Speaker 1: You're listening to a mother Neir podcast.
Speaker 2: I left, so I take the consequences of this.
Speaker 3: But I can't speak about what he thought or whatever,
Speaker 3: but I can speak about how I did. So I
Speaker 3: had to get on and move what I needed to do,
Speaker 3: and I created a home, I created work. I sometimes
Speaker 3: had to leave the kids to go and work. You know,
Speaker 3: they had a beautiful relationship with their dad.
Speaker 1: You know it.
Speaker 2: It was you do what you've got to do.
Speaker 4: Today on no filter, we are talking about a life
Speaker 4: lived at an extraordinary scale. In the late eighties and nineties,
Speaker 4: a very small group of women became something entirely new
Speaker 4: in popular culture, supermodels. They weren't just faces for fashion,
Speaker 4: they were global celebrities as famous as the movie stars
Speaker 4: and pop icons with whom they mixed. They were shaping beauty,
Speaker 4: culture and desire in real time. My guest today is
Speaker 4: Rachel Hunter, a New Zealand schoolgirl from Auckland who found
Speaker 4: herself catapulted from a low key upbringing at the bottom
Speaker 4: of the world, depending on your view of the world,
Speaker 4: into the most glamorous, intense, and scrutinized world, imaginable international runways,
Speaker 4: global fashion and beauty campaigns, magazine covers, and a level
Speaker 4: of fame few people ever experience. In this conversation, we
Speaker 4: talk about what life was really like during the height
Speaker 4: of the supermodel era, the glamour, the excess, the pressure,
Speaker 4: and the power, as well as the personal chapters that
Speaker 4: unfolded alongside that public life, including love, motherhood, loss, and reenvention.
Speaker 4: Don't forget she married a global rock star. This is
Speaker 4: a conversation about fame, identity, and what happens after you've
Speaker 4: lived one of the most visible lives of a generation,
Speaker 4: and how you learn to define yourself on your own terms.
Speaker 4: This is Rachel Hunter totally unfiltered. I have to say, okay,
Speaker 4: and this is a great thrill. Rachel Hunter, welcome to
Speaker 4: no filter.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, thank you, thank you, thank you. That's
Speaker 2: so nice to be.
Speaker 1: With you, So thrilled to have you here.
Speaker 4: Anyone who saw you in I'm a celebrity, Get me
Speaker 4: out of here in the Jungle would know that you
Speaker 4: have really leant into spirituality in the form of you know,
Speaker 4: Indian immersion La la Lah incarnation. Reincarnation is a big
Speaker 4: part of that. When I was doing my deep dive
Speaker 4: on you, I realized you've already lived many lives, haven't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know, when I when I look back,
Speaker 3: because even when I was doing, when I was doing,
Speaker 3: I'm a celebrity, and obviously every time someone re into
Speaker 3: the camp, you'd have to go through like because some
Speaker 3: of us didn't know who we were, you know, and
Speaker 3: and when you know, I kind of had to speak
Speaker 3: to that. I was like, Okay, some will know from
Speaker 3: my modeling days, some will know from marriage, some will
Speaker 3: know from Stacy's mum, some will know from my spiritual
Speaker 3: you know, journey and stuff. So yeah, like in one lifetime,
Speaker 3: I guess in this one, I definitely feel like I'm
Speaker 3: crushing the different modalities.
Speaker 2: Like yes, I mean I think we all.
Speaker 3: Get this opportunity in some way. Well, like I mean
Speaker 3: we you know, it's going that way for sure for
Speaker 3: a lot of people.
Speaker 1: But it's very rare.
Speaker 4: I think that people have the opportunity, which is probably
Speaker 4: a blessing and a curse, to live that publicly.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and to have.
Speaker 4: Such a public record of who they have been at
Speaker 4: various points in their life. But what I want to
Speaker 4: do is rewind you back before we met you, which
Speaker 4: was on the world stage, and talk about your upbringing,
Speaker 4: which was in Auckland in New Zealand. And what sort
Speaker 4: of young girl, young woman were you then?
Speaker 2: I was?
Speaker 3: I mean when I was, you know, very little, I
Speaker 3: was a very it was very much an introvert. I
Speaker 3: was very very quiet, very very and word would follow
Speaker 3: my mum around everywhere.
Speaker 2: I couldn't be very far up from her at all.
Speaker 3: And you know, we used to play in the bush
Speaker 3: and we didn't have all the animals obviously that you
Speaker 3: guys have.
Speaker 1: The menacing ones, scary ones.
Speaker 3: You could your kids just go I mean not to
Speaker 3: say I mean a lot of people are obviously and
Speaker 3: Australia just go and there as well because that's what
Speaker 3: they used to but obviously over here. Yeah, I was
Speaker 3: just a very very inward child, and you know, growing
Speaker 3: kind of being in school was very very hard in
Speaker 3: some ways for me because I think when you are
Speaker 3: that introvert and you are in a social situation in
Speaker 3: school where you've got friends and then you have crushes.
Speaker 3: But then I remember I had, you know this, there
Speaker 3: was a guy I think when I was like, I
Speaker 3: don't know young, and you know I was like if
Speaker 3: anyone found out that, you know, I liked you and
Speaker 3: as soon as someone found out, I would be like, okay, no, no,
Speaker 3: I don't like you anymore, because it was just like
Speaker 3: I was so into being very very private and the
Speaker 3: irony of my life. Eventually, when I turned sixteen, became
Speaker 3: very very public. But I was a very awkward child,
Speaker 3: like you know, people used to say to me in
Speaker 3: high school, like I used to hang out at the
Speaker 3: school library and I had a couple of you know,
Speaker 3: very very good close friends, but it was more like
Speaker 3: that kind of oh, you're stuck up, you know, you
Speaker 3: got to carry it up your ass, because I mean
Speaker 3: I did I did do ballet, so I had a
Speaker 3: very rac prosture, but it was it.
Speaker 2: Was a very yeah.
Speaker 3: I was very very much close to my mother did
Speaker 3: ballet and was very much an introvert growing up.
Speaker 1: What was your family structure?
Speaker 3: There was my obviously my mum and dad. Then my
Speaker 3: sister also who was a year older than me, and
Speaker 3: she was always by my side, obviously only being fifteen
Speaker 3: months older, and so she was you know, she.
Speaker 2: Was always a.
Speaker 3: Big support and always around the corner ifever I needed
Speaker 3: her as such, But it was we had a very
Speaker 3: like mum was very much into herbalism and spirituality, and
Speaker 3: one minute would come home and the Mormon, you know,
Speaker 3: the Mormons would be sitting there and be like, darling,
Speaker 3: look we're going to have lovely dinner tonight with them.
Speaker 3: And you know, the next thing, we were trotting off
Speaker 3: to the church there, and then the next thing she
Speaker 3: would be, you know, Baptist, and then she would do
Speaker 3: So there was always a variety of religious escapades that
Speaker 3: we were going to go on, and so it was.
Speaker 3: It was a very open, very loving family. Look, everybody
Speaker 3: always has that undercurrent that is there and you kind
Speaker 3: of go through, but I don't really want to get
Speaker 3: into that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was kind of.
Speaker 3: A it's literally when I hit sixteen, everything changed, Like
Speaker 3: fifteen sixteen, I had I had a blood disorder when
Speaker 3: I was around I would say, fourteen or fifteen, and
Speaker 3: Mom came home and she saw that my clothes were
Speaker 3: all on the floor and I was in bed and
Speaker 3: I was very, very sick. Later to find out that
Speaker 3: I actually had toxic plasis, which is a blood disorder
Speaker 3: for people who are kind of near cats or raw
Speaker 3: meat or whatever.
Speaker 4: How I picked up very dangerous for pregnant women in particular.
Speaker 3: Very very very dangerous. Yeah, fortunately it was not pregnant at.
Speaker 2: That, but.
Speaker 3: Jokes like that, it's like bad humor. But anyway, but
Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of left school, and you cannot
Speaker 3: deny where life takes you. And I know, and I'm
Speaker 3: just talking. I know some people go through very very
Speaker 3: very traumatic and I'm just talking in general of the
Speaker 3: normal kind of box as such.
Speaker 2: But I mean, I.
Speaker 3: Had been studying ballet for ten years. I was a
Speaker 3: runner at school, athletes, so I sunk everything kind of
Speaker 3: that introvertedness into a very solo sports like runner. So
Speaker 3: it's very so I wasn't really kind of you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, It was very very individual. And so
Speaker 3: when I got sick, I couldn't dance anymore because you
Speaker 3: don't have the strength to do it. I couldn't run anymore,
Speaker 3: and so all I could do was basically be at home.
