“On the outside I looked fine, but on the inside I was terrified.”
Australians know Shelly Horton as quick-witted, funny and impossible to intimidate on live television.
For years, viewers watched her confidently debate hot topics, interview celebrities and glide through morning TV with the kind of polish that suggests somebody has life largely sorted out. Privately, though, things were beginning to fracture.
The veteran journalist, who had spent decades thriving in high-pressure media environments, suddenly found herself struggling to get through the day. Her confidence evaporated, an inner voice turned vicious and some mornings, getting out of bed even felt impossible.
“I just didn’t feel like myself anymore,” Horton told Starts at 60.
At the time, she had never even heard the word perimenopause.
“I didn’t plan to become the poster girl for perimenopause,” she said with a laugh. “But when it hit me, it floored me.”
Horton often laughs during the conversation, but there are moments where her voice catches unexpectedly… particularly when speaking about the year she nearly walked away from television altogether.
Like many women, Horton initially blamed herself. Maybe she was stressed, even “failing”, maybe she simply was not coping very well.
Even after seeking medical advice she was left frightened and confused.
“I got told it could be cancer,” she recalled. “I was sent off for scans and tests which we now know don’t even diagnose perimenopause.”
When the results came back clear, Horton said she was told she simply was not handling stress well and perhaps “needed to take up a hobby”.
Instead, things spiralled further.
“One in three women get menopausal and perimenopausal depression. I had never struggled with mental health before in my life, but when it hit me, it floored me,” Horton said.
The emotional breaking point came after appearing live on television during what she now describes as one of the darkest periods of her life.
“On the outside I looked fine,” she said. “But on the inside I was terrified. I had this horrible internal monologue happening constantly — telling me I was embarrassing myself and sounding stupid.”
One of the cruellest parts, she said, was the guilt. Women often convince themselves they are failing at life when, in reality, their hormones are running riot in the background.
“You think it’s stress, work, teenagers, ageing parents, life piling up on you,” Horton said. “When often your hormones are completely out of control. Many women from older generations were never equipped for these conversations. Our mothers didn’t talk about it. It was very much the ‘soldier on’ generation.”
The turning point came at home.
After another difficult day at Channel Nine, Horton arrived home and told her husband Darren she wanted to quit television altogether.
What happened next still makes her emotional.
“He sat me down and said the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she recalled. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. But this has been going on for nearly a year. I think there might be something wrong with the chemicals in your brain.”
The couple sought help together. This time, Horton found a GP properly educated about menopause and perimenopause. Within weeks of beginning hormone replacement therapy, she said she started feeling like herself again.
Relief soon gave way to anger.
“I got really mad,” she admitted. “Because I realised how many women are going through this without understanding what’s happening to them.”
That frustration eventually led Horton all the way to Parliament House when, in 2023, she became part of Australia’s first parliamentary roundtable on menopause, something she still finds astonishing.
“The word menopause had never been spoken in Australian Parliament before then,” she said.
A lot has changed quickly since then.
Today, the Federal Government unveiled a new national menopause awareness campaign, something Horton believes could spare countless women the fear and confusion she experienced in her mid-40s.
The push for greater awareness follows mounting concern that many Australian women have been navigating menopause and perimenopause with little reliable information or support. A parliamentary inquiry previously heard women often felt dismissed, confused or left to manage symptoms alone, prompting calls for better education, workplace understanding and easier access to evidence-based treatment. The new national awareness campaign (spanning television, social media, cinemas and digital platforms) aims to break down the stigma surrounding menopause and encourage more open conversations around a life stage that affects millions of Australian women.
“If I had seen something like that at 45, it could have saved me a year of my life,” she said.
Progress has already included greater workplace education, more GP awareness and hormone replacement therapy being added to the PBS.
Still, Horton believes Australia is only beginning to catch up.
“As journalists, we know you don’t create real change unless policies change,” she said.
It is striking how often Horton returns to the idea of confidence during the conversation. Not vanity. Presence. Visibility. The ability to walk into a room and still feel like yourself.
She says many women quietly retreat professionally because they fear brain fog, anxiety or physical symptoms make them appear incapable.
“There’s a study from the UK that found one in 10 women leave their jobs because of menopause symptoms. They’re not retiring, they’re just losing confidence,” she explained.
Horton now spends time educating workplaces about menopause awareness and says small practical changes can make an enormous difference.
One company even shifted major meetings from late afternoon to morning because brain fog was less likely to affect staff earlier in the day.
Women, she believes, have spent far too many years putting themselves last.
“This is not a stage of life where women should start shrinking. It’s a stage where they need support to step forward again,” she said.
Horton also speaks openly about another topic many women still struggle to discuss: intimacy.
“It’s embarrassment and shame, women were taught these aren’t things nice women talk about,” she said.
“Menopause-related pain, dryness and hormonal changes can place enormous strain on relationships if couples stop communicating honestly.”
“If your partner thinks you don’t love them anymore, when really you’re uncomfortable or struggling physically, that creates enormous disconnect,” she said.
Horton believes those conversations do not need to become dramatic or clinical.
“Go for a walk on the beach,” she suggested. “You don’t even have to make eye contact.”
She also believes many men simply do not understand what women are experiencing.
“We can’t expect men to know about this when women themselves haven’t been educated about it for decades,” she said.
That silence, she believes, has left many women feeling as though they are slowly disappearing socially and professionally just as they should be entering one of the richest periods of their lives.
“I refuse to be invisible,” Horton said.
These days, Horton says her focus has shifted away from appearance and towards strength, mobility and quality of life.
“I used to treat my body like a rental,” she said, laughing.
Now she lifts weights regularly and encourages other women — including those in their 60s and beyond — to do the same.
“It’s not too late to start,” she said.
That message sits at the heart of the upcoming Hot, Healthy & Unbreakable! Midlife: Reimagined national tour, which Horton will host alongside internationally respected women’s health experts Dr Vonda Wright and Dr Kelly Casperson.
The events will tackle everything from bone strength and hormone health to sexuality, confidence and ageing well.
Horton said audiences should expect practical advice, evidence-based information and plenty of laughs.
“She could be a stand-up comedian,” Horton joked of Casperson. “There are medical books out there,” she added, “but they’re as dry as our vaginas.”
The moments that stay with Horton most deeply often happen after the events are over.
After speaking engagements, women regularly approach her in tears.
“One woman hugged me and said, ‘You saved my life,’” Horton recalled.
“She told me she thought her family would be better off with the life insurance than having her around.”
The room went quiet when she said it.
Stories like that are the reason Horton keeps speaking so openly.
And for women now entering their late 50s, 60s and beyond, her message is simple.
“It’s not too late,” she said. “It’s not too late to get well. Not too late to feel stronger. Not too late to feel like yourself again.”
Hot, Healthy & Unbreakable! Midlife: Reimagined is a new national live tour bringing together some of the world’s leading voices in menopause, women’s health and longevity.
Hosted by Shelly Horton alongside internationally respected experts Dr Vonda Wright and Dr Kelly Casperson, the show blends evidence-based advice with humour, honesty and practical tools to help women better understand midlife, hormones, strength, sexuality and healthy ageing — all in a warm, empowering and refreshingly real environment.
Thursday July 30 – Riverside Theatre, Perth
Sunday August 2 – Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide (3:00pm & 7:30pm)
Monday August 3 – The Plenary @ MCEC, Melbourne
Thursday August 6 – Darling Harbour Theatre @ ICC Sydney
Sunday August 9 – QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane (3:00pm & 7:30pm)
Tickets are on sale now!
Visit www.tegdainty.com for further information.