Jana Pittman of SAS Australia recalls how she was once so poor that she could barely feed her children and felt like she had “completely screwed up their lives”
She is one of the toughest rookies this season for SAS Australia.
But on Thursday, Olympian Jana Pittman, 38, revealed a more vulnerable side of her character by explaining how she once struggled so financially that she barely had enough money to feed her children.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the mother-of-four said she had to ask her 70-year-old parents for help after she “failed to calculate her funds correctly” and was hit with a “huge tax bill” when changing. career from athlete to doctor.
Struggles: On Thursday Olympian Jana Pittman, 38, revealed a more vulnerable side of her character as she explained how she once struggled so financially that she barely had enough money to feed her children. Pictured with two of her four children, Emily and Jemima
“I remember literally collapsing in my bedroom thinking, ‘I completely messed up my children’s lives,’ she said, adding that she even put her house on the market but that ‘she hadn’t sold.
“We literally went to baked beans on toast and Devon sandwiches at one point, and we went to mum and dad’s house to steal a meal,” she continued.
Jana said she was ashamed to ask her mom and dad for help, thinking in her mind that she “had failed miserably in my financial and parenting responsibilities.”
“I remember literally collapsing in my bedroom thinking ‘I completely ruined my children’s lives’,” she said, adding that she had even put her house on the market but that ‘she hadn’t sold. Pictured on SAS Australia
While it is not known exactly when her financial troubles arose, Jana graduated with a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery in 2019.
Despite the dark times, everything finally worked for the athletics star – who now works as a doctor in the emergency department at Blacktown Hospital in Sydney.
“I had just been so excited with this goal of becoming a doctor, but I hadn’t tidied my ducks as well as I thought,” she concluded.
Children: Two of Jana’s children, daughters Emily, six, and Jemima, four, were born through IVF and an anonymous sperm donor. She also has a 14-year-old son, Cornelis, from her marriage to her first husband and former coach, Chris Rawlinson. Photographed at her graduation ceremony in 2019
Jana and her husband Paul Gatward welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Charles, last year.
First father Paul, who prefers to stay out of the media spotlight, married Jana in a private ceremony just months before she gave birth.
Two of Jana’s children, daughters Emily, six, and Jemima, four, were born through IVF and an anonymous sperm donor.
She also has a 14-year-old son, Cornelis, from her marriage to her first husband and former coach, Chris Rawlinson.
SAS Australia continues Monday at 7:30 p.m. on Channel Seven
Career change: Jana traded in her racing spikes for a stethoscope to pursue her dream job as a doctor. She now works as a doctor in the emergency department at Blacktown Hospital in Sydney.
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