Speaker 1: You have come fresh from the set of Stella. We
Speaker 1: made you work hard this morning. You have been on
Speaker 1: set with our fabulous fashion team all morning and then
Speaker 1: straining the car and over here to me in the
Speaker 1: Something to Talk About studio.
Speaker 2: It's quite all right.
Speaker 3: I mean Stella has a well oiled machine of a team.
Speaker 3: They're great, So we smashed through the shoe and yeah,
Speaker 3: popped over here for a little chat.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Something to Talk About the Stella Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Lamarquin, your host, and every week I sit
Speaker 1: down with some of the biggest names in the country
Speaker 1: because when Australia celebrities are ready to talk, they come
Speaker 1: to Something to talk about. When Meek and Gayle Kick
Speaker 1: started her modeling career in the early noughs, she never
Speaker 1: expected she would still be at it as she neared
Speaker 1: her fiftieth birthday. But as we reach the end.
Speaker 4: Of twenty twenty four, that's exactly what.
Speaker 1: Has come to pass. On today's episode is Something to
Speaker 1: Talk About. Meghan opens up about learning the hard way,
Speaker 1: what happens when a woman dares to speak her mind,
Speaker 1: and why it's not so easy to quote unquote push
Speaker 1: her buttons anymore and why fourteen years into what she
Speaker 1: dubs the longest engagement ever to her fiancee Sean Hampson,
Speaker 1: she's still in no rush to get married. Megan Gail,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Stellar podcast. Thank you, so tell me
Speaker 1: how it feels to be on set of a fashion shoot,
Speaker 1: because for you, at this point in your career, that
Speaker 1: would be light for a lot of us, like breathing
Speaker 1: or turning on your computer. It's just automatic. But of
Speaker 1: course it is quite a production. It's literally a production
Speaker 1: with lights and camera and crew.
Speaker 3: It is it is, and I have to say, look,
Speaker 3: once upon a time for me, it was it was
Speaker 3: another day because I did it so much, so frequently.
Speaker 3: But then I stopped for a while to go and
Speaker 3: have my beautiful babies. The first of whiches is now ten,
Speaker 3: and so it became less frequent and common for me,
Speaker 3: And so when I do step back on set, it's familiar,
Speaker 3: but I have to kind of get back into the
Speaker 3: It takes me a little bit longer to get into
Speaker 3: that groove again because it isn't something I do as
Speaker 3: frequently as I once did, so it doesn't quite feel
Speaker 3: like breathing and brushing the teeth, but there is there
Speaker 3: is a bit of a what's that saying?
Speaker 2: With getting on a bi you never forget how to do.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about the bike like, it's really a
Speaker 1: bit of a confidence game, isn't it, whether it's riding
Speaker 1: a bike or being on set of a fashion shoe.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 1: You recently returned this year as a friend of David Jones.
Speaker 1: You have obviously worked with them over the years. It
Speaker 1: was really part of what made you a household name
Speaker 1: in Australia. It had huge success overseas very early on
Speaker 1: in your career, particularly in Italy, and then in that
Speaker 1: great Australian tradition, once.
Speaker 4: Someone cheers that.
Speaker 1: Everybody and so David Jones really snapped you up there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me ask you about.
Speaker 1: A bit like with the first question about being on
Speaker 1: set of a shoot. As you and I are talking,
Speaker 1: it's end of twenty twenty four, so we know how
Speaker 1: much the industry has disrupted different technology. The notion of
Speaker 1: celebrity has changed for you when you were working with
Speaker 1: David Jones in that era, luckily not its and as
Speaker 1: opposed to today, what's changed in terms of the runway was
Speaker 1: always a huge part the two times a year when
Speaker 1: we would do the autumn, winter, and summer runway. And
Speaker 1: then of course back then you didn't really have to
Speaker 1: do anything for social media. Now there's content I'm online.
Speaker 1: How would you say some of the big differences of
Speaker 1: being a friend of David Jones have changed in terms
Speaker 1: of what that says about changes in the industry over
Speaker 1: that time.
Speaker 3: It has changed so much, I think, and trying to
Speaker 3: kind of wrap your head around those changes and adapt
Speaker 3: to them is, you know, not tricky, but it's something
Speaker 3: you have to be very mindful of because a lot
Speaker 3: of what Yeah, you're right, it was mainly very heavily
Speaker 3: focused on catwalk and photographic and not really digital at all.
Speaker 3: You'd go, you'd do the job and you'd leave it.
Speaker 3: Whereas now with everything being with all this content based
Speaker 3: and digital and online and and so you have to
Speaker 3: be very well versed on how to execute that on
Speaker 3: your social media page. And it's after the shoot and
Speaker 3: there's all this timing and scheduling. And I mean the
Speaker 3: younger generation that's coming through that would be like child's
Speaker 3: play for them would be it's so easy. But for me,
Speaker 3: who's not really he sort of tech savvy and digital
Speaker 3: friendly person. It takes a little while, but I've gotten there.
Speaker 3: But it's it's definitely it's definitely different. You know, we
Speaker 3: don't do TV commercials as we as we as much
Speaker 3: as we used to because people prefer to put their
Speaker 3: spend into digital. But particularly as well, I think when
Speaker 3: you're doing shoots and stuff, everything's a lot more streamlined
Speaker 3: because technology has come such a long way as well,
Speaker 3: so in a lot of ways it's changed for the
Speaker 3: better and it's easier.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite part of what you do?