Speaker 3: Even a car ride for four hours, I was exhausted,
Speaker 3: came home. So I didn't go to school that much
Speaker 3: that year either, which was kind of fun but not.
Speaker 2: And the next thing I knew.
Speaker 3: When I kind of came out of that, I knew
Speaker 3: I couldn't go back to dance as much, which crushed me.
Speaker 2: Not to go back to ballet.
Speaker 3: So I started running and to try and get my
Speaker 3: strength back up, and then on the beaches where I
Speaker 3: met this photographer and he came up to me and said,
Speaker 3: you should be modeling.
Speaker 4: Which is weird, right, that's totally wed. So a part
Speaker 4: of you must have thought, who's this guy?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I was like, that's yeah, you're like you know, and
Speaker 3: I was old enough to know, you know, the don't
Speaker 3: talk to strangers thing that we will grow up with.
Speaker 2: You can be a model, and I was very much
Speaker 2: aware of that.
Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, great, I'll take your card
Speaker 3: that I just think this is really weird. And so
Speaker 3: I went home and took it to my mother and anyway,
Speaker 3: we researched a little bit further and she did and
Speaker 3: I ended up doing some photos with him, which I
Speaker 3: look so awkward.
Speaker 2: If I can find those of find them for.
Speaker 1: You, oh, I'd love to say those.
Speaker 2: I know they were just such.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of my dance was actually brought
Speaker 3: into my first photo shoots. So life prepares you somehow
Speaker 3: if you look for the obvious signs and you take
Speaker 3: sometimes those tunities, albeit the right opportunities, the ones where
Speaker 3: we do have an awareness. The ones where were like
Speaker 3: a little bit scared, but hey, what if I do it,
Speaker 3: what's going to happen?
Speaker 2: Obviously I took my mother with me.
Speaker 3: Do things safely, do things with discernment and all the
Speaker 3: rest of it. But life is literally mapping out for you.
Speaker 3: But sometimes you go the long way around, right or
Speaker 3: sometimes you go the short way around, depending on what
Speaker 3: way you want.
Speaker 2: To kind of swerve on.
Speaker 3: But this was all beautifully lined up in some ways
Speaker 3: because after that point, I just went straight to Australia.
Speaker 3: Australian vogue harp is bizarre, you know. I was meant
Speaker 3: to stay there but then got asked to go to
Speaker 3: New York and everything just went from this inward child
Speaker 3: that was just so like all I used to do
Speaker 3: was hang out and talk to my animals, you know,
Speaker 3: my dog. I used to make things for animals in
Speaker 3: the bush. So I mean it was I was very
Speaker 3: much an introvert to go into New York City, you know, like,
Speaker 3: how does that happen in someone's personality?
Speaker 4: You know, is actually extraordinary because we're also talking about
Speaker 4: an area that was like pre social media, and there
Speaker 4: was no way of kind of staying connected other than
Speaker 4: the phone or maybe letters, and for you to be
Speaker 4: catapulted into this other life where your mother had done
Speaker 4: a due diligence obviously absolutely, and for you to come
Speaker 4: from this kind of very solitary existence into this explosion,
Speaker 4: particularly of what forget Australia, but what New York must
Speaker 4: have been like at the time. How were you processing that,
Speaker 4: Like was there a moment at which you would go up,
Speaker 4: this feels unreal or did it feel like it was somehow.
Speaker 1: Meant to be playing out the way it was?
Speaker 2: So there was a little bit of both.
Speaker 3: There was like I just put one foot in front
Speaker 3: of the other and was like this is where I
Speaker 3: meant to walk and be at the same time, there
Speaker 3: you know, when you're working in that field, because I
Speaker 3: worked a lot, there was the point where I was
Speaker 3: like I'm burning out, Like I can't do this anymore,
Speaker 3: Like I just need some time off. So you are
Speaker 3: at an age too where you're like, what are boundaries?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: You're learning boundaries at that young age.
Speaker 3: You know, you're you're learning how to say no to
Speaker 3: adult circumstances. And I mean, obviously school does prepare you
Speaker 3: for this, but you're but I was very fortunate. I
Speaker 3: took my mum over with me at that point and
Speaker 3: she came and I was with Ford Models. So Eileen
Speaker 3: was very much a mother figure, and the Ford Agency
Speaker 3: was very motherly figure.
Speaker 1: And there was from the right.
Speaker 2: She was fiercely protected, protective.
Speaker 4: So I was fortunate she had your best instincts at heart,
Speaker 4: rather than possibly opportunistically just trying to squeeze all the
Speaker 4: juice out of the lemon.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: No, she was very she was very look we I
Speaker 3: lived with her in her house.
Speaker 2: There was quite a few. There was not quite a
Speaker 2: few of us.
Speaker 3: There was a certain selection, and I lived with her
Speaker 3: in her townhouse with her husband and her family and stuff,
Speaker 3: and you know, we had our meals caught for so
Speaker 3: it was a very family environment. It wasn't just like
Speaker 3: a model apartment. It was it was very much a
Speaker 3: family house. And I was very, very lucky, literally handed
Speaker 3: this amazing career and a silver platter, and you know,
Speaker 3: I thought I was just do this for six months
Speaker 3: and then I go home. It didn't turn out that
Speaker 3: way whatsoever at all.
Speaker 2: No, it did not years later, But it's it's it's like.
Speaker 3: You just you know, people say, what the thing that
Speaker 3: you you're meant to be doing is literally in front
Speaker 3: of you. It's so true. You just need to what
Speaker 3: is what are your passions? Like, what are the things
Speaker 3: that you're attracted to? And you're like, it is. I
Speaker 3: mean not to say I was not looking to be
Speaker 3: a model whatsoever. I wanted to be a ballerina. But
Speaker 3: did ballet help me in this scenario? Absolutely did it?
Speaker 2: You know, take me.
Speaker 3: In this direction of meeting you know, Rod and having
Speaker 3: two beautiful children, then going on my own journey you
Speaker 3: know once you know, we broke up and all the
Speaker 3: rest of it. So it's like your your beautiful part
Speaker 3: of your life, where your soul's journey is there. It's
Speaker 3: just what other what are your choices along this way?
Speaker 3: And some can take you the longer way around, which
Speaker 3: will happen is how I feel and summer, you know,
Speaker 3: not the shortcuts, but where you kind of sit in
Speaker 3: that flow state where you're like, how's all this happening
Speaker 3: so easily?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I love that you say that along the way you
Speaker 4: had been prepared for the work of being what went
Speaker 4: on to become a supermodel by the fact that you
Speaker 4: had immersed yourself so much in dance and that had
Speaker 4: been your passion, which of course would be so handy
Speaker 4: when it comes to angling and position and understanding of
Speaker 4: your body. But also I imagine that it gave you
Speaker 4: because the work of a dancer is so intense and
Speaker 4: you have to be so disciplined, self critical, but through
Speaker 4: a lens dear discipline, critical but not critical necessarily of
Speaker 4: yourself as a person, but of what the overall form is.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 4: Did that provide some sort of protection because we know
Speaker 4: that a lot of models get eaten up by external forces,
Speaker 4: but also what's inside? Yeah, did that provide some sort
Speaker 4: of insulation for you in that world?
Speaker 3: I mean, oh god, it's such an interesting world, the
Speaker 3: modeling world, because obviously it's changed so much now because
Speaker 3: there was certain looks that were and there was you know,
Speaker 3: there was very little diversity in that time, and so
Speaker 3: there was there were many things that we weren't aware of.
Speaker 3: And I do look at that sometimes and think, you know,
Speaker 3: there's there's critics that go back and look at those
Speaker 3: generations and.
Speaker 2: Criticize, but it's and to me do it.
Speaker 3: Diversity is obviously so important and that and that time
Speaker 3: it started happening. But as far as like body wise,
Speaker 3: body image all that, Like I kind of I feel
Speaker 3: like my upbringing with my mother and how she was
Speaker 3: and how much she loved her her daughters, and body
Speaker 3: image was just never a thing as such, and she
Speaker 3: always I don't know, it was never brought up. And
Speaker 3: also there was a there was a pretty strong backbone
Speaker 3: with me where I was like, I don't give a
Speaker 3: shit what you think, like just you know, I was
Speaker 3: quite ballsy, like I wouldn't put up with much.
Speaker 1: That's interesting.
