Why Jo Beth Taylor faded from the spotlight: The Hey Hey It’s Saturday star turned her back on fame in the late ’90s after being so depressed she couldn’t leave the house
Jo Beth Taylor was a household name in the 1990s, but her rise to fame as a TV star ended soon after it began.
The now 51-year-old, who also dabbled in a music career, was known for hosting Australia’s funniest home video show on Channel Nine, as well as Hey Hey It’s Saturday and What’s Up Doc?
But as the new millennium approached, Taylor disappeared from the small screen, moving to San Diego, California after suffering from depression and burnout.
Jo Beth Taylor (pictured on Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show) was a household name in the 1990s, but her rise to fame as a TV star ended soon after it began.
Taylor abruptly left her television career in 1997 because she felt “burned out” after dealing with a stalker and a “devastating” false rumor that she had filmed a sex tape.
‘There were warning signs that I was headed for an emotional crash. I was burned, I found myself crying for days and not being able to leave the house,’ she previously said. New Idea.
“He was dealing with a stalker situation, plus there was the false but devastating rumor that he had made a sex tape.”
The now 51-year-old, who also dabbled in a music career, was known for hosting Australia’s funniest home video show on Channel Nine, as well as Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
Taylor said she felt like she had been ‘kicked in the stomach’, so she went to live with a friend in the United States.
I loved the anonymity [of living in America]. I became a barista, surfed every day, got my head back and loved life again,” she said.
She returned to Australia in August 1999, a year before she married her second husband, former world number one Austrian tennis player Thomas Muster.
As the new millennium approached, Taylor disappeared from the small screen and moved to San Diego, California after suffering from depression and burnout.
The couple, who share a son, divorced in 2005.
The former Hey Hey host was married once before, to guitarist Jamie Jardine in 1992.
In 2006, Taylor met the man who would become her third husband, Matt Bennell, at their sons’ sports matches in Noosa.
Taylor previously told New Idea that she abruptly left her television career in 1997 because she felt “burnt out” after dealing with a stalker and a “devastating” false rumor that she had filmed a sex tape.
They began dating eight years later and announced their engagement in 2016.
In terms of her television career, Taylor returned to Channel Nine in 2000 as the presenter of StarStruck, which was her last regular television role until Dirty Jobs in 2007.
More recently, she’s taken roles here and there in entertainment, appearing on Dancing with the Stars in 2010 and I’m a Celebrity in 2016.
‘There were warning signs that I was headed for an emotional crash. I was burned, I found myself crying for days and unable to leave the house,” she said.