A devastating loss for Johanna Griggs
Johanna Griggs is mourning the loss of the woman she describes as the heart of her family.
The Better Homes and Gardens host and former champion swimmer announced that her beloved mother, Leigh, had passed away in an emotional tribute shared on Instagram on Sunday.
For Johanna, the loss was far more than saying goodbye to a parent. Leigh had been the family’s guiding presence — the person who helped shape the values, confidence and principles that would follow her daughter throughout her life.
“Early this morning our beautiful matriarch passed away,” Johanna wrote.
“She was our fearless leader. Our guiding light. Our voice of reason. Our inspiration.”
The mother who taught her children to stand their ground
Johanna’s tribute painted a picture of a mother who was loving and generous, but never afraid to speak her mind.
Leigh taught her children the difference between right and wrong, but, perhaps more importantly, she taught them to stand up for what they believed in.
“She gave us our values, our principles… and taught us the difference between what’s right and wrong,” Johanna wrote.
“And then she taught us to stand up for, or against both of those things.”
That strength was something Leigh had passed down through the family.
Her daughter Emma Lo Russo previously described her mother as someone who instilled a “we’ll take on the world” attitude in her children.
For Johanna, that influence remained impossible to separate from the woman she became.
“I wouldn’t have the life or career I have without her”
Perhaps the most poignant part of Johanna’s tribute was her acknowledgement of just how deeply her mother had shaped her own journey.
“I quite simply wouldn’t have the life or career I have without her,” she wrote.
It was a powerful reflection from a woman who has built an extraordinary career of her own.
Johanna first made her name as a competitive swimmer, representing Australia and winning a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. She later established herself as one of Seven’s most recognisable television presenters and has hosted Better Homes and Gardens since 2005.
In 2020, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to community health, television and sport.
Yet behind those achievements was a mother Johanna credits with helping make that life possible.
A “boss lady” who protected her family
Johanna remembered Leigh not simply as a mother, but as the person who would fiercely stand behind her children.
“She was a total boss lady who would fight for all of us like a lioness if we needed protection,” she wrote.
It is a description that captures the strength running through Johanna’s memories of her mother.
Leigh was, in Johanna’s words, “beautiful, loving, kind, passionate, vocal, forthright” — and sometimes “crazy”.
But above everything else, she was extraordinarily generous.
The tribute also reflects how much of Leigh’s personality lived on in the family she raised.
Leigh was there for the family’s biggest moments
Leigh’s role extended across generations of the family.
In 2017, when Johanna announced that she was becoming a grandmother, she revealed that her own mother would take on a new family title: “GG”.