18, 19 years now and you know I was very close to him when I was little as well. But uh, my nan's, just she's my whole world.

and I asked her and she did the whole crying, of course, you can get married on my wedding date and I love that and thank you and I'm on it. And then, yeah, kyle and I kind of looked around and went holy shit, mate, we've booked in a wedding and sent out save the dates for, uh, eight months from now and, uh, we don't have a celebrant, we don't have a dress, we don't have anything. We've got some ideas and a small bank account that's not very large, and what are we going to do? So we hammered down, saved everything we could, cured a venue within that month, planned everything in six months to six to seven months and, yeah, april this year, we tied the knot, um, at a beautiful venue in victoria and I hope you don't mind I will give it a plug it's called harawong estate. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. It's actually just everything I wanted very, very old school, barn sort of.

I saw the photos and I was my breath was taken away. All of you look so beautiful and so handsome and so fucking happy. I love love. But it's like you know you see something so cute. You're like, oh, baby's so cute. I want to punch it in the face. That's how I felt, like I saw all the photos. I'm like, I'm like they're so beautiful.

But fucking, I want to punch them. They're so cute. Yeah, yep, I love that, the big, strong emotions where it's like, right, this is gonna get physical soon.

I don't just want to give you a hug, I want to give you a right on smack yeah, but but like nothing but love, you know yeah, it's all intended with love like a positive beat down yes, you know it's amazing and you know, having obviously I've spoken openly about my mental health issues and stuff before, I've had a lot of doubts that the wedding would go the way it would. I was like, no, something's gonna go wrong, he's not gonna show up, I'm not gonna show up to stay asleep, someone's going to break a leg, I don't know. Something's going to happen.

The whole day just went off without a hitch and I had a couple of my bridesmaids that bumped into some guests in the foyer in the morning when we were getting ready and they were like how's Bridezilla this morning? Like we can imagine what poor kate would be going through in her head at the moment. And they were like we have actually never seen her karma in our entire lives and we're so worried that she's either gonna snap or that she's a completely different person, because we've never seen her karma in our entire lives. Like this is just, she's taken everything in her stride like okay, itoh Kate's dissociating.

Literally though I was, because my best friend started to panic and she sent my best friend, jules she was my maid of honour and I also had my other best friend, brandon. He was my man of honour and she messaged him because he was in with the boys getting ready and she's like SOS, something's not right, like this bitch is too calm. I don't like this. And she was like what's going on? Have you disassociated or what? And I'm like no, I'm literally just there's nothing for me to stress about. Whatever happens happens. And yeah, no, it was a magical day, it was beautiful, it was amazing. But I do need to say my favorite part of the day was nothing to do with the ceremony or the nuptials. It was actually my first reveal to the bridal party.

My photographer had the girls line up and Lonica and Paige were there, and he's like right, lonica, I need you to slam this door open as soon as I say go, and I need you to slam the door open and walk through so everyone can get through at once and see her. This is a first reveal, which means that it's the first time you're all going to see her in her dress, hair, makeup, shoes, everything and Lonica goes okay, I can do it, I've got this. And he's like right, lonica, I need you to slam that door open. And he's got the camera ready and she slams it and it slams back at her and she just slams it straight back open again and she puts her hands up to her face and covers her mouth and her nose and she runs over to me and she hysterically starts crying.

Now for those that, because she saw you, or is that because, okay, I thought the door hit her?

no, the door didn't hit her no, at first that's what I thought it was too, and I'm like man, it's hit her. But page was actually in front of her and I, page, had her hand in front of it and she comes running over to me and she's just going you're so beautiful, you're so beautiful. And yeah, for those that remember, my um initial episode was Lonica was my challenge. Her and I butt heads a lot and sometimes don't see eye to eye and in saying that things have been very, very good, um, for a very long time lonica was, uh, very much like a.

You're not my mom, I don't have to do what you tell me hate you?

I don't want to talk to you.

Yeah, you don't tell me what to do, sort of thing. And yeah, to have her look at me, that the way she looked at me and then ran at me and she just sobbed like, held my hip and sobbed and she was bawling her eyes out. I've just never felt that sort of love radiate from a child before. It was something else, like different to anything I've ever felt with Paige or anything else I've ever felt with Nate, not saying it was stronger or better, but different. You know, and again, that I'm going to punch you in the face if you keep hugging me, because this is just too beautiful, kind of thing like one of those real strong things and she's just you're so beautiful, I love you so much you're actually gonna be my stepmom in two hours.

And because she's always been told by her mom that until Kate and dad are married, she's not your stepmom, she's no one sort of thing. And and well, I don't have proof of that, but that's what the kids have told me, so I believe whatever they tell me until I'm told differently. But you know, that was just really beautiful for me. And then seeing little snippets of her and Paige walking down the aisle together holding hands, and I walked down the aisle with my dad and there's Nate standing up there right next to Kyle, and I was just like this is literally like my fairy tale thing. I've got my kids, I've got my dad on my side, I've got my mum and my nan right there, my sister's up there, my best friends are up there and the love of my life. Like it was just awesome, dude, like so good, well done.

Well done, congratulations, thank you, thank you for not inviting me, but congratulations. That's a total joke, by the way, rough.

No, just you know all those battles with Lonica too, like it's been so good and yeah, that just solidified everything. Now we're going to Japan. Instead of having a honeymoon, we've decided, no, we're going to have a family moon and we're taking the kids and yeah, she loves me even more now. So this is just good.