Speaker 3: So I don't know where that came from too, because
Speaker 3: I was such an introvert too, but I did when
Speaker 3: I was going through that whole toxic plasmosis. Just to
Speaker 3: jump back into that, I was very second moms trying
Speaker 3: to find alternative medicines to help me get better. And
Speaker 3: she went to an eravat of doctor and she also
Speaker 3: this eravated doctor had this girlfriend who was a ballerina,
Speaker 3: and she goes, I want to do a metamorphic message
Speaker 3: on you, and I was like, MoMA's like okay, well
Speaker 3: and let she She goes, in ten days time, you
Speaker 3: will you'll feel this and you might feel that a
Speaker 3: lot of things will come up.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: It was like Rachel had changed overnight. It was like
Speaker 3: I said, how I felt. I said how I feel.
Speaker 3: I don't know whether there was a permission as such there,
Speaker 3: but you know, because we don't know what we're unlocking,
Speaker 3: don't know. I mean, our bodies are these beautiful instruments,
Speaker 3: and they hold all sorts of different things, as we
Speaker 3: have read in many different books, not only psychologically, spiritually
Speaker 3: as well as as.
Speaker 2: As our body, you know.
Speaker 3: So I don't know what it did, but all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, there's strength and a strength with my voice
Speaker 3: came out and I said how I felt, and that
Speaker 3: just kind of kept developing and developing. So again it
Speaker 3: was another mechanism that I kind of leaned into before
Speaker 3: I actually ended up going into the modeling field. So
Speaker 3: it wasn't like I was put in any situation that
Speaker 3: I had to find my voice. It was just it
Speaker 3: had already been, you know, being prepared at that point
Speaker 3: when I got when I got it was released.
Speaker 1: What was a metamorphic?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: What what was that?
Speaker 3: Like? What was it was a lot to do with
Speaker 3: the feet when you remember it was a lot to
Speaker 3: do with the weight. One googled it because I remember
Speaker 3: talking about this and the podcast and I was like, God,
Speaker 3: I have to google what is a metamorphic Well, obviously
Speaker 3: metamic means of transformation, but it had a lot.
Speaker 2: To do with feet, Like there was certain areas of.
Speaker 3: The feet and we all know that they have, you know,
Speaker 3: and reflexology there to do with the organs and all
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I just did it. But maybe it was more.
Speaker 3: Their permission there as well, you know, like the whole
Speaker 3: thing became a whole modality of just ready to release
Speaker 3: that side of me.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but it was great. Yes, out came
Speaker 2: the voice.
Speaker 4: Because it's like you'd been made a promise, you'd been
Speaker 4: made a promise, and you accepting that promise, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: then becomes the truth of you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It was like this is how you could potentially
Speaker 3: feel and maybe that was like all I needed. I
Speaker 3: actually really want to feel that. And I remember feeling
Speaker 3: this the strength of me and it was like now
Speaker 3: it was the time that I needed to row, you know,
Speaker 3: And that happened.
Speaker 1: After the break.
Speaker 4: Rachel talks about becoming part of that exclusive and delusive
Speaker 4: group of women who defined the supermodel era. So at
Speaker 4: this point, you're you're I'm going to say running with
Speaker 4: the other supermodels. I can't even begin to imagine what
Speaker 4: it was like at the time. But you're not supermodels yet.
Speaker 4: You're kind of just discovering each other correct, well a
Speaker 4: lot of us, so you don't know what like who
Speaker 4: is who or what is what the right So you
Speaker 4: were encountering the other women at the time, Naomi Campbell,
Speaker 4: Christy Turlington.
Speaker 3: Everybody at that time would everybody would kind of pass
Speaker 3: but there was no like everybody was working so in
Speaker 3: different places, but we would all know of each other
Speaker 3: and move around, but there was no like we're all
Speaker 3: on the same jobs at the same time, but you know,
Speaker 3: working in New York, working over in Europe, all the
Speaker 3: rest of it. There was there was all these different jobs,
Speaker 3: so I mean most of the time you're by yourself
Speaker 3: and these scenarios doing like editory oceans or yeah, so
Speaker 3: as much as we knew, but we didn't know, but
Speaker 3: we there was always this warm smile.
Speaker 2: Of like, you know, high we all knew. You know,
Speaker 2: it was like that knowing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, but there must have been a point and
Speaker 4: maybe it all passed in a blue where someone coined
Speaker 4: the frame super supermodel it and you were included in that.
Speaker 1: Can you remember that.
Speaker 2: No, because I know.
Speaker 3: That literally was it really during that time where the
Speaker 3: George Michael video happened and it was lind I have
Speaker 3: a feeling that was coined around that time.
Speaker 1: So that was Linda Evangelista.
Speaker 3: I think it was Linda who ever was in that video.
Speaker 3: I feel like it was interesting to Google actually when
Speaker 3: the supermodel that that term was actually coined. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean you kind of all jumped into this swim
Speaker 3: of being named that, which I always found quite amusing
Speaker 3: because I was like, all I could think of was Superman.
Speaker 2: Like that that person actually flies.
Speaker 3: I mean we're just we're you know, we're not quite
Speaker 3: having a special you know special.
Speaker 4: Uh No, but in the scale, through the through the
Speaker 4: prism of what the world sees, you were flying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It was just such an interesting time because obviously during
Speaker 3: that time I was working with Thoughts Illustrated, you know,
Speaker 3: Cover Girl, Revlon, all of those, all those different magazines
Speaker 3: and products, and I mean, especially with Sports Illustrated. It
Speaker 3: was a big time during that time. I mean all
Speaker 3: I knew was when you came to New York, it
Speaker 3: was like to get into Sports Illustrated was a really
Speaker 3: big deal and what that magazine in particular could to
Speaker 3: potentially do to your career was pretty huge. And I
Speaker 3: remember going and seeing Julie at that time, who was
Speaker 3: the editor, and the next thing, you know, I was booked,
Speaker 3: and obviously there's great celebration around that, and then we
Speaker 3: would all work together was you know, Stephanie Seymour and
Speaker 3: everybody was just like it was just like being with
Speaker 3: your friends, you know, That's how it was. But I
Speaker 3: mean we we There was no I mean for me,
Speaker 3: there was just a really a great community sense of
Speaker 3: community with that in some ways. I mean other people
Speaker 3: can say, but I mean for me, that's what it was.
Speaker 1: Right, because you're.
Speaker 4: Very good at assimilating and incorporating your environment into who
Speaker 4: you are and how you travel through it. But even
Speaker 4: with that kind of worldview and openness to experience, there
Speaker 4: must have been a time where you went, I cannot
Speaker 4: believe I'm here. I cannot believe this is happening to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, there was definitely. I remember when I was
Speaker 3: doing a Revlon commercial actually out in Los Angeles where
Speaker 3: basically they pecked me up in a car. I must
Speaker 3: have been eighteen, I think, and drove me to sunset
Speaker 3: my key. Then I went to.
Speaker 2: The studio, the big movie.
Speaker 3: Studios, and that was the smell of the warm jasmine
Speaker 3: was in the air, and it was summer, and there
Speaker 3: was like people staying that were famous, and I.
Speaker 2: Was just like, oh my god, look at these people
Speaker 2: famous with it. You know.
Speaker 3: It was Los Angeles, which I lived in New York,
Speaker 3: so it was like a little bit more of them,
Speaker 3: you know. And I remember going to the studio and
Speaker 3: I remember going into. It was clean and clear, was
Speaker 3: the shampoo. And I remember going in and it was
Speaker 3: this that made this lagoon in one of the studios.
Speaker 2: Oh, and I.
Speaker 3: Was just like, oh my god, They've literally made this
Speaker 3: like a Tarjsian lagoon in the middle of these studios.
Speaker 3: And it was just every day I got picked up,
Speaker 3: I had flowers in my room. It was so old school.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just like oh, here's your plane, take it.
Speaker 3: I'll make your flight and then you know, I'll do
Speaker 3: your own hair and makeup at the other end. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is literally what it's like more or less now,
Speaker 3: or you have to have your own team whatever. But
Speaker 3: this was just the epitome of the time where there
Speaker 3: was you know, there was the smell of the Cusaba
Speaker 3: blanca Lily's that you smell when you walk into the room.
Speaker 3: There was a beautiful card welcome, We're looking forward to
Speaker 3: working with you, you know the cut. Like I said,
Speaker 3: it was just that was those types of jobs just
Speaker 3: blew my mind. When I used to work with Cover Girl,
Speaker 3: the kindness of the team and the flowers and the
Speaker 3: respect and blah blah blah, those were it was. It
Speaker 3: was pretty intoxicating. So you did feel really welcomed and
Speaker 3: special and yeah, and that way you were like, oh,
Speaker 3: like I talk even in my retreats about receiving, receive
Speaker 3: the fact that you're in this beautiful place.