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit there about being on the runway,
Speaker 1: and then we've talked about being on set, and then
Speaker 1: obviously the different parts of that that are now required
Speaker 1: in terms of video and of course opportunities where you
Speaker 1: are required or you are speaking on a TV show
Speaker 1: or something like this on the cover of Stella and
Speaker 1: sitting in a podcast studio. What parts of it are
Speaker 1: you most comfortable with and what parts would you find
Speaker 1: are a little bit taking you out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: I used to always love catwalk.
Speaker 3: I loved it when I started modeling, even before I
Speaker 3: started at David Jones, I always always loved doing shows,
Speaker 3: doing fashion shows. I don't know there's just something about
Speaker 3: the theatrical stage, makeup, you close your costume, it's just
Speaker 3: something very dramatic about it. That I weed the music
Speaker 3: that I always loved that I always loved working with
Speaker 3: a whole a huge team of people. And I've always
Speaker 3: loved TV commercials as well, always loved doing that, And
Speaker 3: again I don't do much of that anymore, and I
Speaker 3: think I've done a ton of them.
Speaker 2: I couldn't even tell you how.
Speaker 3: Many, but I think in doing them that aspect has
Speaker 3: helped me with content a bit. Just with the filming
Speaker 3: digital side, it's kind of lends itself well to doing content.
Speaker 3: So fortunately I did a lot of TV commercials because
Speaker 3: that helps me with this sort of evolution that's happened
Speaker 3: with how content's created now.
Speaker 2: And in terms of out of.
Speaker 3: My comfort zone, sometimes I find photo shoots uncomfortable now.
Speaker 3: They were always an area that I would always be
Speaker 3: a little bit not uncomfortable in, but certainly not as
Speaker 3: comfortable as catwalk and TV. And I think because sometimes
Speaker 3: on photo shoots there's a lot of moving parts and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of very that need to align, especially
Speaker 3: when you're working with light and weather, and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of elements that need to come together and you
Speaker 3: feel quite out of control. But on the flip side,
Speaker 3: that teaches you to let go and to just kind
Speaker 3: of trust in the process and all of that, which
Speaker 3: is hard for us as humans to do. But yeah,
Speaker 3: sometimes I find photo shoots a little bit tricky in terms.
Speaker 1: Of being a perfectionist. Have you become less hard on yourself?
Speaker 1: And this is probably just a general question about your
Speaker 1: life and the way that a lot of women, especially
Speaker 1: my own experience. A lot of women that I've spoken
Speaker 1: to in my own life, friends and family, but certainly
Speaker 1: here in the podcast have talked about the notion of
Speaker 1: as we move through life, starting to let a little
Speaker 1: bit of the stuff go that we used to be
Speaker 1: our own worst critics.
Speaker 4: Have you found that yourself?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: I think as you as you progress through life and
Speaker 3: you get older, you you don't get as caught up
Speaker 3: and hung up, or if you start to, you don't
Speaker 3: ruminate on it for as long, mostly because you're too
Speaker 3: tired and you haven't got time. You can't be I
Speaker 3: think that's what there's a lot of.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I remember the other day there was like there was
Speaker 3: something on Instagram. There was a comment that someone had
Speaker 3: written on a post that I'd done, and it was it.
Speaker 2: Was just button pushing me.
Speaker 3: And look back in the day, if I'd seen, you know,
Speaker 3: a troll or or something, I would really think about it, go,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna should I say something. I'm going to say something. No,
Speaker 3: maybe I better think about it. Oh, And then it
Speaker 3: would just it would it would hurt and it would
Speaker 3: sit with me. And now I just sort of look
Speaker 3: at it and go.
Speaker 2: I can't even be bothered. Like I can't. I can't
Speaker 2: be bothered.
Speaker 3: And it's just it's things like that where you just
Speaker 3: there's so many especially when you've got two young kids
Speaker 3: and your partner works and you work. You you're juggling
Speaker 3: a thousand things. You don't really have time to sit
Speaker 3: there and get caught up on things or judge what
Speaker 3: you're doing too much. I think, you know, you really
Speaker 3: start to simplify what you devote your time and energy to,
Speaker 3: not just your physical energy, but your mental energy. It
Speaker 3: becomes more precious and important, so you don't want to
Speaker 3: part with it too often.
Speaker 4: It's so make sense, it makes so much sense.
Speaker 1: I think it is sometimes that you've just got a
Speaker 1: lot going on in certain stages of your life.
Speaker 4: You just don't have.
Speaker 1: The headspace to rent out to random people the criticism
Speaker 1: of other people. I wanted to ask you how you feel,
Speaker 1: because I don't think there's obviously there's no right or
Speaker 1: wrong answer to this, and everyone's got their own take
Speaker 1: on it. I was speaking to someone a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: I think it was in the office, and she said
Speaker 1: to me, oh, gosh, you know to be twenty three again,
Speaker 1: And I said, oh god, no, I wouldn't go back
Speaker 1: to twenty three for anything. And I was curious what
Speaker 1: you because obviously we can understand you'll will maybe look
Speaker 1: back at a time in your life and think it
Speaker 1: was a bit more uncomplicated, or oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: look so young then, or whatever, or like, yeah, didn't
Speaker 1: like I didn't even know that, you know, knee pain
Speaker 1: was the thing or whatever it is. But then what
Speaker 1: we've just talked about made me think about that that
Speaker 1: perspective and just having to let stuff go. Like I said,
Speaker 1: there's no right or wrong here. Do you lean towards
Speaker 1: one camp of that or not.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in.
