In a powerful new episode of marie claire’s podcast You’re Gonna Want To Hear This, editor Georgie McCourt sits down with advocate Brittany Higgins for a real, honest conversation about what happens after you speak up – and what it takes to keep going.
This interview was recorded a couple of months ago. Yesterday, Bruce Lehrmann failed in his bid to overturn the Federal Court judgment that found, on the balance of probabilities, that he raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
Hours after her legal victory was upheld, Brittany Higgins released a public statement that captured both exhaustion and resolve. “Finally, it feels like I can breathe again,” she wrote. “While on the face of it this was a defamation case against a media outlet, in reality this was once again a rape trial. I cannot begin to tell you how retraumatising it is to have your rapist weaponise the legal system against you for daring to speak out.”
“Sadly, this isn’t uncommon. It’s a legal tactic… used around the world by perpetrators in a bid to sue victim-survivors into silence as a direct response to the #MeToo movement.”
“Even after everything, I still believe in the importance of speaking out about gendered violence. There is inherent value in showing the one in five Australians who have experienced sexual assault aren’t just statistics. They are your friend, mother, daughter, sister and neighbour. So, let’s keep talking.”
It is against this backdrop – legal fatigue, public scrutiny and a shifting social climate – that our podcast conversation takes on new weight.
Listen To You’re Gonna Want To Hear This
“We Make a Seat at the Table for Each Other“
When Brittany Higgins reflects on what has held her together, she doesn’t begin with law or politics. She begins with women. “It’s 100% this: we make a seat at the table for each other,” she tells marie claire. “The best opportunities I’ve had came from women who saw something in me and made space.”
Her earliest support came from a tight cohort who, she says, “rallied around me” during her most destabilising years. “Publicly it can look loud, but privately a lot of people going through this are isolated,” she says. “Those lifelines matter.”
The Numbers That Should Shock a Nation
Higgins speaks often, and urgently, about the structural failings surrounding sexual assault in Australia. The statistic she cites most is devastating: Only 2% of sexual assault cases in Australia result in a criminal conviction. It echoes the warning of Justice Mordecai Bromberg, who highlighted the same figure in his National Press Club address. “I think we need to really internalise that,” she says. “If there’s a 2% chance of conviction, we’ve effectively decriminalised rape.”
Then she adds the number that lingers: One in five Australian women over 15 have experienced sexual assault. “When so many of us are touched by this issue,” she says, “the system should be working better for us.”
France and the Slow Return to Herself
By the time she left Australia in 2023, Higgins says she was barely functioning. “I was terrified of going outside… it felt like agoraphobia,” she tells me. “I couldn’t meet people’s eyes because I thought they already had a judgment about me.”
In a village of about 100 people in rural France, everything changed. “That period in France saved my life 100%. I started doing basic things again – eating, walking, going outside.” While living there, she discovered she was pregnant. Her son Freddie “changed everything immediately.” Motherhood, she says, has become an anchor: “My trauma shaped my entire 20s… but having an identity outside of that has been really lovely.”
“As a Woman I Believe You. As a Friend, I Want to Say: It’s Hard.”
Of all the things Higgins says, this line hits the hardest: “As a woman, I believe you. As a friend, I want to say: it’s hard.” She refuses to sell the narrative that justice – whether through media, courts or public disclosure – brings clear closure. “Healing is ugly,” she says. “It’s sleeping a lot. It’s depression. It’s not linear.”
Her advice to anyone considering speaking out is pragmatic and compassionate: “Build your support plan first – your people, your tribe. You will need them, no matter which path you choose.”
Online Abuse, Deepfakes and the Next Feminist Frontier
The public often imagines Higgins’ suffering as confined to courtrooms and headlines. In reality, digital violence has been relentless. She has endured trolling, death threats, and the distribution of AI-generated deepfake pornography. “The online space feels like the wild west,” she says. “There’s less oversight, less moderation. You just cannot engage – it only gives them power.” Higgins is pushing for what she calls the next frontier of gender equity: “A gender-neutral algorithm. Women need to be in the room where tech is built. That’s where the next wave of harm – and change – will be.”
What Comes Next?
Higgins remains committed to reform, not as a personal crusade, but a civic one. “We achieved affirmative consent laws, stealthing criminalisation, parliamentary reforms,” she says. “There were real gains. I want to make it worth it. I want to make it mean something.”
Her final question is not for herself, but for the rest of us: Are we prepared to live in a country where only 2% of sexual assault cases lead to conviction? And if not, what are we willing to do?
If you or someone you know needs support, you can contact 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline (13 11 14) in Australia.
Listen now: You’re Gonna Want to Hear This is available via the iHeart app, marieclaire.com.au, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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