Speaker 2: Just receive it. It doesn't mean ego, it.
Speaker 3: Just means just acknowledge, right, And so those moments were
Speaker 3: really you know where you've kind of felt like this,
Speaker 3: you know when you see chickens kind of puff their
Speaker 3: chests down their little feathers like that.
Speaker 2: It kind of felt that like this little So that
Speaker 2: was yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: And then you laid an egg, a golden egg for someone. Hey,
Speaker 4: when you look back at that era of girls, did
Speaker 4: you become close to any of them in particular?
Speaker 3: Not really like like I said, we moved around so much.
Speaker 3: I've had many interactions with Al obviously Macpheerson, and she's
Speaker 3: just beautiful and kind and sweet.
Speaker 2: But it was all the same. We were just all.
Speaker 3: These these girls that just had this irony of this
Speaker 3: moment that happened in our lives where it was just
Speaker 3: individually we were all so different, but everyone was just
Speaker 3: very caring and kind when you'd turn up on set.
Speaker 3: I remember when one of my first shoots was a
Speaker 3: Mahn and I remember I walked around the corner and
Speaker 3: I saw her and I was just like just cold,
Speaker 3: believe my eyes the beauty and the magnificence of this woman.
Speaker 3: And she was truly just breathtaking and just her elegance
Speaker 3: and her So there was just many moments like that
Speaker 3: where you did turn around, you know, Christy Turlington, Naomi,
Speaker 3: all of them that they just have this beautiful, the
Speaker 3: charismatic side that you're just like, wow, you know there
Speaker 3: is this but again it's not just looked, it's deeper.
Speaker 2: There's something in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's in there, And you know, I'll never forget
Speaker 3: those times when you're actually in the rooms with them
Speaker 3: and go wow, just yeah, beautiful, beautiful energy.
Speaker 2: In there.
Speaker 4: That's so true because I remember once seeing on Chapel
Speaker 4: Street in Melbourne years ago a woman walking down the
Speaker 4: street who was so phenomenally beautiful. It was it was
Speaker 4: like a planet had fallen to Earth.
Speaker 1: I looked at her before.
Speaker 4: I realized who it was, and it was Helene and Christensen,
Speaker 4: and that led me to think, Oh, isn't that an
Speaker 4: interesting thing that there was.
Speaker 1: Something so extraordinary about her?
Speaker 4: So sometimes we put the cart before the horse and
Speaker 4: we think of this person's become famous because they're beautiful,
Speaker 4: but they've become famous and something in them.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So here's my question for you. Yeah, what was
Speaker 4: it in you? What is it in you that unlocked
Speaker 4: the world to you and drew the world's eye?
Speaker 2: I don't know, I have no idea.
Speaker 1: You don't know. I think I know, I think I know.
Speaker 4: I'm not telling you.
Speaker 3: You can tell it on the podcast so then we
Speaker 3: can listen to it.
Speaker 2: No, you're saying that when.
Speaker 3: Those years, the girls didn't look any different from what
Speaker 3: they looked like on the street with no makeup. You
Speaker 3: put a lot of makeup on. Mmmm. They had there
Speaker 3: was a presence and they held something there. It was Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was it was definitely yeah. I mean you look
Speaker 3: at any one of those girls even now when you
Speaker 3: walk on the walk on the street, you're like, wow,
Speaker 3: you know that's stunning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what it does.
Speaker 4: Well, I think in you you have something of the
Speaker 4: Woodland creature about you.
Speaker 2: You know, I love that coming from New Zealand, that's very.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 4: I think it's that quality, like a certain sort of
Speaker 4: certainty about yourself but not but not necessarily an overconfidence
Speaker 4: or whatever, and a sort of fawn like grace, you know,
Speaker 4: and that spectacular fur on your head. They go out
Speaker 4: the main Hey, who has captured you in a way
Speaker 4: from your career in a photographic shoot or whatever? That
Speaker 4: that that you liked the most.
Speaker 3: Stephen Morselle, hands down has to be one of the
Speaker 3: most of all photographers of all time and for me
Speaker 3: and I remember working with him and at some point
Speaker 3: he said, can you stay behind because I need to
Speaker 3: try this for this a model to try for this
Speaker 3: cover for Italian Vogue. And we stayed behind and at
Speaker 3: that point I remember used to take my records because
Speaker 3: I used to like DJing and my oh well steel,
Speaker 3: I know it was going to be such a big thing.
Speaker 2: But going back to sta.
Speaker 1: He and what was it? What was it?
Speaker 3: He manages to get you and transform you And it
Speaker 3: wasn't until remember back then, it wasn't until three months
Speaker 3: later that you'd actually.
Speaker 2: See the cover. But my agent actually got.
Speaker 3: Calls going, who's this new goal on the cover of
Speaker 3: the magazine? That is when you become to me a
Speaker 3: model as you're he's able to transport you out from
Speaker 3: how you look into something that is still you.
Speaker 2: But it's like, hang on a second, is that or
Speaker 2: is that?
Speaker 3: That?
Speaker 2: To me?
Speaker 3: Was but ye's still It was the hair, the makeup.
Speaker 3: But he is truly one of the most incredible photographers.
Speaker 3: And I worked with him a few more times and
Speaker 3: it was just his artisticness, the way he presented himself
Speaker 3: when he walked on set, just everything across the board,
Speaker 3: and he was truly he's truly magic when it comes to.
Speaker 4: Working with What did you see in the cover that
Speaker 4: surprised you?
Speaker 3: Simplicity that I was like, how could someone change not
Speaker 3: change me? Because you could still see me and you'll
Speaker 3: see in the cover I have literally it was a
Speaker 3: rug around me with a little bit of a bras
Speaker 3: showing dead straight hair, and then the photography and the
Speaker 3: lighting was just insane, and it was that simple, and
Speaker 3: it was simplicit simple, the simplicity of it, but it
Speaker 3: was I don't know how he does it. He's just
Speaker 3: magic and with his team of hair and makeup, it's
Speaker 3: all this beautiful concoction of mystery and magic that he
Speaker 3: creates and photography.
Speaker 4: It's interesting that I think you sometimes project the energy
Speaker 4: that gets sent back to you. Well probably a lot
Speaker 4: of the time, and because you seem to have this
Speaker 4: view of the world at the time that was kind
Speaker 4: of wholesome. Yeah, that maybe it didn't attract some of
Speaker 4: those basic energies like envy or jealousy or competition. Do
Speaker 4: you think you were exempt from that or do you
Speaker 4: think you just didn't see it.
Speaker 3: I just thought it was really bizarre that this that
Speaker 3: this world could be what it was, you know, like
Speaker 3: that were we really earning what we were earning? Like
Speaker 3: That's why I said that we were just do this
Speaker 3: for six months, because what do we do for a living?
Speaker 3: But again later did I find out we worked long hours?
Speaker 3: We did, we were creating so much content. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, you know, the flying, all the rest
Speaker 3: of it. I was like tell someone to kind of
Speaker 3: do what we were doing. You know, it takes a
Speaker 3: lot of It did take a lot as well as
Speaker 3: Actually what I was going to say about that is
Speaker 3: Sports Illustrated had apoulted you into more of a across America,
Speaker 3: like into everybody's home, so that we also when we
Speaker 3: were doing Sports Illustrated, we were also on press kits.
Speaker 3: So had we started having voices, we could say our opinions,
Speaker 3: we said what we So the model was no longer
Speaker 3: just on the pages of the magazines.
Speaker 2: It became more that we had.
Speaker 3: This opportunity to talk and voice and the next thing,
Speaker 3: most of us were doing workout videos or you know
Speaker 3: or whatever we were brought into you know, personal appearances or
Speaker 3: whatever it was. So there was a shift then that
Speaker 3: kind of brought us more onto It wasn't just the
Speaker 3: pretty face. It ended up becoming right, yes, you real
Speaker 3: what three D absolutely thank you.
Speaker 4: And that that's the superpart, isn't it. That's the superpart.
Speaker 4: That's what set you apart from possibility you come before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, see, this is why you're so good at what
Speaker 2: you do.
Speaker 3: You kind of like put because yeah, you do the
Speaker 3: whole three day you're you're you're in people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you speak.
Speaker 3: You started, you know, doing not any products, but speaking
Speaker 3: for different charities. So there was that was more of
Speaker 3: the layers started coming in at that time. So yeah,
Speaker 3: that was that was pivotal and probably why that that happened.
Speaker 4: And of course that grows your own confidence as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So to.