Speaker 3: Being content to where you are because every little, every
Speaker 3: little phase of life and every little step along the
Speaker 3: way has led you to where you are, and where
Speaker 3: you are is where you're meant to be. I think
Speaker 3: starting to fantasize and wonder about. Look, I'm the first
Speaker 3: to admit, if you went back to say, let's say
Speaker 3: your twenties, mid twenties, you've got so much more time
Speaker 3: on your hands, and you haven't as many responsibilities necessarily,
Speaker 3: and you feel fitter, you feel healthier, feel stronger, You've
Speaker 3: got more.
Speaker 2: Energy and vitality.
Speaker 3: But I think the reason why we think and feel that,
Speaker 3: and we all have it, it beat fleetingly or it's
Speaker 3: constant yearning. I think we feel that way because we
Speaker 3: get to an age where we're so much more appreciative
Speaker 3: of our health, of our vitality, of free time, and
Speaker 3: we just sit there. I remember thinking I thought I
Speaker 3: was busy. Back then, I didn't know what busy was.
Speaker 3: So in one sense, it's good because it makes us
Speaker 3: more appreciative and grateful, because I think we'll get to
Speaker 3: if we're lucky enough, we'll get to seventy and eighty.
Speaker 3: I'd love to go back to my forties. So it's
Speaker 3: a constant looking back. But I think, and that's fine,
Speaker 3: But I think what we need to do is a
Speaker 3: look at the appreciation that has triggered that for all
Speaker 3: of those things.
Speaker 1: Another thing that I think has probably changed over the
Speaker 1: course of my time in media, and I would imagine
Speaker 1: for U Megan in the industry, is the fact that
Speaker 1: we're starting to appreciate some of the value and those
Speaker 1: gifts that come with women once they are shock over
Speaker 1: twenty five, because you at forty nine are friend of
Speaker 1: David Jones and you are fronting campaigns and on the
Speaker 1: cover of magazines. Again, not to put words in your mouth,
Speaker 1: but is that anything that you and your peers would
Speaker 1: have foreseen when you were starting out as an international
Speaker 1: model and a supermodel. I mean, that is a word
Speaker 1: that got overused for a very long time.
Speaker 2: I don't have ever been used in the same sentence
Speaker 2: as me.
Speaker 1: Oh well it has, and I definitely have and I
Speaker 1: would definitely use it. I think that is the point,
Speaker 1: I think when it is a word that actually is accurate.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so you and your contemporaries, supermodels or otherwise,
Speaker 1: would you have foreseen a day where both here in
Speaker 1: Australia and internationally.
Speaker 4: We are seeing obviously a lot.
Speaker 1: Of change in the industry in terms of body diversityicity,
Speaker 1: we're seeing less ableism, I think on the runway, but
Speaker 1: specifically about age.
Speaker 4: I mean forty nine.
Speaker 1: As you say, we're going to look back one day
Speaker 1: and go, God, I was a baby. But when you
Speaker 1: were starting out, it would have thought, well, I definitely
Speaker 1: won't be doing mainstream commercial, major campaigns at forty nine.
Speaker 3: Definitely because when I started, if you were still modeling
Speaker 3: after twenty five, that was considered rare. But I think,
Speaker 3: on one hand, I didn't necessarily expect that I would
Speaker 3: still be back working in the industry and in a
Speaker 3: role like I am with Zava Jones at this point
Speaker 3: in my life. But not because I thought, oh, no
Speaker 3: one will hire me because I'm old. It was more
Speaker 3: because I wasn't sure where I would want to be
Speaker 3: and what I would be doing. I mean I kind
Speaker 3: of thought that, I mean, I wanted to get all
Speaker 3: of my work, bulk of my work done by the
Speaker 3: time I hit early forties, so that I could just
Speaker 3: stop be mum and have the luxury to be able
Speaker 3: to do that.
Speaker 2: So it was more about that. But I think for me,
Speaker 2: I always kind of.
Speaker 3: Had a little bit of a habit of breaking the
Speaker 3: mold anyway I was. I didn't really find my success
Speaker 3: until my early twenties mid twenties. By then most girls
Speaker 3: were finishing. I was never stick thin. I was kind
Speaker 3: of like not your stock standard look as well, having
Speaker 3: a bit of different ethnicities, and so for me to
Speaker 3: kind of already go down that path of being non conventional,
Speaker 3: I suppose it's a nice surprise to kind of be
Speaker 3: picked up again at this at this point in my
Speaker 3: life and be with David Jones. But it's kind of
Speaker 3: keeping true to what I've always done. But it's I
Speaker 3: think it's super important now more than ever to be
Speaker 3: in this position because I know women do often think like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, models or that front brands are all young,
Speaker 3: pretty things that I can't relate to. So to have
Speaker 3: someone there that has been in the industry for a while,
Speaker 3: has stepped away, had a family come back, it sends
Speaker 3: a really good message.
Speaker 2: To women, I think.
Speaker 3: So hopefully that's that is something that is getting communicated
Speaker 3: on some level.
Speaker 1: I think it definitely is, and I would hope that
Speaker 1: the more visibility there is, then the less it becomes
Speaker 1: something that you have to talk about.
Speaker 4: It's like when you speak to the first.
Speaker 1: Female prime Minister of Australia and you think hopefully in
Speaker 1: thirty forty years it won't be such a big deal
Speaker 1: and we don't have to be.
Speaker 3: A token thing either. I don't have a bit the token.
