Australian Idol star Em Rusciano reveals reason she won’t let her daughters do reality TV

Former Australian Idol star Em Rusciano has revealed she would never let her daughter Marchella, 18, go on reality TV. 

The mother-of-three, who rose to fame on season two of the reality singing series in 2004, admitted to Stellar magazine this week it was a trying time for her.  

‘I wouldn’t put her through reality TV. I didn’t love my experience. I loved the career it gave me, [but] at the time I thought I was going to die,’ she told the publication. 

She went on to say she was only 25-years-old at the time with her being watched by two million people a week.  

‘I was a mother of one, with no TV experience, no music experience, no entertainment experience and put on a show watched by two million people a week,’ she said. 

She went on to say it was actually her worst nightmare.

‘It was my worst nightmare. I cried every night. I became the girl with the one earring – my homage to Madonna – who cried a lot.’

Em’s discussion comes after she signed a contract with Spotify Australia to make her Emsolation podcast a Spotify Exclusive, last month.  

The partnership will still give her full creative control – after years of having her output carefully managed by radio executives.

‘[Spotify] enjoy me and don’t endure me, which has so often been the case in the past with previous employers… It’s so validating,’ she said.

‘They have been incredible. To have one of the biggest listening platforms in the world love what I do and believe and back what I do and not ask me to change a thing,’ she said.  

Em was hired to host 2Day FM’s breakfast show in 2017, alongside Harley Breen.

In September 2018, she announced she was leaving the show in order to focus on having a baby.

Before her departure, multiple reports alleged employees had left 2Day FM and others were looking for new jobs due to Em’s ‘attitude’.