Speaker 4: Be beautiful is one thing, and a lot of that
Speaker 4: is a blessing from the gods. But then to fall
Speaker 4: in love with yourself enough that you can feel free
Speaker 4: to speak, yeah, is another level of development.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And also I didn't really like I was a
Speaker 2: geeky at school like I had. I was I'm curly
Speaker 2: frizzy here, and.
Speaker 3: I didn't see myself as beautiful like I was like, okay, guys,
Speaker 3: I'll go along with this, no problem if that's what
Speaker 3: you think.
Speaker 2: But you know, I didn't.
Speaker 3: Understand why, why the why. I was like, great, I'll
Speaker 3: do you know, go and do l magazine and Hawaii
Speaker 3: and we'll do this, and we'll do a perfume campaign
Speaker 3: and all the rest of it. But I never thought, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm you know, I'm at never thought of that, always
Speaker 3: stayed in the innocence of it.
Speaker 2: I think always.
Speaker 4: Which sounds extraordinary given the time. Times, heady times. And
Speaker 4: then of course you met your husband, Rod Stewart, Yeah,
Speaker 4: which is another level of I mean his fame, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the adulation of the world, his talents, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How old were you then?
Speaker 3: Were you like twenty end of twenty Like I was
Speaker 3: just about to turn twenty one, And again I just
Speaker 3: didn't think I was like love great. I never thought
Speaker 3: so deeply about everything. There was never any deep contemplation.
Speaker 3: It was more this is this is where I'm meant
Speaker 3: to be, This is what this is, this is what
Speaker 3: I'm feeling, this is what this is, and to me,
Speaker 3: this is what's living right. This is where life just
Speaker 3: exudes itself and it just becomes so abundant because you're
Speaker 3: just in this, you know, overthinking.
Speaker 2: Or over analyzing and getting into the head that was
Speaker 2: just this. That's the beauty of that age. Almost.
Speaker 4: I don't even know if you can remember the answer
Speaker 4: to this. You might not be able to remember. So
Speaker 4: you take yourself back to when you were nearly twenty one.
Speaker 4: You're in the club. You're in the club, you're dancing
Speaker 4: with girls. I imagine having great time. Rod Stewart's there.
Speaker 4: Who spoke to who first? Did you speak to him
Speaker 4: or did he speak to you? And what was the exchange?
Speaker 3: Well, it was actually in Los Angeles at the Roxbury
Speaker 3: Nightclub and that was more of like not so much
Speaker 3: a big club. It was like this hangout place and
Speaker 3: he was over in the corner and Sports Illustratia just
Speaker 3: brought out these workout tapes that myself and I think
Speaker 3: Al and Cheryl were on and he was kind of
Speaker 3: mimicking me and my workout thing, and so there was
Speaker 3: just this really awkward thing.
Speaker 1: So he was seen much. Yeah, he'd seen it.
Speaker 3: Ah, Yeah, and kind of that's where a kind of
Speaker 3: the odd communication came along, and then I ended up
Speaker 3: he invited my friend and I to go somewhere the
Speaker 3: next day, and then that's kind of where it kind
Speaker 3: of all went up.
Speaker 2: But he was the first one to kind of break
Speaker 2: the attention.
Speaker 1: Mock to mock you, to mock a.
Speaker 2: Little bit in a very cheeky, sweet way, as he would.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, comedy humor always wins.
Speaker 3: I totally agree. You never laugh so much. Yeah, he's
Speaker 3: very very funny, very funny.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm just trying to place myself into into
Speaker 4: the mind and heart of someone who's meeting you for
Speaker 4: the first time, which I understand you met in a
Speaker 4: nightclub that you would have been so refreshingly like you
Speaker 4: refer to your own innocence, you're something wholesome and fresh
Speaker 4: about you.
Speaker 1: To someone who at that point.
Speaker 4: Was stratigerically famous, I think would have been so attractive.
Speaker 4: Do you know, almost impossible to believe that you're going
Speaker 4: to meet this gorgeous girl in New York who's so
Speaker 4: open to the possibilities of.
Speaker 3: Things, because we all put ourselves in our mid forties,
Speaker 3: which is probably when when around when Roden I met.
Speaker 3: And it's true, by that point you're like going, you're
Speaker 3: kind of getting them human calculator out and going, I
Speaker 3: have to be grown up now, right, So all that
Speaker 3: curiosity and that those qualities are kind of but it's
Speaker 3: not to say that's how he felt, because I think
Speaker 3: he was this amazing person who always has that curiosity
Speaker 3: with him and who's always kind of like he's very,
Speaker 3: very wise, and at the same time he has this
Speaker 3: ability to be consistently you know, curious and open and
Speaker 3: says how.
Speaker 2: He feels and blah blah, blah. But I can't speak
Speaker 2: for him. It's just my observation.
Speaker 1: But yeah, humor, humor.
Speaker 3: So much human and that's the thing has been a
Speaker 3: we got married, you know, within three months I was
Speaker 3: you know, with three weeks I was engaged, three months
Speaker 3: I was married, and then off we kind of had
Speaker 3: this incredible marriage. Obviously, I tuned the classic twenty seven
Speaker 3: twenty eight, which is a satin return which people talk about.
Speaker 2: Which is where am I? What am I going? It's
Speaker 2: even when I think I was with a therapist.
Speaker 1: And is that rights?
Speaker 4: That is that part of that seven or nine year
Speaker 4: cycle where we renew or replenish.
Speaker 1: Question things.
Speaker 3: I think that satin return happens every twenty some twenty
Speaker 3: twenty seven years twenty but you see that why it
Speaker 3: happens at that time is because when saturin returns in
Speaker 3: that time after you've been born, it's much heavier than
Speaker 3: it's like it's almost like divinely done gone and said
Speaker 3: check on with yourself.
Speaker 1: Are you where you.
Speaker 3: Want to be? Do you want to be doing what
Speaker 3: you're doing? Are you actually and your purpose and your
Speaker 3: in the walk life?
Speaker 2: Where you're going?
Speaker 3: So that satin returns is actually a thing where between
Speaker 3: twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine thirty I think is
Speaker 3: the is the kind of ballpark there where you do
Speaker 3: kind of go I don't know, you could think about
Speaker 3: when you were around that age, was there a pivotal
Speaker 3: time where you kind of made this juxtposion And the
Speaker 3: majority of people will be like, yeah, I did.
Speaker 2: And it's a beautiful reminder.
Speaker 3: I think of just I mean looking, I mean kind
Speaker 3: of segueing off this, but of looking and going ultimately
Speaker 3: whatever and however all of us were created, there is
Speaker 3: this dynamic where we all get this check in. But
Speaker 3: I mean, that's kind of what happened is I kind
Speaker 3: of was like where am I going? What am I doing?
Speaker 3: And you know, Renee Lee to be a mother that young,
Speaker 3: I mean I was twenty three.
Speaker 1: How old were they your children?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 1: How old were they?
Speaker 3: Renee and Liam were about five and seven at that
Speaker 3: time when I broke up?
Speaker 1: Sorry?
Speaker 4: But was that for you to be where you were
Speaker 4: at your career and to have children that young, like
Speaker 4: just to in the flow of things and your life
Speaker 4: and your marriage to a man you loved. The natural
Speaker 4: extension of that for you was having children. But that
Speaker 4: must have been shocking to other people in the modeling
Speaker 4: community or people who were managing your career or did
Speaker 4: they just go along with it?
Speaker 3: No, I don't really, I don't really care about what
Speaker 3: people faith like I was like this is you know,
Speaker 3: of course, for people who were close to me and
Speaker 3: spoke to me, you know, there was conversations, but ultimately,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's my decision, right listen, two most important
Speaker 3: people of Nane and Liam out of the whole thing.
Speaker 2: And at the same time.
Speaker 3: You you know, I had big questions for myself and
Speaker 3: you know, now as the kids are older, they understand those.
Speaker 3: And I had to take that chance to see where
Speaker 3: I was kind of meeting myself, where I was meeting
Speaker 3: myself at at that time in my life. And whether
Speaker 3: that took me back to Rod or it didn't, I
Speaker 3: didn't know at that point, but I knew I had
Speaker 3: to take that time to be able to make that choice,
Speaker 3: and I had to take the risk of like of
Speaker 3: that and you have to be brave sometimes, you know,
Speaker 3: But it was what it was. I mean, I can't
Speaker 3: I've got an amazing family and I've got amazing step kids,
Speaker 3: and you know, it all works out, you know, ultimately.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, that's an interesting thing because through the
Speaker 4: years it's just been a kind of running narrative that
Speaker 4: either Rod or you or his wife now Penny or
Speaker 4: whatever are very good at harmony, which is not always
Speaker 4: the case. Yeah, so that there seems to be a
Speaker 4: vibe of a big extended family.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there just as I mean, I mean,
Speaker 3: hopefully we've we create that evolution in all of ourselves,
Speaker 3: now right, I mean there just has to be in
Speaker 3: some ways, you know, otherwise.
