Abbie Chatfield has been everywhere this year. She’s done her first national stage tour. She was the charismatic host on FBOY Island, she’s filmed another season as a panelist on The Masked Singer, and through it all she’s consistently been the host of her radio show Hot Nights With Abbie Chatfield and her podcast It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield.
Simply speaking, girly has had a lot on her plate. And finally, she’s taking a break.
Instead of releasing her weekly pod ep on Tuesday, the multi-talented queen took a different approach. She shared a heartfelt voice note recording with a personal update. In it, she explained that she’s been at a retreat in Thailand dealing with severe burnout.
“I came to this retreat and I’ve been absolutely depleted and burnt out by the start of this year for a number of reasons but I’ve been here for five days and I think I’ve realised that my priorities need to shift a bit, to be honest,” she said.
“I’ve taken on so many jobs, so many roles, I’m trying to figure out what I do and don’t want to do and I’m trying to not push myself to work way harder than I need to.”
“Mentally I think I have a genuine addiction to work. I think that my only value comes from work in myself.”
She went on to explain that while she could have made it back to Australia just in time to record the podcast ep for the week, the first step was acknowledging that she didn’t have to run herself into the ground to make it all happen, all at once.
After sharing that her personal life has suffered as a result of her workaholic mentality, she went on to say that she’s determined to make a change and I love this for her.
Shortly after sharing the honest admission, reports started circulating that she was quitting the podcast altogether due to dwindling numbers and lack of interest.
Editor’s note: So Dramatic! has since shared a screenshot claiming that she copped this intel prior to Abbie’s podcast being released, insisting it was intel she heard from sources, as opposed to being an assumption based on Abbie’s pod:
“The only way I would quit the podcast in the foreseeable future is if I’m dead,” Abbie wrote on her IG Stories.
“It’s A Lot Pod is the first thing I did in media and I own the IP. I haven’t had time off from it in three and a half years. Usually wouldn’t respond to this but it could lead to people unsubscribing thinking there’s no point???
“Babes the podcast is slaying and I specifically said in the last episode explanation that I want to focus MORE on it. So no, I’m not ‘quitting’ and I’m not ‘trying to control the narrative’ I’m just being fucking honest.”
She went on to share a bunch of vids to her IG Story debunking these claims and calling out the publication for claiming the episode was an opportunity to “control the narrative”.
“The podcast is enjoyable for me. It’s also, to be blunt, making more money than ever. It’s the reason why I can do sold-out tours, and add extra shows. It’s the reason I got my radio gig, it’s the reason I got FBOY Island, I think,” Abbie said.
“I’m allowed to reprioritise things and jobs and quit things for whatever reason I want to quit them for. It isn’t malicious and it isn’t some secret conspiracy.”
SLAY, QUEEN. SLAY.
Honestly, I love this so much. Abbie is a hugely influential person online and in mainstream media. I think there is so much value in her stepping up publicly to say, ‘Nah, actually I’m really fkn overwhelmed and need to reconsider my priorities’. And it’s an especially important message from someone within the creative industries which may seem super fun, exciting, and glamorous from an outsider’s perspective, but it doesn’t mean it’s not exhausting and depleting work too.
While we might slowly be stepping away from this hustling millennial mentality, it runs pretty deep.
We can’t all take a cheeky trip to Thailand to treat burn out but with stars like Abbie promoting the importance of boundaries and creating a work-life balance, we might be more inclined to turn down that 5pm meeting on a Friday.