Speaker 3: And that's why I think it's really careful. I want
Speaker 3: people to be really careful as well, and brands and
Speaker 3: businesses when they are looking to you know, cast the
Speaker 3: net wide and include women, men of all ages, body
Speaker 3: shape and size, ethnicity, gender, whatever it is. It can't
Speaker 3: be token. It can't be some little thing for some
Speaker 3: you know, clickbait. Let's get a pat on the back
Speaker 3: because you know, we used a woman over sixty, aren't
Speaker 3: we great. It's got to be less yimmicky than that.
Speaker 3: I don't like it when it becomes that, and I
Speaker 3: wanted to be really sure that when I sort of
Speaker 3: stepped back into this space that it was not going
Speaker 3: to be you know, with that in mind or for
Speaker 3: that purpose. It's almost like a nice little side thing
Speaker 3: as well. So yeah, it's hopefully it's being received as
Speaker 3: something quite positive.
Speaker 1: Another thing I think that has from my observation at
Speaker 1: least changed a little bit since when you were first
Speaker 1: working with David Jones is the way that we talk
Speaker 1: about women in the public eye. And we've spoken about
Speaker 1: this before with you at Stella, not here, you and
Speaker 1: me on the podcast, but just calling out some of
Speaker 1: those tropes where you, working with David Jones were pitted
Speaker 1: against other high profile women what we called the quote unquote.
Speaker 3: Store was which and me, Megan, I know, my goodness,
Speaker 3: what a time, What a time.
Speaker 2: So do you think that would happened now?
Speaker 1: I don't think that it would in a lot of
Speaker 1: the media. I think it never fully goes away, and
Speaker 1: I think it's still.
Speaker 4: There in the little loone.
Speaker 1: I was going to say corners of the dark Web,
Speaker 1: but I think there's that certain light kind of screaming,
Speaker 1: you know, tabloid headline that really still traffics a lot
Speaker 1: off policing women and pitting women against other women. But
Speaker 1: I would like to think that we're certainly living in
Speaker 1: a time where we're thinking twice about that narrative.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I tell you what if, And again going
Speaker 3: back to what we were saying about being younger and
Speaker 3: feeling like if I had the voice that I have
Speaker 3: now and the platform, And that's a good thing about
Speaker 3: social media. You've got your own platform and voice I
Speaker 3: don't think I would have. I wouldn't if it happened now,
Speaker 3: and it was different times, I wouldn't have.
Speaker 2: Stagsip about it.
Speaker 3: And I think I'm also I was very conscious of
Speaker 3: like I'd speak up once about it, and it came
Speaker 3: back to bite me on the butt because I was
Speaker 3: doing something for I can't remember if it was a
Speaker 3: current affair or something, and it wasn't to do with
Speaker 3: David Jones, and it was to do with another brand,
Speaker 3: and the interview had finished, and someone and that I
Speaker 3: thought the cameras were off again, just naive and green,
Speaker 3: and someone had asked me something about, you know, Jen
Speaker 3: and Meyra, and I said, I think it's really unfair
Speaker 3: to do that to us. I think we're both achieving
Speaker 3: so much in our own right. And also I had
Speaker 3: I had been around for quite a while and earned
Speaker 3: my stripes and to have it all reduced down to
Speaker 3: this who's better and let's I remember seeing polls online
Speaker 3: about and picking us apart, and I hated it. I
Speaker 3: loved Jen and I respected her enough as a peer
Speaker 3: to go, I love what you're doing. I don't want
Speaker 3: to be picked apart next to you. It's not good
Speaker 3: for anyone, but and it had been going on for
Speaker 3: a while, and I said, you know, I've been around
Speaker 3: for ten years, I've been doing this, We've been doing that,
Speaker 3: and or even longer, I think it was. And I said,
Speaker 3: and you know, why is this happening? Kind of thin
Speaker 3: and then it got sort of turned into this Megan
Speaker 3: s lambs Jen and then I was like.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, because I said that was it. I
Speaker 2: said it was insulting.
Speaker 3: I said I am insulted that this, and they turned
Speaker 3: it more into that I was insulted by her or
Speaker 3: being compared to her, and then that really and at
Speaker 3: that point I was like, I'm just not speaking up again.
Speaker 3: I'm not speaking up again because it's not worth it
Speaker 3: because no matter what I say, it will be taken
Speaker 3: and twisted around to fuel that.
Speaker 2: And so I just you know.
Speaker 3: And luckily though, we both got cast together to work
Speaker 3: together and as straight as Next Top Model, and that
Speaker 3: was brilliant because we could finally have an opportunity to
Speaker 3: come together side by side. We did a beautiful Murray
Speaker 3: clayre covered together, and it was just a really nice
Speaker 3: way to show everyone, like, see, we don't each other,
Speaker 3: We're totally fine. What we hate is people trying to
Speaker 3: because she's divine and you would have met her over
Speaker 3: the years. She's the most non confrontational person and every
Speaker 3: time we'd see each other, we'd be like, why is
Speaker 3: this happening? So yeah, it resolved itself, but I really
Speaker 3: don't think it would happen now.
Speaker 2: I think it would just be true. There would be
Speaker 2: an uproar.
Speaker 3: I think women especially would be like, what are you
Speaker 3: doing to these girls? You know there was it would
Speaker 3: be challenged a lot more.
Speaker 1: In coming up, Meghan gets honest about approaching her fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 1: You're a mum of beautiful young boy and beautiful young girl,
Speaker 1: the two of them along with your partner Shaw all
Speaker 1: on the cover of Stella late last year, so picture
Speaker 1: perfect family, but two more important values and your role
Speaker 1: as a mother.