Speaker 1: Yes, But look, often there's a tendency.
Speaker 3: Depending on circumstances. It all depends on circumstances. It all
Speaker 3: depends on circumstance, though, I mean, there was a it
Speaker 3: was I was you know that it depends on circumstances
Speaker 3: for everybody.
Speaker 4: So when you've had this epiphany that or this this
Speaker 4: magnetic draw to the world that you need more of
Speaker 4: the world or to see who Rachel Hunter is in
Speaker 4: the world, what what was the manifestation of that from
Speaker 4: that point? So when you've you've left your marriage, but
Speaker 4: you have your two children, how did the world look
Speaker 4: for you at that point and how did it look different?
Speaker 3: It was Look, it's you know, when I look back
Speaker 3: at it. I'm like, going, God, you had a lot
Speaker 3: of guts to do that. You know. It was it was,
Speaker 3: you know, we went I went off and you know,
Speaker 3: I mean my work continued and that was up and down,
Speaker 3: and you know, to me, it was just creating a
Speaker 3: home in something beautiful for obviously Renee and Liam, and
Speaker 3: then navigating that through the you know, through what it
Speaker 3: is to be a parent and a single parent and
Speaker 3: working through that.
Speaker 2: But you just do it.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, there's, like I said, circumstance I left.
Speaker 3: We were fine, you know what I mean, Like I left,
Speaker 3: so I keep the consequences of this and so do
Speaker 3: you know, so.
Speaker 2: Did it whatever.
Speaker 3: But I can't speak about what he thought or whatever,
Speaker 3: but I can speak about how I did.
Speaker 2: So I had to get.
Speaker 3: On and move what I needed to do, and I
Speaker 3: created a home. I created work. I sometimes had to
Speaker 3: leave the kids to go and work. You know, they
Speaker 3: had a beautiful relationship with their dad.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It was it was you do what you've got to do.
Speaker 1: Was home at this point was home.
Speaker 2: La always la?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: And then how connected were they with the New Zealand
Speaker 4: part of you.
Speaker 3: I would go home every literally every year or every
Speaker 3: probably twice a year, once a year or twice a year.
Speaker 3: I would always come home and bring the kids back
Speaker 3: home as well. Yeah, so I've always been connected to home.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, it's only twelve hours from Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: And yes, you know, Australians and New Zealanders are so
Speaker 3: used to leaving like we're good travelers. So yeah, it
Speaker 3: wasn't hard. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Coming up next, Rachel shares the advice her mother gave
Speaker 4: her before she passed and how it changed the way
Speaker 4: Rachel lives her life. I'm curious about this unfolding of
Speaker 4: yourself in the world. You described your mum as metaphysical,
Speaker 4: which I love that as a description. At this point,
Speaker 4: are you connecting more with that side of yourself even
Speaker 4: though you're still very much immersed in that more physical
Speaker 4: world of modeling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Abden flowed all the way throughout my life.
Speaker 3: So I was very very religious when I was younger,
Speaker 3: got baptized in front of the church, you know, speaking
Speaker 3: in tongues.
Speaker 1: Oh really was it Pentecostal?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Oh all of it? Oh yeah, really? Yeah, like the
Speaker 2: whole thing.
Speaker 3: And because when people say, especially when I'm you know,
Speaker 3: talking about indeed, like people go, I hope you see Jesus.
Speaker 3: I'm like I have, I've been with raw but and
Speaker 3: you know I I so I would dip in announce.
Speaker 3: And then I went and studied with a white witch
Speaker 3: in Salem, Massachusetts, who was amazing, who was very pagan.
Speaker 3: My mom was very kind of pagan. My mom, you know,
Speaker 3: after she died, I found like all these to cards.
Speaker 3: She would have all these motions, like motions and potions.
Speaker 3: She had all these potions and she used to be
Speaker 3: an incredible artist and she would draw.
Speaker 2: Aliens to you name it.
Speaker 3: We have touched on it more or less. Nothing dark
Speaker 3: or anything, but I mean some people could, depending on
Speaker 3: their religion, called something dark, but you know it was.
Speaker 2: It was so incredible.
Speaker 3: Like I know, so many people find you know, my
Speaker 3: marriage and everything interesting, but I just I love the
Speaker 3: metaphysical world because there's so many entry points into this,
Speaker 3: whether it's religion, whether it's spirituality, whether it's any of
Speaker 3: these things. Because there's this beautiful, intuitive, energetic side to
Speaker 3: us that is just waiting to be explored and helps
Speaker 3: make these decisions and all this kind of stuff. So
Speaker 3: there is that kind of very human side where off form,
Speaker 3: you know, and what is that internal world?
Speaker 2: What is our inner world as such?
Speaker 3: And it's going to be different for everybody, so there's
Speaker 3: no fight of which is.
Speaker 2: Wrong or right. But I loved how my mum.
Speaker 3: Just just dove into kind of whatever offered she kind
Speaker 3: of saw or ever knocked on her door, like when
Speaker 3: she was when she invited the Mormon zone when they
Speaker 3: were going around doing their Yeah, she would say, come
Speaker 3: in for dinner, and we would have dinner and we
Speaker 3: would have these two men sitting at the table, like
Speaker 3: she just one year she decided, right, we're all going
Speaker 3: off sugar. You know, you girls are you know, going
Speaker 3: to have carab for chocolate. You guys are going to
Speaker 3: have honey instead of sugar. But we just she was magic.
Speaker 3: She was like living with Like it's like practical magic. Right,
Speaker 3: you're living with this woman who's magical. But at the
Speaker 3: same time she was late that at home. But when
Speaker 3: she died, I asked her what she regretted, and she said,
Speaker 3: I regret not fully being who I am.
Speaker 2: Right, this was a heavotal, yes, heavital conversation that we had.
Speaker 4: I heard you say that to your castmates in the jungle,
Speaker 4: when you shared that with them. That's a really profound
Speaker 4: thing for someone to say that they regretted, Yeah, not
Speaker 4: having been more themselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and honestly, how much do we all care about
Speaker 3: what people think of us and why we're doing things?
Speaker 4: When she said that to you, was were you having
Speaker 4: a moment together? Was it bedside? Was it literally she
Speaker 4: was about to leave the earthly realm?
Speaker 1: Because that's a she actually gave you a gift.
Speaker 2: Yes, so she was three rigged away.
Speaker 3: Listen when you're kind of sorry, I don't mean to
Speaker 3: say listen, but it's just my form of speech.
Speaker 4: But you know, when you're going, I'm listening, I know.
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't mean to say listen, but
Speaker 3: you know, it's just the way I'm kind of she like,
Speaker 3: I remember going to doctor's appointments and we just it happened.
Speaker 3: All this happened quite quickly, within fifteen months. I know,
Speaker 3: not that quickly for some people who don't have gone
Speaker 3: through this process. But I remember coming across, you know,
Speaker 3: going to one of her doctor's appointments, and I was like,
Speaker 3: can you just tell me? Is she going to die?
Speaker 3: Some like I need to please give me something? And
Speaker 3: even the doctor was had tears in her eyes and
Speaker 3: she's like, it's not long. And I had to break
Speaker 3: I told them to go to the bathroom when I
Speaker 3: asked the doctor this, and when she came back, I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm going to have to tell her this,
Speaker 3: like I and she remember I was driving across the bridge.
Speaker 3: I was driving across the bridge bridge in Auck, London.
Speaker 3: I said, Mom, this, you know, had I had to
Speaker 3: tell her and she was like, Rachel, you're always being
Speaker 3: so truthful.
Speaker 2: She goes, I know.
Speaker 3: And so these conversations happened, and one time I was
Speaker 3: in bed with her and I said, Mom, what do
Speaker 3: you regret? And she goes and that's when she said,
Speaker 3: I regret not being fully who I am and she goes,
Speaker 3: I wish I'd had the long cigarette, you know, on
Speaker 3: the thing and not telling everybody out there to smoke.
Speaker 2: Either is or I'm just saying what she.
Speaker 1: Was and was it experiences or.
Speaker 3: You know, listen, she did. She did have her moments
Speaker 3: in her life, but it was more some of us
Speaker 3: try and hide who we truly are because we want
Speaker 3: to be appreciated by or be accepted by our surrounding
Speaker 3: mates or whatever.
Speaker 2: Or she said, because I know.
