Dating terrifies Phoebe Burgess and Hannah Ferrier was accused of faking an engagement - of course they’re starting a podcast

Exclusive: Phoebe Burgess and Hannah Ferrier have copped more than their fair share of unflattering headlines over the last decade, from tabloid spin about Burgess’ divorce to social media furore over Ferrier’s Below Deck exit.

The upside now is that they don’t much care if their new podcast (Over)Share invites more criticism when they spill on family, sex and dating.

“I think I’ve said the word sex more than I’ve thought about the action of it in a very long time. It’s been almost a decade for me,” Burgess told nine.com.au.

“Dating, f--king hell, terrifying. Haven’t done it yet, but we’re on the precipice.”

These the kind of confessions she’s saved for private girls’ group chats for the last few years, but she’s finally ready to start baring it all with Ferrier in an ARN podcast studio decked out in pink.

The Below Deck Mediterranean alum won’t be holding back either.

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A self-confessed oversharer, the only thing that will keep her from spilling her guts about every intimate detail of her life is fiercely private husband Josh Roberts.

He’s so private, in fact, that in the early years of their romance Reddit users spun a conspiracy theory that he didn’t even exist – even after he and Ferrier welcomed their first child, Ava.

“We were engaged, we’d already had our daughter, and he’d still never allowed me to post a photo or be on an Instagram story, and the rumour mill was swirling something chronic,” Ferrier told nine.com.au.

“I ended up having to go like ... ‘You may as well just let it happen, and then there won’t be rumours about me getting artificially inseminated and you not existing.’”

Though Roberts has learned to compromise on that front in the fours years they’ve been married, Ferrier and Burgess’ new podcast may test him again.

Both women, who only met six weeks ago, insist nothing is off-limits on (Over)Share – including Burgess’ experiences of divorce.

It’s a topic the former journalist has been reticent to touch in the seven years since she and ex-husband Sam Burgess split for good. Now she’s ready to talk.

“It’s had an impact on my career, my children, myself, my family, how I work, where I work, what I can say, what I don’t say. Financially, it’s had an enormous impact,” Burgess said of her 2019 divorce.

“I want to be honest. I could say, ‘It just doesn’t affect me, I really don’t think about it that often.’ No one would believe that.”

Burgess wants to talk about it now, not just for herself but for other women in the same position.

Even now, strangers still approach her to ask for advice or a kind word about their own divorces.

“I’ll have women who I’ve just met asking me what I did at what point, how I got through it, what we do for our kids,” Burgess said.

“You’re not the only one who’s been divorced, or been cheated, on or ended up parenting alone when you had a vision of what the future looked like.”

Solo motherhood is another hot button topic she hopes to tackle now that she’s starting to get a grip on it herself, though that grip can be tenuous at times.

Online, Burgess looks like an effortlessly cool and fashionable mum but the reality of her life in Southern Highlands with her parents and two children – Poppy, nine, and Billy, seven – is very different.

When asked how she juggles it all, she’s honest.

“It’s not a juggle [because] nothing’s in the air. Everything’s smashed and f--king on the ground, and I’m always cleaning up mess,” Burgess said.

“I feel like I’m fumbling around in the dark most days.”

Adding dating into the mix seems unthinkable, but there’s a part of her that wonders.

Burgess doesn’t know her way around dating apps and admitted she’d probably judge anyone who read her bio and actually wanted to go on a date.

“I’ve got no idea how you charm someone and fall in love when you’ve got to say, ‘Sorry, I’m only available one day this month because of Billy, Poppy and the constant nature of parenting,’” she said, adding that the kids will always be her top priority.

Burgess doesn’t feel like anything is missing from her life; she gets an abundance of love from her children, and endless support from her parents and friends.

Still, it would be nice to fall in love again, especially after getting a peek into Ferrier’s marriage.

“I miss having, I think, a partner in life or a best friend to go over things with. That would be nice, to have that a close relationship again,” Burgess said.

“But I don’t think I’d ever risk the freedom that I found being on my own with the kids.”

Ferrier is facing very different problem with the podcast.

She’s had to prepare her husband for when she inevitably lets something slip he’d prefer not to share with hundreds of thousands of strangers, like calling her mother-in-law “incredibly difficult”.

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“I’ve already pre-warned him that there will be a time when I say something that he’s not going to be happy with, but he’s going to have to get over it,” she said.

“You knew what I did when we met!”

Back then, Ferrier was starring on Bravo’s reality TV series Below Deck Mediterranean, but her time on the show ended abruptly in 2020 when she was fired for having unregistered Valium and a vape on board.

She doesn’t love how things ended, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be using the podcast as an opportunity to “talk smack” about the show.

“I don’t even know contractually where I’m at, but you know, it’s very hard for them to sue me when I’m over here,” Ferrier joked.

Sobering, she added that there’s a common misconception that she’s angry or resentful about how her time on the show ended, but the truth is she’s grateful for the platform it gave her.

And if anyone wants to take the secrets she and Burgess spill on (Over)Share in bad faith, that’s fine. They’re used to it.

“I’ve just spent so many years dealing with it, especially on Instagram and social media, so I’m a bit numb to it now,” Ferrier said.

“The world’s in a very weird place, and to me if you’re worried about something that we’re saying on a podcast, you probably have too much time on your hands.”

(Over)Share launches on Monday, September 28. Listen here.