Speaker 4: Would you hope for a little bit of what.
Speaker 1: We've talked about, especially with your daughter Rosie, that the
Speaker 1: world that they are growing up in is a little
Speaker 1: kinder and allows a bit more space for both young
Speaker 1: men and young women to not be pitted against each other,
Speaker 1: to not necessarily be held back by those gender stereotypes,
Speaker 1: and to feel a little bit like what you have
Speaker 1: found this hard one place where you can, as you
Speaker 1: were saying earlier, speak up, but in a kind way,
Speaker 1: which you hope the world they're inheriting might be an
Speaker 1: easier path for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think we focus a lot on building
Speaker 3: resilience as well, like emotional resilience.
Speaker 2: And fortunately at schools now they are starting to do
Speaker 2: that too.
Speaker 3: They realize the importance of it and you know, encouraging
Speaker 3: because you know, back in the day, if you had
Speaker 3: an issue, you didn't really go and sort of talk
Speaker 3: it out with the teacher.
Speaker 2: But they do that now.
Speaker 3: It's I think the way that the schools are going
Speaker 3: as sort of really supporting children a lot more. And
Speaker 3: that's the I guess the beauty of having experience these
Speaker 3: things for yourself that you can then help try and
Speaker 3: guide them as well and hope that they always feel
Speaker 3: like that they can communicate their thoughts and feelings.
Speaker 2: I do with my kids.
Speaker 3: We have we call them private chats, and so one
Speaker 3: of them, like for example, River might say, hey, Mum,
Speaker 3: I want to have a private chat, and we go
Speaker 3: into you know, our bed, and we sit there and
Speaker 3: it's like a safe space and you know, we can
Speaker 3: talk about anything. And so I really want want to encourage,
Speaker 3: and interestingly, rivers more. He'll communicate more verbally with me
Speaker 3: than Rosie will. Sometimes I've got to really pull things
Speaker 3: out of her, which is unusual because usually it's boys
Speaker 3: that sort of clam up and women kind of want
Speaker 3: to talk talk talk talk talk, but Rosie sort of
Speaker 3: like holds back a bit more. So I'm probably more
Speaker 3: concerned about her, but I'm mindful that she needs to
Speaker 3: learn how to communicate a bit more, especially in regards
Speaker 3: to her emotions and how she feels about things, because
Speaker 3: she'll just kind of brush things off, and I don't
Speaker 3: want that to lead to suppression. But with River, he just, yeah,
Speaker 3: he shares a lot more, which is wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 1: That's so great. Is I love that idea of the
Speaker 1: private chat.
Speaker 3: Private chat, and it's just yeah, safe space, open space,
Speaker 3: no judgment.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, yeah, they love it.
Speaker 1: As you said, you have stepped back a little bit
Speaker 1: and wanted to really slow down following the birth of
Speaker 1: the two of.
Speaker 4: Them, and they are now ten.
Speaker 1: As he was saying with River and about I think seven,
Speaker 1: he was just take seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when we talk about your work, you say, friend
Speaker 1: of David Jones are the projects. What's the rhythm of
Speaker 1: your life at the moment day to day. Do you
Speaker 1: find is starting to let the work and the projects
Speaker 1: creep up a little bit? Or do you think no,
Speaker 1: I never really plan to go back above say a
Speaker 1: certain ratio of you know, home family time, and then yeah,
Speaker 1: a bit that's in the career column.
Speaker 3: May shall we say, yeah, it's a lot to try
Speaker 3: and balance out.
Speaker 2: I hadn't.
Speaker 3: I'd always been open to opportunities and step it back
Speaker 3: into this space. But I only really wanted to make
Speaker 3: if something's going to pull me away from kids at home,
Speaker 3: and often this work involves travel, then it has to
Speaker 3: be work that I'm excited about and that I want
Speaker 3: to do. And so when David Jones, for example, came up,
Speaker 3: I knew that it would be there'd be a lot
Speaker 3: of work and there'd be a bit of travel involved,
Speaker 3: but it was very exciting for me to do. But
Speaker 3: I still want to be there and be present enough
Speaker 3: with the kids to be involved in their lives, especially
Speaker 3: while they're so young and while they don't mind me
Speaker 3: being around, because they'll get to that age and they'll
Speaker 3: be like, we don't need you and actually.
Speaker 2: Can you not come up to the schoolcause it's embarrassing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that'll happen, but it's not happening right now.
Speaker 3: And you know, I had great memories of my mum
Speaker 3: helping out at the canteen and the library, and so
Speaker 3: I like to try and help out and just be
Speaker 3: around and be present so they'll have that memory of
Speaker 3: me being around. So I try and balance everything to
Speaker 3: enable that to happen. Alongside with Sean, who's quite busy.
Speaker 3: He's coaching the AFLW the women's football now, which is
Speaker 3: really exciting, So we try and juggle it and I
Speaker 3: just sort of take it, you know, I try and
Speaker 3: measure it so I can still do everything. Because I'm
Speaker 3: a huge believer in trying to create balance. Even though
Speaker 3: it seems like the impossible task, I try and create
Speaker 3: it as best I can. So I take on that
Speaker 3: workload so it still enables me to do the other
Speaker 3: things too.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you a little bit, well,
Speaker 1: balance but at home and the workload, because this again
Speaker 1: is a hot topic in many households between partners, for instance,
Speaker 1: and you talk about Sean there, because it's something that
Speaker 1: I still find that I have to check myself. I
Speaker 1: might ask you about that a lot as a working mum,
Speaker 1: but then it's important that we're asking the same.
