Big Brother’s Tully Smyth reveals why her former podcast producer Jess Lucas abruptly left the show

Tully Smyth has spoken out about her ‘abrupt’ split from her podcast producer, Jess Lucas, in December last year.

The 33-year-old former Big Brother star had Jess on as a guest on her podcast, Too Much Tully, on Wednesday.

Jess acknowledged that they’d had an ‘abrupt finish’ and said she was ‘devastated’ when she left the show, with Tully described it as feeling like a ‘breakup’.

‘No one knew, especially the two of us, that it would be our last episode together. I haven’t talked about it… Mainly because, I guess at the time, I was a little bit hurt, my feelings were hurt, my heart was broken,’ Tully explained. 

‘It was kind of taken out of our hands, bit of a blindside, and I didn’t want to dwell on your departure, our breakup. I wanted to start afresh. It felt like a f**king breakup!’

Tully insisted ‘it was not my decision’ for Jess to leave the podcast, but said the decision had been taken out of their hands.

Meanwhile, Jess said that neither of them wanted to ‘say goodbye’, and called it ‘a tough time for everyone’. 

Tully said the decision ultimately ‘came from nowhere’ and left them both blindsided.

She explained that her podcast had changed companies from Big Media Company (BMC) to Nova Entertainment Podcast Network (NEPN).

‘It was tough for me, not being able to take you with me… Obviously there was a conflict of interest,’ Tully told Jess. 

‘You were on the books nine to five, you were their employee, and I was technically going to a competitor, so you weren’t actually able to come with me. So it was out of both of our hands.’

Jess then joked that her sudden departure from Tully’s podcast had marked the end of her podcast career.