I just got to keep it up. Oh yeah, that'll be fun for you. What a gross update. Yeah For a mental health parenting podcast. I feel like a lot of updates wouldn't be as fucking cool. So it's nice to see the little persons win.

Yeah, it's awesome. The first thing, like you know, I got the orders the wedding was over with and I was like fuck, I'm like I haven't even told Carter. I'm like I've got to tell him and that's what I messaged him. I'm like have I told you? And you were like have you told me what? And I'm like oh my God, in doing that with me, because I need to update everyone. I just feel like I need to share this with the world.

Yeah Well, I don't know if you are aware, but our episode together is still the most listened to episode of the podcast, which I've now got 25 episodes out, Still Across the year. You're still number one, mate. Oh my goodness.

Let's have a quick look.

I'll just bring the stats up for you.

I thought old mate Luke, the stay-at-home dad, would have gone ahead of me.

He's number two.

His episode was pretty fun though, yeah.

Yeah, so I mean you're still in front of his by 50. We're sitting on 390 for you and 340 for him. Yours, let's go all time. Our episode together, kate, in the last year has been listened to in seven different countries Australia, united States, canada, new Zealand, united Kingdom, netherlands and Thailand. Out of those seven countries, a total of 80 cities, the top five being Melbourne, sydney, perth, brisbane and Saskatoon. Saskatchewan, canada.

And in fifth.

Canada is my biggest base apart from Australia.

Wow.

It's in second. Yeah, because I've had a lot of Canadian guests on.

Yeah.

Episode two was Canada. The last episode I just released was canada and a couple more, but yeah, you've um. It's pretty incredible hazy to me. My head's exploding right now yeah, I'm just wondering how they're coping with my accent 390 people over the last year have listened to your story and I hope those same 390 people listen to the update.

I hope so too.

Everyone deserves to know that fairy tales do come true.

Yeah, I hope they listen to it too and I hope that it inspires some people who you know might be going through the same legal battles, or you know who might have these sort of processes with stepkids and you know non-biological children, or you know nieces and nephews that they might be going through with something like this. It is possible. You can be a part of that 5% and it's a lot of hard work, but it's definitely worth it. Every single bit of money that went into it, every single tear, every single night that I stayed up and did not sleep, every stomachache, every headache, every nervous poop, every nervous wee, every panic attack Every poop.

Yes, yep, nervous week, every panic attack, every poop, yes, yep, every little, you know, mental meltdown I had to my wonderful, very loving, supportive husband. It was all worth it and yeah, just yeah, so good I. I really appreciate people listening to my story too, because that's awesome, like yeah, you know 100, these people want to listen to my, my too, because that's awesome, like yeah, you know 100 people want to listen to my my shit, like that's cool still don't get it like like I, I refuse to take credit for any of it.

You know it's because so like people listening will message me and be like thank you so much for doing the podcast, and I'll be like it's my guests, it's got nothing to do with me. And then people were just like I want to know about you and that's why my wife and I did the podcast episode together.

That was a sick episode, by the way I still have trouble.

Thank you very much. I still have trouble kind of believing that there's people all over the world that have any fucking interest in the things that I say or do.

I know you refuse to take credit for it, but you are an amazing person and I've seen you grow and obviously you know, like we said earlier, knowing each other from not a very great source of person.

but you know, we were both in really shit spots when we met too.

We were and you've grown so much, mate, and you've got so much love and genuine care to spread. I commend you for doing this podcast and giving people a chance to be a voice, because, yeah, your guests make the podcast in the end, because without your guests, yeah, you wouldn't have a podcast. But you know what You're giving them their voices. A lot of people wouldn't feel like they can voice it, and I've heard people on your podcast, mate. I've heard them say you know, I never felt like I could kind of voice this with other people or you know, this isn't something I really open up about, but you give them that safe environment and they just you do so well, mate, and I really hope that at some point you can allow yourself to take credit for it and realise that you are so fucking good man and this is what you were destined to do. You're destined to help people, man.

Thanks, man. Okay, now shut the fuck up.

Sorry, I'm quiet.

But I have such a fucking like. There's this kind of weird double-edged sword inside my body. That's like praise me but don't praise me, because I'll cry, because I'm not used to it.

Yeah, and I will too. I'll praise your wife as well, because she's obviously been such a huge support to you. Yeah, you know the episode you did with her was amazing and you know that was. You both opened up about a lot and I haven't met her, but I'd love to one day catch up and, you know um, actually meet her, because she just seems so incredible. And I think that you know, the minute you two walked into each other's lives, you just changed it for the best, and you know the two of you together are absolute, unbeatable team.

yeah, yeah she's, she's awesome, she's my best friend. I'm trying. Two of you together are absolute unbeatable team. Yeah, yeah, she's, she's awesome, she's my best friend.

I'm trying to make you cry again. I'll shut the fuck up.

No, no, I know I appreciate it. Um, yeah, yeah, shout out to my wife, george, she's a fucking legend yeah yeah, yeah absolutely beautiful. Well, I reckon we'll wrap it up there, mate. Thank you so fucking much for joining me today and for updating everyone on the awesome news and how fucking awesome the trajectory that is your life is going. Thank you, and Paige, I really appreciate you sharing it and I am again so happy for all of you and so proud of you.

Thanks so much, mate. Thanks for having me and, yeah, and letting me share that with everyone. It was really important to me that I actually did get to share that, so thank you, you're welcome. For having me back. I love it. I love this place.

You're always welcome, mate. You've got a lifetime spot on the guest list.

I'm here for it.

All right, mate, you take care.