When Katie Noonan’s 20-year marriage ended, it wasn’t a clean plot twist, it was the slow unravelling of the life she thought she’d be living forever: two boys, one family, a future she could name.

In this episode of Love Stories, Katie chats with Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk of The Australian Women's Weekly about her layered grief: losing her Dad, becoming suddenly single, and realising that the person you have to learn to love again is yourself.

This isn’t a celebrity profile so much as an emotional recording of a songwriter who has gone through a lot of life. Katie goes back to the 90s - the disastrous eyebrows, the Gold Coast gigs, the share house full of actors - to find the younger self who started a band, fell in love and thought she’d cracked adulthood. 

What happens when that version of the story collapses?

Katie revisits the dark days she wasn’t sure she’d get through, how she's made mistakes along the way, and how music keeps dragging her back to the surface.

Moments you’ll hear:

• Katie admits she sometimes bursts into tears just seeing a family with two young boys, because “that was my life, and it isn’t now."

• How she’s turning heartbreak into a new album: “There’s nowhere to hide, it’s just me and a piano” and why she released the most exposing song of her career even though it might be too much for her own kids to hear just yet.

• The quiet wisdom her mum offers as they grieve side‑by‑side: “Every day is a new day… just let yesterday be”; and how a Buddhist temple on the Sunshine Coast and tiny rituals of self‑care are helping them both keep going.

• Katie’s confession that she’s been “really hard” on herself, questioning her whole reality, and the small, almost boring word she’s learning to cling to: resilient.

It’s a conversation about divorce, yes. But really it’s about what you build in the empty space afterward: a different kind of family, a different kind of faith, and a love story that starts awkwardly, imperfectly with yourself. 

Thank you for listening ❤️ 

Before you leave... 

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If you loved hearing Katie's story: 

Katie Noonan singing 'Breathe In Now' 

Alone But All One is released on June 26. Pre-order here

Katie is touring around the country. Find tickets and venues here: https://www.katienoonan.com.au/shows

Follow Katie on Instagram here 

See More 👀: 

Divorce Month

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Credits: 

Edited by Phoebe Zukowski -Wallace 

Production by Charlie Potter 

Our wonderful The Australian Women’s Weekly team  

Learn More: The Australian Women's Weekly Website