Speaker 4: Of working dads.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like that's something that you and Sean
Speaker 1: are obviously quite conscious of as well, that you've both
Speaker 1: got work and career, but you're both also in this
Speaker 1: you know, parenthood, yes, put together as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think it's I mean, he's so he
Speaker 3: has really big days and they're sort of physical sometimes,
Speaker 3: but he's still as involved as hands on and you know,
Speaker 3: both as a dad but also around the house. And
Speaker 3: I think now it's really important that gone are the
Speaker 3: times where the house was the woman's domain and the
Speaker 3: kids were the woman's domain and the man went out
Speaker 3: and worked and then that was it. It's like I've
Speaker 3: always been very much of a we're not in the fifties,
Speaker 3: and we both chose to have the kids. We both
Speaker 3: wear the clothes, we eat, the food we do, so like,
Speaker 3: let's all sort of muck in together.
Speaker 1: So yep, here, Yeah, the Wild Wars, let's put it
Speaker 1: all in the big bag.
Speaker 2: We're just going to chuck everything in.
Speaker 3: But there's definitely things that we all play. We've also
Speaker 3: played to our strengths. So there's things that he definitely,
Speaker 3: there's his things and my things, and then there's stuff
Speaker 3: we just sort of get done together. And yeah, especially now,
Speaker 3: the kids are so busy, they've got so much activity
Speaker 3: and things on, so's there's a lot of moving parts there,
Speaker 3: and we have to constantly check schedules and okay, what
Speaker 3: are you doing today?
Speaker 2: What am I doing? Okay? Cool, and then we sort
Speaker 2: of crosscheck.
Speaker 3: And and it's a bit, it's a bit of a
Speaker 3: grind and a bit it's boring, it's not sexy, and
Speaker 3: we know that, but it's also you know what, we
Speaker 3: are also finding that we can sometimes just everything about
Speaker 3: work and the kids and you know, finding that work
Speaker 3: life balance. But then we've got to remember we were
Speaker 3: a couple once we were individuals. Once we need to devote.
Speaker 3: You need to do your thing, I need to do
Speaker 3: my thing. We also need to go out and have
Speaker 3: dates and we need to it's a lot, it's a
Speaker 3: lot to think about, but it's super important, you know,
Speaker 3: as you move through life together to sort of be
Speaker 3: aware of all those things too.
Speaker 4: It's so true.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned that the kids have got their activities
Speaker 1: and that's right. You and Sean, like a lot of
Speaker 1: parents around Australia will become full time Uber drivers already.
Speaker 4: Oh goodness, scary, isn't it a ten and seven?
Speaker 1: You're already on call well speaking then of a bit
Speaker 1: of romance and things being sexy or otherwise. I did
Speaker 1: just want to ask, you know, get my nosey journo
Speaker 1: had on here.
Speaker 4: Again, no right or wrong answer here.
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound like that, you know, aunt
Speaker 1: at the family Christmas dinner going.
Speaker 4: When are you two going to make it official?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: But you have actually been engaged since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4: I do sound like that judgmental, aren't it? Do you know?
Speaker 5: I mean a hypothetical Unfortunately not asked me if I'm
Speaker 5: going to have Yeah, that was to navigate that one
Speaker 5: that I know that one stops again I do have
Speaker 5: to clop my hypocrisy then when I do us. But again,
Speaker 5: I mean, like I said, this is not a leading
Speaker 5: question because the answer might be no, like we're just
Speaker 5: happy being engaged forever.
Speaker 4: So but I did want to ask the question.
Speaker 3: You wanted to touch on it, and it's fair enough
Speaker 3: because it has been the longest engagement ever and in
Speaker 3: fact we were I was pregnant with Rosie, so that
Speaker 3: gives you an idea because she's she's seven. Oh, I
Speaker 3: was pregnant with Rosie. When when he proposed, oh well
Speaker 3: he and River actually proposed.
Speaker 2: It was very very cute, it was it was it
Speaker 2: was a dual effort.
Speaker 3: But yeah, look, it was always something I think that
Speaker 3: we were in no rush to do. I know, traditionally
Speaker 3: everyone's like, get engaged, plan the wedding, have the kids.
Speaker 3: I've never been a really big marriage, wedding, e girl,
Speaker 3: the whole lot seems like a lot of work for me,
Speaker 3: and just exhausted thinking about it. But it was more
Speaker 3: important for me to start a family and for Sean too,
Speaker 3: and so then when we did that, but then there
Speaker 3: was like a little thing where I was like everyone
Speaker 3: else is getting it. Is he actually gonna ask? Like
Speaker 3: I thought, he hasn't even asked. And I remember be
Speaker 3: getting a little bit funny about that, which is really
Speaker 3: silly now to think about. And I think it was
Speaker 3: more because we had River and we had Rosy incoming,
Speaker 3: and I just wanted to feel I felt like that
Speaker 3: they were the Hampson's and I was like miss Gail
Speaker 3: over here and I kind of wanted to unite more,
Speaker 3: and then he asked me, and then I was over Jordan.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, oh, I can't be bothered
Speaker 2: playing the wedding. Can't be bothered.
Speaker 3: And then it got to a point where it was like,
Speaker 3: I'm so silly. I don't need that to feel united.
Speaker 3: I feel it when's Rosie along. It was just completeness.