Speaker 3: She was talking about the spirituality, right, she was talking
Speaker 3: about spirituality, and I was like that, Mum, you were
Speaker 3: never not who you were. But I understand what you're
Speaker 3: saying because we all saw your how you were spiritually.
Speaker 3: But she goes, I just wish I was that. She
Speaker 3: wanted to be the eccentric one, you know, the eccentric
Speaker 3: person because she was also the artist. She wanted to
Speaker 3: put on her kimono, and she eventually did in the end,
Speaker 3: but she's like, why didn't I do that my whole life,
Speaker 3: you know, because that's who she was. But again she
Speaker 3: had many different lives too, Like she was a photographer,
Speaker 3: she was an artist, she was all these things, but
Speaker 3: that one thing and I don't know whether it was
Speaker 3: what it was, but it hit me so hard of
Speaker 3: like it and it came down to she somewhere along
Speaker 3: the line, she cared too much of what other people
Speaker 3: thought and judged her, and it's time not to do that.
Speaker 3: And that's after she passed away. I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: going to India to move through this grief. I don't
Speaker 3: know why. I mean, I've been to India for to
Speaker 3: her beauty, but I was like, I have to go
Speaker 3: move this grief through my body.
Speaker 2: And went to India.
Speaker 3: But what a what a powerful message to say, Like
Speaker 3: you said.
Speaker 1: Well, it was like throughout your whole life she had
Speaker 1: given you.
Speaker 4: The gifts, mainly the gift of feeling free to travel
Speaker 4: through the world and experience things always. Yeah, that maybe
Speaker 4: she had not had for herself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she definitely tried.
Speaker 3: She was well, not so much that I know what
Speaker 3: you mean by in her own version of what that was,
Speaker 3: but she definitely traveled, and she definitely she was definitely
Speaker 3: part of like the New Zealand Psychic Board, Like she
Speaker 3: was very, very psychic.
Speaker 2: She was very she was all these things.
Speaker 3: And it's it's gone back generations, right and through generations,
Speaker 3: through different Yeah, my great grandfather, my grandmother, all of them.
Speaker 3: So in spirituality kind of is a very touchy point
Speaker 3: with you know, I mean, because all of us think
Speaker 3: of things so differently.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it tends to be deeply held.
Speaker 4: It's either really deeply held by people or people try
Speaker 4: and keep it at arm's lengths because they can't deal
Speaker 4: with it at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And at that point I knew when I was
Speaker 3: in India and I was going through my yoga training
Speaker 3: there because I was like, I have to just do yoga,
Speaker 3: because I'd been doing yoga for twelve years at that point,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I have to just go and
Speaker 3: understand you.
Speaker 2: I don't know why, but I just ended up there.
Speaker 3: I googled the place, went there, and I wanted to
Speaker 3: bolt like ten thousand times. I was like, I have
Speaker 3: to leave this place late. This is weird. I felt
Speaker 3: so uncomfortable, and see all the other stuff flowed, but
Speaker 3: this felt uncomfortable. This felt like, you know, like cheese
Speaker 3: greater inside. This felt comfortable, but I knew I had
Speaker 3: to stay.
Speaker 4: Was it the physical yoga? I mean it's the same thing,
Speaker 4: but was.
Speaker 2: It physical physical?
Speaker 3: But it was that it was creating that shift inside.
Speaker 3: That was that agitation of staying somewhere long enough because
Speaker 3: it's a twenty one day course, so staying and moving
Speaker 3: through those so many times I actually wanted to bolt
Speaker 3: out of there. And then I returned again to a
Speaker 3: month later, I returned into another course, and all the
Speaker 3: stuff rose again. And then I found out that the
Speaker 3: media had somehow found out I was in Indiana and
Speaker 3: I was doing these yoga courses, and I thought, oh
Speaker 3: my god, everyone's going to think I'm weird. There's my mother.
Speaker 3: Everyone's going to think I'm weird. And my teacher ended
Speaker 3: up turning around to me and said, you've got two choices.
Speaker 3: Either you leave or you don't keep passing this on
Speaker 3: through your generations and changed this. And so I stayed,
Speaker 3: and I stayed, and I stayed, and I ended up
Speaker 3: coming back to New Zealand and doing tours around New
Speaker 3: Zealand talking about meditation, breath work, exactly what my mother said, like,
Speaker 3: be who you are, don't be shameful, don't be shamed
Speaker 3: about spirituality, don't be shamed about whatever you want. If
Speaker 3: you want to pick up tenatorial cards, if you want
Speaker 3: to go to a psychic, if you want to whatever.
Speaker 2: You want to do, just do it. I don't even care.
Speaker 3: If it was like I want to become a pottery
Speaker 3: or whatever it is, and people showed up to it
Speaker 3: and started showing up, and that was twenty eighteen. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so then it just kind of went from there.
Speaker 4: And then so your decision to come to the Jungle Show,
Speaker 4: what was that process and what was that born from?
Speaker 2: That? Was?
Speaker 3: Well, I haven't done anything really on TV for some time. Yes,
Speaker 3: And also I was like where am I at like
Speaker 3: as far as Rachel is and do I you know,
Speaker 3: because I was like, oh, I don't want to do celebrity.
Speaker 3: Get me out of here, like you know this and that,
Speaker 3: and there's you know, some people do it, some people
Speaker 3: don't do it. Depending on where they are, they create
Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah blah, ego, ego, ego, ego. And
Speaker 3: I was like, you know what, I'm at this place
Speaker 3: where I just want to go and just blossom and
Speaker 3: meet people and share who I am now, like whatever.
Speaker 3: And of course obviously there's the charity concept in there,
Speaker 3: of course, which is the number one thing. But at
Speaker 3: the same time you can like yees, so I just
Speaker 3: I said yes to.
Speaker 2: It this time. I was just like yes.
Speaker 3: And it's I think the Australian version such a great
Speaker 3: version of it because it does have this quality about
Speaker 3: it that is a little bit less, has that little
Speaker 3: bit less of that kind of gossip. You know.
Speaker 2: It's just it's a nice it's a nice stories. Yes
Speaker 2: what I can say about that.
Speaker 4: It's more it kind of lends itself to harmony and
Speaker 4: people finding the beauty in each other individually and as
Speaker 4: a group. Whereas the English one I think is much
Speaker 4: more competitive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think bottom line is like, yeah, we
Speaker 3: go into celebrities and everybody has this bitch of mon
Speaker 3: on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Oh I don't know that one. I don't know that person.
Speaker 2: Why is that person that?
Speaker 3: Ultimately, you know what we're breaking down here, people, is
Speaker 3: we're showing that everyone's human being everyone, no matter where
Speaker 3: you are, what you do, all the rest of it.
Speaker 3: We're all going through a process and we're all trying
Speaker 3: to you know, ultimately, that's it. And I know this
Speaker 3: privilege here, and I know there's money certain things, and
Speaker 3: there's you know that some people haven't this money. Some
Speaker 3: people are as easier of your famous said all the
Speaker 3: talk and talk, but actually just walk the walk and
Speaker 3: just walk it do you and have that like and
Speaker 3: make those choices. But ultimately we're all human. What all
Speaker 3: of us shows that human side.
Speaker 4: Well, when you say human side, because you were very
Speaker 4: lovely in the jungle and you kind of had a
Speaker 4: den mother vibe. And when I say mother, I just
Speaker 4: mean in that feminine sort of no nurturing energy, right,
Speaker 4: but then when you got nominated, you really did not
Speaker 4: like it.
Speaker 3: So there's no doubt I have a competitive side. I
Speaker 3: couldn't have lasted. I don't think there's and I'm not
Speaker 3: ashamed of it, like I mean, you know, and ultimately
Speaker 3: it hurts.
Speaker 4: You just made friends, yes, and that's the process that
Speaker 4: you know it's necessary, but it doesn't mean that it's
Speaker 4: still not like what.
Speaker 1: I know, you're.
Speaker 3: Hurt, like Rebecca love Mia or all of them, all
Speaker 3: of them, we made friends and that's the thing, Like,
Speaker 3: I mean, I know people have some ideas, but what
Speaker 3: I hope is like Sorel, I loved like she was.
Speaker 3: She was in the elephant graveyard for three days, but
Speaker 3: the moment she came into camp, we all had dinner there.
Speaker 3: She was not the first one to go, hey, I
Speaker 3: haven't eaten them three days. Can I go first? She
Speaker 3: never pulled one stop like that, and she says, how
Speaker 3: it is she's actually I yeah, every single person had this.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I got fiery at the end because what
Speaker 3: I saw was an alliance starting to happen. Because I
Speaker 3: knew once we were going to be petted against each other.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is an alliance and this can
Speaker 3: get really ugly fast, you know, because whether you say, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm doing it because you are the one.
