But the art gallery owner, wife of cricketing legend Glenn McGrath and doting stepmum revealed to S last week any hardships were worth it just to hear " 'I love you Sar-Sar' at night – it makes me feel so special".

Leonardi-McGrath, whose advice is to take things "one day at a time", has contributed a chapter to a book by Melbourne author Sally Collins, Stepmother Love.

She is stepmum to James, 13, and Holly, 11, the children of cancer campaigner Jane, who died in 2008.

"I don't have the time to write a whole book myself," the Italian American says. "When am I supposed to do that – in my dreams? But I've said from day one I try not to preach and we're all very affectionate.

"It's about the voices of stepmothers, to get away from that evil stepmum stereotype. There are some women who are going above and beyond the call of duty and raising other women's children.

"What they are doing is giving love. Love is hard, love is tough, too – it's not just candies and sweets and saying, 'Yes, yes, yes', it's about their minds and their hearts and their manners."

The busy gallery owner is preparing for the upcoming Sydney Contemporary art fair.

After only a year of operation her Chippendale gallery, McLemoi, was listed by the website Artinfo as one of the best galleries in Australia and one of the top 15 new museums and art galleries in the world.

Her next exhibition, Deposits, features up-and-coming artist Alexandra Standen. The fair booth will also showcase original works by Daniel Arsham. Leonardi-McGrath is excited: "Sydney has a lot to offer – the fact we now have our own international art fair puts us on the map."

Leonardi is also opening an online shop that will sell books, artworks, homewares, clothing and hand-crafted jewellery, as well as hosting the annual Taj Foundation black-tie gala on October 26 with Glenn and a breakfast on Tuesday for the League of Extraordinary Women.

Brave Turia fights back

Tahiti-born Turia Pitt radiates positive energy.

The brave 26-year-old suffered burns to 70 per cent of her body in an outback fire in 2011 while competing in a 100-kilometre ultramarathon in the Kimberley.

"I've always been a positive person and I don't think that's changed," she says. "The only thing I will say is not to take the people around you for granted. They're the ones who support you and love you."

The Ulladulla girl says life is getting back to normal since she removed the mask last week she had been wearing 23 hours a day to smooth her facial scarring. She has even signed up to take part in a leg of the upcoming Variety charity event The Variety Cycle, which starts in March and asks people to get on their bikes to benefit kids in need. She has just traded in a trike for a bike with training wheels.

It's important to help children who are burns victims recover as much quality of life as possible, Pitt says.

"I would say to them: 'It gets better mate; I know it's really shit now, but it gets better.' I've been there and I know it's hard to have a positive outlook on life, in a matter of seconds your old life is gone and you have a new life."

Pitt will also speak at a gala dinner on September 26 at Doltone House.

"I'm not quite sure at this stage how I will go," she says, crediting her boyfriend, Michael Hoskin, for helping her through. "He's so amazing, I can't sing his praise enough."

Tuning into heartbreak

Logie-nominated actor Jolene Anderson says she still thinks about her late All Saints co-star, Mark Priestley, every day.

She even summons his spirit when she goes to auditions.

"Yeah, I do. He comes into my mind all the time," the 33-year-old Rush star reveals to S from her Los Angeles base, where she is on the circuit of Hollywood's pilot season.

"I go into an audition and I say, 'Come on, Mark, and help me.' I stay in touch with his mum. We all work together and try and talk about it. I try and keep his memory alive as best I can."

Five years ago, Priestley jumped to his death from the 22nd floor of a Sydney hotel after a long battle with depression.

"[All Saints] was my first job and he was my sidekick," Anderson says. "We were nurse Dan and nurse Erica. He taught me a lot and we became really close . . . he was my buddy. We used to hang out a bit, but I knew what was going on behind the scenes and you try and help as much as you can ..."

For this reason, Anderson has finally succumbed and recorded a single, Don't Let the Darkness In. She has been pestered by record labels since she won Channel Seven singing show It Takes Two as David Campbell's duetting partner in 2007.

The single will raise money for the Black Dog Institute for World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Month in October. "I don't think I love music — I love singing," Anderson says. "I can play a bit of guitar and piano and I can write, but actually it's something that I didn't feel like pursuing and I was hell-bent on sticking to my acting at the time. But when Leanne [Imber, the song's writer] contacted me over a year ago and sent the lyrics, I said, 'I'm all yours,' and flew to Australia to record the song immediately. I knew I wanted to promote awareness for mental health, having known somebody who went through some hard times . . . it was five years last week," she says, her voice trailing. "I miss him every day."

Having seen a glimpse into "the debilitating side of depression on every level", Anderson says the most important thing people can do is "talk to a professional and talk to your friends".

The actor, who was the lead in a short film produced by the US Weinstein Company, which premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival, says she is committed to her acting path.

"Being part of a little project that was really creatively fulfilling is just inspirational and gets your heart pumping. The song is a one-off. Even though I work really well in the studio, for some reason it's not where my head's going or my feet are taking me."

Morsels

Corks popped all round when new Sunrise host Samantha Armytage was spotted at the Woolloomooloo wharf last week holding a present bag with her executive producer, Michael Pell. It was Armytage's 37th birthday last week and Pell's 31st birthday the week before. The pair have known each other for 10 years and, friends say, go way back to Sky News days where they both worked when she was fresh out of uni and he fresh out of school. No doubt there was a lot to catch up on after such a busy period, since Armytage took the reins as Seven's brekkie host. A few champoozies to celebrate the show, which had its highest rating month in more than a year, were no doubt had.

It took a while for the businesswoman to come to the fore in artist Kate Ceberano. Speaking in The Collective, on sale tomorrow, Ceberano reveals in her 30s she set off to New York and LA for a three-year sabbatical to reinvent herself. ''I knew that talent faded and that I would need to keep reinventing myself. I was on stage at 14 so I missed out on lot, normal schoolgirl stuff ... I went back to study things I missed out on; I went back to acting school.'' It was here she turned businesswoman, realising the only way to survive was to take control of her brand. ''We looked at exactly what was going to come in and what would need to go out, like a business, and mapped it all out in a systemised, strategic way. I want to know what makes David Bowie tick; I want to know how Katy Perry holds it all together; I want to know what Beyonce means when she says she runs all of her businesses.''