From the raw realities of divorce and solo parenting to the hilarious pitfalls of modern dating, Cathrine Mahoney holds nothing back in her deeply personal new stage production.
An Unfiltered Look at Life After Divorce
English-born Mahoney, former podcaster, author and publicist, brings her unfiltered one-woman show I'll Show You Mine to Newcastle this week. The performance blends confessional storytelling with comedy and therapeutic revelation, covering everything from vibrators to bottom hair without hesitation.
After 13 years of marriage to rugby league immortal Andrew "Joey" Johns, with whom she shares son Louis, Mahoney has been navigating life as a single parent for eleven years. Despite their separation, she maintains a remarkably positive relationship with her ex-husband.
Building a Modern Family Dynamic
"Andrew and I have been separated for 11 years now, and I love him to bits," Mahoney reveals. "We co-parent Louis really well together. He's got a fabulous wife, Kate, and a great daughter, Alice. I feel like they're my family."
She acknowledges that most of her biological family remains in England, making this blended family arrangement particularly valuable. "If shit went down, I know I could call them in a heartbeat," she says, emphasizing the love, kindness and respect that has developed over time in their co-parenting journey.
Mahoney understands that for many in Newcastle, her identity remains connected to her former marriage. When she landed her first post-split job working as a publicist on Nova's breakfast show, the Daily Telegraph headline read "Joey's ex gets a job." She laughs about it now, recognizing this connection as part of her story.
Confronting Fears and Finding Joy
The idea for her one-woman show emerged after conversations with close friend Tim Ross, whom she met back in 2000 when he worked at triple j and she was at Sony Music. "I am always sharing stories, especially with Tim," she says. "I just love making my friends laugh."
Entering her 40s as a divorced single parent brought "real fear and trepidation," but reaching 50 marked a transformation. "I've just had the best decade," Mahoney explains. "I've tried loads of new things, some things have worked, some things haven't, my love life's a bit iffy."
Despite experiencing sweating and shaking from public speaking anxiety, she pushed through her fears. Her first two shows sold out rapidly - the first in an hour, the second overnight - leaving her waking up "every morning with fear and anxiety" about the upcoming performances.
That initial performance before 100 people left her "a hot, sweaty mess" wearing black clothing that didn't "enclose my armpits," but the experience proved exhilarating. The connection with audience members made the nerves worthwhile, particularly when a woman from country NSW attended with her daughter after losing her husband.
"This is the first thing she's wanted to leave the house for," Mahoney recalls the daughter saying. "On the one hand, there's my fear, but on the other hand, you don't know what joy you can bring to someone."
Embracing New Creative Horizons
After twenty years as a celebrity publicist, Mahoney has quit her day job to pursue writing and storytelling full-time. Her accomplishments already include publishing memoir Currently Between Husbands in 2022, writing columns for Body+Soul, Mamamia, 9Honey and Kidspot, narrating her own audiobook, and co-hosting multiple podcasts including So, I Quit My Day Job, Not Another Parenting Podcast, and The 456 Club.
Her current projects include writing her first television script, having narrated a music documentary for SBS, serving as an ambassador for the Raise Foundation which mentors young Australians, and working on her first novel.
"It was going to be erotic fiction," she jokes, "but I realised I'm so crap at sex it would probably be more of a rom-com. It would be more of a pamphlet if I tried to write erotic fiction."
While she describes her love life as "still a bit ropey," Mahoney embraces her return to Newcastle, where she maintains strong friendships and connection to the community that played a significant role in her life.
Cathrine Mahoney's I'll Show You Mine performs at Earp Distilling Co in Carrington on Thursday, November 13, with tickets available at events.humanitix.com.
