Australian media personality Ryan Shelton has shared the jealousy he felt when his best friend Hamish Blake teamed up with Andy Lee and the couple quickly catapulted themselves to being two of Australia’s biggest celebrities.

Shelton and Blake went to high school together and forged a very close bond. After high school, the two companions worked hard to succeed in the media industry. However, despite Blake’s best intentions at heart, Shelton revealed that he felt a sense of jealousy when Lee and Blake started working together.

“It was really tough,” Shelton told podcast host Mia Freedman on NOTo Filter. “Because…Hamish and I went to high school together. So in high school, he and I were so close. We watched Monty Python together. We just connected on a level that I didn’t have with anyone else in school, really. And he was, you know, he was my guy, performance-wise.

“So he meets this other guy in college, who I didn’t know, this guy named Andy. Hamish is like, ‘he and his friends are also sketching.’ So maybe we should meet. And so we all met and we all hit it off. And we started sketching together. And it was this amazing, consistent thing that kind of worked,” Shelton says.

“But Hames and Andy very, very quickly found that dynamic that worked so, so well. And it was a bit undeniable for them but also for anyone. It just clicked.

“It’s a strange thing… It’s really, really tricky. Because it seems petty to worry about. If your friend is hanging out with a new friend, it seems very petty. Friendships are not exclusive! You can be friends with anyone.”

“Haymes had more ambition and confidence than me at the time. So he was already there and I didn’t mind at all. Because it was just him and I was happy for him,” Shelton said. at Freeman.

“But that was as soon as Andy the new friend arrived – that’s when I was like, ‘Oh wait. I didn’t know we did duets!’ »

Hamish and Andy then hosted their first radio show together in 2003, The show of almost Tuesdays. The couple’s undeniable chemistry made their show a hit and was the start of a hugely successful career for both men.

Blake and Lee went from strength to strength and together hosted five more prime time radio shows through 2017. They also hosted several hit TV shows and established themselves as two of the most popular comedians in the world. Australia of all time.

Although Shelton was successful on his own — he appeared on a number of television and radio shows — it’s safe to say that Blake and Lee’s accomplishments eclipsed his own.

Looking back, Shelton says he regrets not being able to fully celebrate Blake’s success.

“The thing that’s really hard for me and the thing that’s really hard even now that I’ve had so much time to think about it and process it…but the thing that I really regret a lot is that I never got to to be properly happy for Hames,” admits Shelton.

“The more successful he was with Andy, the more things they did. It was the biggest radio show in Australian history. They were doing things that had never been done on radio; they were doing so many amazing things. And I just couldn’t be happy for him because I was holding back all that resentment…that had nothing to do with what he did,” he continues. “And now that I have the clarity of hindsight , I realize that these are just guys trying to make it. They try to do their thing… They worked hard for it.

During the interview, Shelton was asked when he was able to get over his jealousy of Blake and Lee’s success. “Well, I kind of doesn’t really,” he replied. “Until I met Hugh.”

Shelton then revealed that when he met Hugh van Cuylenburg and the couple started their podcast The Resilience Project in 2011, he found the courage within himself to discuss his feelings of jealousy with Blake.

Shelton explained that he took Blake to dinner and then “dropped the bomb.” Shelton explained, “And he was, as he tends to be…you know, listening without judgment. Listen without judgment and listen without ego. And don’t be defensive. There’s a lot to cash in on for him there. And that was everything I hoped for.

“We had subsequent conversations after that, which I haven’t talked about. We talked about stuff together. And it was quite illuminating, from his point of view, on how he felt at different times. I just thought it was going to be, ‘I’m just gonna drop this conversation on him. And then that will be it. The thing I didn’t expect was the ongoing conversation, which wasn’t necessarily so big and deep. It just creaked the door and allowed us to talk about things we wouldn’t have talked about otherwise.

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