The sports broadcaster tells us why she’s kicking up her heels and how she never imagined this life at 25. Photo / Robert Trathen
Melodie Robinson doesn’t do things by halves. It was her 50th birthday last week and there was no easing quietly into the new decade for the former Black Fern. Instead, she celebrated the milestone occasion with an epic birthday bash.
“It was awesome,” says the former sports presenter and journalist, who is now TVNZ’s general manager of sports and events. “We had such a good time, but I still managed to make it to work two days later!”
Her husband, former golf pro turned coach Marcus Wheelhouse, turned 50 a couple of weeks earlier, so instead of separate parties, they had a joint “100th”, which kicked off with a series of games, dreamed up by Robinson and her best friend Nevak Rogers, TVNZ’s acting director of content. TV presenter Stacey Morrison was the games master, over-seeing the fiercely competitive red and blue teams, headed by Robinson and Wheelhouse.
The evening was kicked off with a boat race drinking game, won by Wheelhouse’s team, but Robinson’s triumphed in the arm-wrestling, sing-off and an event that involved sucking up lollies through a straw, so they were the overall winners.
“It wasn’t rigged!” Robinson laughs, although she concedes the games might have been chosen because they are things she excels at. “We had arm-wrestling because I may or may not have wrestled everyone in our department one year and beaten every single female.”
Robinson performed her party trick - dropping into the splits - but the highlight of the evening was the speeches. Robinson was roasted by TV personality, mental health advocate and good mate Mike King, who took part in Celebrity Treasure Island with her last year.
“He did an amazing job,” she recalls. “He did roast me quite hard and some of the jokes were pretty edgy, but at the end, he said some lovely things about me, and how good Marcus and I were for each other, which was really nice.”
Longtime friend Todd Male roasted Wheelhouse with a speech Robinson had written, but she admits it was a hard task.
“The problem with Marcus is there’s not really much wrong with him. He’s a very good person, he’s a great father, he’s very pragmatic and he gets stuff done. And he lets me be me, which is the most cool thing. The only thing I don’t like about him is that when I get up to mischief, he lectures me.”
So what kind of mischief is she talking about? “Let’s just say when I go out with my friends, I don’t always get home at a reasonable time.”
She and Wheelhouse were home by a respectable 12.30am after their party, which she says was the perfect way to launch into her next decade. She sees turning 50 as something to be celebrated.
“I’m pretty relaxed about it,” she reflects. “I don’t think it’s worth wasting time worrying too much about how old I am. There’s nothing you can do about it!
“Every year comes with something different - sometimes it’s more challenges, but it can also be more richness in your life, so you just take it as it comes.”
There’s plenty of richness in Robinson’s life right now. Along with a great marriage, she has two sons she adores and a fulfilling job.
In her 50 years, she has seen her dreams come true, such as playing international rugby for New Zealand (and winning two Rugby World Cups with the Black Ferns) and becoming the world’s first woman rugby TV commentator. Switching in her forties to the business side of sport and broadcasting was a big move, but she loves her job overseeing the sport content that screens on TVNZ.
Robinson admits her 25-year-old self would never have imagined the life she is living now.
“I was far too naughty back then,” she laughs. “I was a tomboy and I didn’t have a care in the world. I was training hard-out for rugby, and I was working as a journalist on a Māori news service called Mana News and loving that. The rest of the time I was socialising with my buddies. I was very social!”
And what would Robinson then say to Robinson now?
“Probably, ‘Why are you not going for a run every day?’ I’ve always been a massive runner and I’m not running at the moment. I’d say to her, ‘well, you try looking after two teenage boys and see what happens!’ Actually, 25-year-old me would say, ‘you’ve done all right,’ and would probably be surprised I’ve got children.”
Robinson says she never thought much about having kids until she met Wheelhouse when she was 34. They have two sons - Jenson, 13, and Freddie, 12. Like their parents, the boys are sports fans, although they’re not too impressed that their mum still beats them when they go one-on-one on the basketball court. They both play rugby and Robinson coaches Jenson’s team at St Peter’s College in Auckland.
“That is one of my ‘fill my cup’ activities,” she enthuses. “I leave work early one afternoon to coach the team - I think I am the only female coach in the secondary schools’ boys’ rugby competition in Auckland. I really enjoy it.
“Although we were doing lineouts, and I was competing against them and stealing the ball, and Jenson informed me in front of the team at the next training, ‘Mum, we do not want an old woman physically taking us on’.
“And someone else commented, ‘That’s because she keeps beating us, Jenson!’ So I’m not allowed to do that anymore.”
Robinson admits she has fallen off the wagon recently when it comes to exercise, but she’s set herself a goal of improving her health and fitness now she’s turned 50. “I go between being super-healthy and then not having time to prioritise it, but I don’t worry too much because I always come back to it.”
She believes it’s especially important to look after her wellbeing at this stage of life because of the impact menopause and perimenopause - the period leading up to menopause - can have.
“I hadn’t really thought about it until last year when I watched a couple of really amazing documentaries on TVNZ. When the symptoms start happening to you, you go, ‘hang on, everything they say about it is true’.”
Robinson noticed she wasn’t sleeping very well, which was surprising because she’s always been a great sleeper. “That was a big signal that something was going on.”
She also noticed some anxiety, which is unusual. “I’m not a particularly anxious person,” she shares. “But in the past if I was feeling a bit anxious, I’d do some exercise or take the dog for a walk. But that didn’t take it away, so it was obviously due to something else.
“Probably one of the worst things was the foggy brain and forgetting things. I’ve always been a little bit haphazard. Some things I prioritise and I am really on to it, but other stuff can be a bit messy. Bring in perimenopause and - boom! - we’re in big trouble.”
Concerned in particular about the effect hormone fluctuations can have on the brain, Robinson decided to be proactive and educate herself about perimenopause.
“I read some really solid books on the subject, I watched documentaries and I talked to my GP, and decided to start on hormone replacement before things really kicked off. It’s actually been really beneficial for me. I feel a lot calmer and I’m sleeping better.”
Other strategies she uses to deal with her symptoms include talking about what she’s going through with Wheelhouse, who is a great shoulder to lean on.
“It’s so important to talk about it in general. It should be something women discuss. I’ve talked about it more to my girlfriends in the last year and it turns out so many of them are on hormone replacement.”
Robinson says humour is also helpful when it comes to coping, especially if she’s committed a “boo-boo” due to brain fog, or losing it in other ways. She tells us she has somehow managed to misplace her two World Cup winning medals, along with a one-off Barbie doll made in her likeness. Robinson explains that dollmaker Mattel wanted to modernise the traditional Barbie and honour inspiring women from all walks of life and all over the world.
“So they created these special ‘shewee’ Barbies, and they made one of me because for some reason they thought I was inspiring. I’d better find her because she is one-of a-kind.”
Then she realises “shewee” is the name of a female urination device.
“No! Hang on, I mean ‘shero’ as in a woman who is a hero, not something you wee into!”
She throws back her head and shrieks with laughter. “See what I mean? Dose me up with some more hormones!”
OPINION: There's enough for old-school and new-school fans alike.