Speaker 2: It was just it was all. It all made sense.
Speaker 3: And then and then we thought, well, the kids are here,
Speaker 3: let's wait till they're old enough to be involved and
Speaker 3: remember it. And then COVID hit and every time we
Speaker 3: go to planet as well, we're just like, it's just
Speaker 3: I don't know when, where, how, who's there? Couldn't It
Speaker 3: just became too hard And then and then we renovated
Speaker 3: and then.
Speaker 2: Here we are and I'm still just like, I don't know.
Speaker 4: The thing is again, there is there no right or wrong?
Speaker 2: Is there?
Speaker 4: There's only we want it. It sounds as though, put.
Speaker 2: It this way, there's no rush.
Speaker 3: We've been together for fourteen years, we've got two kids.
Speaker 3: I think it would be a nice thing to do
Speaker 3: one day with the kids and whoever else and yeah,
Speaker 3: watch the space does.
Speaker 1: River ever query about it, since.
Speaker 4: He was a co proposer.
Speaker 3: No, the kids don't. The kids don't either. They don't, Yeah,
Speaker 3: they really. I think they just see their mum and
Speaker 3: dad together in a house filled with love and happiness,
Speaker 3: and that's enough for them. I think, you know, to officiate,
Speaker 3: it is sort of not really where kids are. You know,
Speaker 3: their heads are at so they're not really fast, clearly
Speaker 3: as we are not fast.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 1: If you don't mind, I would love to go back
Speaker 1: a little bit though, to your thoughts on those years
Speaker 1: where you were dealing with questions about are you going
Speaker 1: to have children? Because I think it is seeing women
Speaker 1: like you being asked that, and let's be honest, being
Speaker 1: asked at by journalists such as myself over the years,
Speaker 1: it certainly gave me pause to think about it, because
Speaker 1: I would like to think that we collectively have come
Speaker 1: to understand that there's a variety of reasons that that
Speaker 1: question can be inappropriate, really hurtful, whatever your situation, whether
Speaker 1: you may never want to have children, for instance, and
Speaker 1: then there's an implied judgment in or all you have
Speaker 1: to defend yourself. I mean, yeah, happily child free people
Speaker 1: that have to say, oh, but I mean, I love them,
Speaker 1: and I'm a god parent and I've got three nieces
Speaker 1: and nephews.
Speaker 4: Why do people feel that they.
Speaker 1: Have to justify their their decisions or that you might
Speaker 1: be recovering from a miscarriage, or that you are, you know,
Speaker 1: dealing with infertility issues. But it's also just a very
Speaker 1: presumptuous question, which is obviously why we put the policy
Speaker 1: in place.
Speaker 3: I think it's a wildly inappropriate question for various reasons.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's up there with how much money do
Speaker 3: you make? It's just like full on flows my mind
Speaker 3: that people just so freely ask it, mainly because I
Speaker 3: mean when you when you break it down, it is
Speaker 3: a question that pertains to a woman, a woman's reproductive zone,
Speaker 3: which is sacred and should never really be discussed casually,
Speaker 3: like where you're going on Friday?
Speaker 2: Are you having kids? And I would get as soon
Speaker 2: as mid.
Speaker 3: Twenties onwards, I would just be asked constantly, and I
Speaker 3: think for a while there I was just like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, one day, I'm not sure when. But I
Speaker 3: think particularly as well, once once we had River, I
Speaker 3: thought it would stop, but it started. You're having the
Speaker 3: when you're having the next one and where it really
Speaker 3: hit home for me, where I sort of I never
Speaker 3: really loved the question, but where I thought, this has
Speaker 3: got to stop. Women have got to stop being asked this,
Speaker 3: not just women like me in the public eye in
Speaker 3: an interview, all women everywhere, at family functions.
Speaker 2: At wherever. It is because I was getting.
Speaker 3: Asked about it when I was pregnant with a baby
Speaker 3: before Rosie and I miscarried, and so to be asked about,
Speaker 3: you know, when are you going to be pregnant, when
Speaker 3: are you're having another one, when you're trying, and then
Speaker 3: when you've just lost it and you're coming to terms
Speaker 3: with that whole experience, it's just it's very triggering. It's
Speaker 3: very triggering, and I think it's important we don't get
Speaker 3: too scared to ask people questions about things. But by
Speaker 3: the same token, this is.
Speaker 2: A really.
Speaker 3: Private, personal intimate area that is often just riddled with issues,
Speaker 3: reproductive issues, miscarriage. People like you say, maybe not really
Speaker 3: wanting to, people really wanting to, but they can't. You
Speaker 3: just don't know what someone's going through, and so I
Speaker 3: think it's really important to have more sensitivity and be
Speaker 3: more mindful of what you're asking and what it might
Speaker 3: sort of set off and trigger off as someone because
Speaker 3: I've been there, and it's it's and especially when you're
Speaker 3: in the public eye and you've got cameras on you
Speaker 3: and or whatever, and you might even be on live TV,
Speaker 3: and you've got to compose yourself because you don't want
Speaker 3: the world to know that you've just miscarried or whatever
Speaker 3: and just sort of sit there and go, I don't know.
Speaker 3: And that requires an enormous amount of in a strength,
Speaker 3: and you know, it's it's it's it's tricky, it's it's tricky.
Speaker 2: It's such a tricky area.
Speaker 3: But I love, I commend you, and I love that
Speaker 3: you've got that policy in place.
Speaker 2: I think it's an amazing step forward.
