Career

Mean Mums’ Anna Jullienne: What she’s learned about raising boys, and other fun facts

If she was 20 per cent more like her character, Heather, she'd really be able to 'up the game a bit', Anna jokes.
Loading the player...

Spend an hour with Anna Jullienne and you’ll see she’s nothing like her character, Heather Maloney, in the new TV Kiwi comedy series Mean Mums.

While Heather is an “alpha mum”, earnestly over-involved in her primary school-aged daughter’s school life, Anna is fun – although she jokes that if she was just 20 per cent more like Heather she’d really be able to “up the game a bit”.

In a case of life imitating art, Anna also does the school run like her character, with the oldest of her two sons, Ted, having started school this year but she says that because she’s a Year One mum “we sort of pull together and try and work out what we’re doing”.

In this video we get to know the former 800 Words and Shortland Street star better. Anna lets us in on what makes her tick and why exercise has become such an important part of her life.

She also talks about family. Anna grew up in an all-female household with four generations of women; the “female energy was strong”, she says.

Now she lives with males – her husband, James Kermode, and their two young sons, Ted, five, and Jude, two. She jokes that wee-wee on her bathroom floor (from the two youngest members of the family) has made its way onto her pet peeves list, although she’s also resigned to the fact that it’s likely to stay for a few years yet.

Fortunately, the piece of advice from her mum that she has carried throughout her life puts her in good stead to deal with whatever challenges come her way.

Mean Mums screens on Three, Tuesdays at 8.30pm.

To read the full story on Anna Jullienne – including her close relationship with her mother Mary and how growing up in a household with three generations of strong women shaped her into who she is today – pick up the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, on sale now.

Related stories


Real Life

Anna Jullienne: My dream wedding!

Beautiful Shortland St star Anna Jullienne shares happy memories of her wedding to James Kermode exclusively with the Weekly. See gorgeous photos and read all the details about her happy day! We look at the rumours circulating around the split of Brad and Ange. Is this finally the end and what does this mean for Jennifer […]