Speaker 4: You're just so right, Megan.
Speaker 1: And when you said you never know what someone's going
Speaker 1: through when we announced it, that was actually exactly the
Speaker 1: line that I use, because you are right, it's impossible
Speaker 1: for most of us to imagine what it must be
Speaker 1: like with a literal spotlight upon you being asked something
Speaker 1: like that in front of everybody by people you don't know.
Speaker 1: But as you say, it's also really about those conversations
Speaker 1: happening around for every kitchen tables because these conversations are
Speaker 1: important because they happen in the culture, and then that's
Speaker 1: where we take some of our cues, whether we like.
Speaker 4: To admit it or not.
Speaker 1: If we are seeing people like yourself being quizzed about that,
Speaker 1: then we think it's okay just to rock up to
Speaker 1: a total stranger. And I'm sure you and I both
Speaker 1: acknowledge a lot of those questions are well meaning, but
Speaker 1: they can.
Speaker 4: Be yeah, hurtful.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I don't think anyone's doing it with any you know,
Speaker 3: ill intent. I think it's just, yeah, just not having
Speaker 3: that awareness, and we need to be more aware of
Speaker 3: especially when asking that question.
Speaker 1: I think finally, I just wanted to ask you next
Speaker 1: year you will turn fifty. I know, just a a's
Speaker 1: you a little question about your plans for the next
Speaker 1: decade ahead before we wrap up. I mean nothing you
Speaker 1: know major in that little question there. But I've already
Speaker 1: asked you a little bit about I suppose this season
Speaker 1: of your life is you leaning into a work a
Speaker 1: little bit and we've talked about the work life balance
Speaker 1: for you and Shorn and your two children. But yes,
Speaker 1: what any big picture or little picture hopes as you
Speaker 1: go into another decade.
Speaker 3: Oh, probably not the best answer. But I don't ever
Speaker 3: look too far ahead. I really don't. I think I've
Speaker 3: learnt that. You know, life is going to throw so
Speaker 3: many things at you. I think you can have a
Speaker 3: few little things ear marked, but I think, you know,
Speaker 3: the next ten years. The first thing I think about
Speaker 3: is my kids, and that's them navigating through teen years
Speaker 3: ha ha, which I've got to like strap in and
Speaker 3: you know, buckle up for that. Although I think they'll
Speaker 3: both be hopefully both be really good kids throughout that phase.
Speaker 3: But it's, yeah, I look to more what it's going
Speaker 3: to look like for them and how I can best
Speaker 3: support that, And yeah, it's I think when I look
Speaker 3: towards sort of moving through life as well, that getting
Speaker 3: older doesn't really concern me or worry me as much.
Speaker 3: But what I do probably ruminate over a bit.
Speaker 2: Is the loss of time is one of our most
Speaker 2: important commodities.
Speaker 3: I think time and health, and there's that sense as
Speaker 3: you move through life that there's less time. It's not
Speaker 3: like an assumption, I mate, there is less time you're
Speaker 3: going to have on the planet.
Speaker 2: Your health will decline, some of us more than others.
Speaker 3: So for me, I just start to you get to
Speaker 3: a point, and I think getting to this point is
Speaker 3: more Okay, how can I best spend my time and
Speaker 3: my days and how can I best look after myself
Speaker 3: to prepare myself as I move through life so I'm
Speaker 3: as robust and have as much vitality and energy as possible,
Speaker 3: which you would never have thought about ten years or thirty.
Speaker 3: You're just like ticking along, But when you get to
Speaker 3: this point, you do start to think about, Okay, I
Speaker 3: need to I need to plan. I need to plan
Speaker 3: this out of it. So that kind of stuff I
Speaker 3: look ahead for, rather than oh, what are my work
Speaker 3: career goals or what do I have as a personal goal.
Speaker 2: It's more just.
Speaker 3: Let's make the most of our time that we have,
Speaker 3: and yeah, look after ourselves better.
Speaker 4: That's a great answer.
Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I don't know, No, but you're so right, because as
Speaker 1: you're saying that, it's almost like we all understand when
Speaker 1: something focuses the mind. You know you've got six hours
Speaker 1: to do something and you're thinking about it, and then
Speaker 1: you realize, oh, half an hour, I better really like
Speaker 1: start thinking about what's important.
Speaker 4: That's really what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I.
Speaker 1: Think it puts it into perspective. And as you said,
Speaker 1: a huge part of it is children. Anyone listening that
Speaker 1: has children's probably doing their own maths in their own mind.
Speaker 1: And for you, that would mean that River will be
Speaker 1: twenty and Rosie will be seventeen. You know.
Speaker 2: That's yeah.
Speaker 1: Crazy is that we could have an afl W player
Speaker 1: on our hands.
Speaker 2: Maybe. Oh, if anyone's going to play afl it's Rosie. Yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4: Great, that's great.
Speaker 1: You know, it could be a house with a supermodel
Speaker 1: afl W player. People could be running companies, you don't know,
Speaker 1: running countries.
Speaker 2: Who knows. Anything's possible.
Speaker 1: Megan, it's been such a pleasure talking to you. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2: Thank you now.
Speaker 1: As mentioned in this episode, this year saw Meghan Gaale
Speaker 1: return as a friend of David Jones, and you can
Speaker 1: find out more about that from the link in our
Speaker 1: show notes.
Speaker 4: Thank you for your company.
Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure you're following us
Speaker 1: because we'll be back with another exclusive guest on Stellas
Speaker 1: something to talk about next week.