Speaker 2: Who can do the trial or because you can cope.
Speaker 3: And emotionally, Dad, you've just created this, like these friendships
Speaker 3: and you're like what why Yes, so again it shows
Speaker 3: that that human side. And if I'd stayed in, who's
Speaker 3: to say what what would have come out at that point?
Speaker 2: I think I would have been a little bit more.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know, I'm not very good at alliance,
Speaker 3: as I kind of say no.
Speaker 4: But part of so what you got from it was
Speaker 4: exactly what you wanted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like to both see yourself in it clearly and to
Speaker 4: allow yourself to be seen, which is liberating. And of course,
Speaker 4: because you're human, everything that you're presenting is not always
Speaker 4: going to be sanitized.
Speaker 1: And your best angle and you're very good at angles.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I looked back and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: Like the light was so bad. But you know, but.
Speaker 3: You're right, you just go it's it's it's it's a
Speaker 3: really insanely humbling experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when you think of it now and you've just
Speaker 4: come back from a retreat. By the way, we have
Speaker 4: to tell no filter listeners this, which is why we've
Speaker 4: probably really gone deep on the spiritual aspect of things.
Speaker 4: But when you reflect back on your time safe in
Speaker 4: the jungle or the steps that lead you there, what
Speaker 4: would you pass on to your children like your mother's
Speaker 4: parting gift was to you.
Speaker 3: I honestly would continue to say what she said because
Speaker 3: I really think it's a very dense, deep thing and
Speaker 3: about caring what other people think. I think there's a
Speaker 3: lot of that, Like there's a part of us obviously
Speaker 3: that you're you're I'm not saying don't be empathetic towards people,
Speaker 3: but I'm talking about like really allowing the strong, like
Speaker 3: that's that part of you that is you, and never
Speaker 3: apologizing for you, you know, in the same way as
Speaker 3: she as she said, because I think we're still moving
Speaker 3: through caring because society's built that way correct, like in
Speaker 3: some ways, So I guess it isn't asn't.
Speaker 2: I think we're getting better at it. I really do.
Speaker 3: I think we're getting that beautiful, strong, not in your
Speaker 3: face kept I didn't care what you think about me, Da, Da,
Speaker 3: And yeah, there's still I'm trying to figure out the
Speaker 3: best way to say this is we call it, like,
Speaker 3: you know, like the truth of who, like the truth
Speaker 3: of who you are is hard. It's hard to stay
Speaker 3: in that state because obviously we flucture. I'm not saying
Speaker 3: that other people aren't true to who they are, but
Speaker 3: we do adjust and adjustments. Of course, we have to
Speaker 3: make adjustments because there is things that you know, we
Speaker 3: have to do.
Speaker 2: But I think when.
Speaker 3: There's that sense of control, like there's a lot, I mean,
Speaker 3: there's a lot going on in the world right now,
Speaker 3: the sense of being controlled. There's a control aspect. There's
Speaker 3: freedom of speech. Are we allow freedom of speech because
Speaker 3: then there's repercussions of that, and there's this, and there's that.
Speaker 3: So I think moving through these times is to stay
Speaker 3: true to who you are. But also I would say
Speaker 3: the one thing, you know how people kind of tend
Speaker 3: to go back and blame the generation before because they
Speaker 3: did this and that wasn't appropriate and da da dah.
Speaker 3: Get off those high horses. We have the phones, we're
Speaker 3: zoned in on this so many hours a day. Go
Speaker 3: out and see nature because I mean the deterioration of
Speaker 3: nature too, you know, and you know.
Speaker 1: I am the beauty of it. It's restorative as well.
Speaker 4: Hey, yeah, are you are you in love with anybody
Speaker 4: or is anybody in love with you.
Speaker 3: I'd actually have to really think about that question. By
Speaker 3: the way, Love, I am in this great place in
Speaker 3: my life where I have had beautiful boyfriends, I have
Speaker 3: had great husband, I've had two beautiful children. I am
Speaker 3: through menopause the other end, and I have incredible freedom
Speaker 3: and can do whatever I want when I want to
Speaker 3: do it. And I love I absolutely adore and love men.
Speaker 3: But I am just in my flow state. I'm loving it.
Speaker 3: There's certain points and menopause where you know.
Speaker 1: I heard you say in your podet life becomes.
Speaker 2: A different thing.
Speaker 3: Love, Yes, love becomes a different at a different place,
Speaker 3: and it may not be overly sexually driven or any
Speaker 3: of things.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna just say it how it is.
Speaker 3: And I am wanting to show up in a completely
Speaker 3: different way. And it's still to be sensual, still, to
Speaker 3: be attractive, still, to be you know, had energy still
Speaker 3: all these things and if someone comes into my life, great,
Speaker 3: But I still I've never.
Speaker 2: Felt so much energy. I am lucky I didn't.
Speaker 3: I actually dropped sugar and bread. That was what I
Speaker 3: kind of did through my menopause. But I think still
Speaker 3: to have that kind of I call it like the
Speaker 3: moisteness or the or the juice, the moist a female
Speaker 3: and the juiciness of being a female and not too dry,
Speaker 3: but not saying oh, I'm no longer with you, know. No,
Speaker 3: I adore men. I respect them, I love their viewpoints.
Speaker 3: I love being around men. At the same time, is
Speaker 3: it a different place in my life. Absolutely, I have
Speaker 3: more of this boundless love for everything rather than just
Speaker 3: one isolated idea. I'm not talking about loads of men.
Speaker 3: I'm just talking about in general.
Speaker 1: The headline.
Speaker 3: I haven't been in a relationship at all for god
Speaker 3: well ten years.
Speaker 2: No, since twenty ten.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's fifteen.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think you know.
Speaker 4: I find that interesting because you said in the Jungle,
Speaker 4: I think when maybe Barry Brady was asking you about
Speaker 4: that period of your life or whatever, when you met
Speaker 4: Rod Stewart that had those heavy days or whatever, and
Speaker 4: you said it was really interesting, I kind of felt
Speaker 4: like a chameleon on a rock. Do you remember saying
Speaker 4: that I felt like the chameleon on the rock? Yes,
Speaker 4: and I love that. But then I also thought, get,
Speaker 4: I get your analogy, except the whole point of the
Speaker 4: chameleon is that the chameleon is not seen, whereas you
Speaker 4: have always been so seen.
Speaker 1: That's interesting.
Speaker 2: I probably want to be the chameleon.
Speaker 4: Well, just that that you thought that you were blending
Speaker 4: in so seamlessly with this world. But your Rachel Hunter,
Speaker 4: we see you, we see you, you know?
Speaker 3: Is that funny because that's the same thing as I
Speaker 3: thought of my mum. I'm like, you don't think you're spiritual.
Speaker 3: I think everyone consume your spiritual. Yeah, it's the same thing, right,
Speaker 3: Like we don't see who we are because we're we're
Speaker 3: so stuck to wan to like elevate to the norms,
Speaker 3: like be humble, be this, be that. I guess, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you're right, maybe I'm not really a chameleon.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe you take Maybe you're not supermodel, super guru,
Speaker 4: super yogi, supermum Rachel Hunter.
Speaker 1: I really want to go on one of your retreats.
Speaker 1: I think, Oh you've.
Speaker 2: Come any time.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for sharing yourself with us.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: You're just a delight.
Speaker 3: Oh well you're a brilliant, amazing what you're able to
Speaker 3: get out of people, Because I think I just love
Speaker 3: the way that you interview and stuff.
Speaker 2: I haven't felt that in a long long time, So
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 4: It's communion, isn't it Yeah? Rachel Hunter was and is
Speaker 4: one of a rare group of women who defined an era,
Speaker 4: and what makes her story so compared telling is not
Speaker 4: just what she achieved, but how she's.
Speaker 1: Continued to evolve beyond it.
Speaker 4: Today, her life looks very different to the one she
Speaker 4: lived at the height of the supermodel years. It's quieter,
Speaker 4: more grounded, and guided by intuition rather than expectation. As
Speaker 4: she told us, one of the most profound turning points
Speaker 4: came in the final advice her mother shared with her
Speaker 4: before she died, to stop worrying about what others think
Speaker 4: and to fully be herself, a parting gift that continues
Speaker 4: to shape the life she's building now. Thanks for listening
Speaker 4: to No Filter. The executive producer of No Filter is
Speaker 4: Bree Player. Audio production is by Jacob Brown, and video
Speaker 4: editing is by Josh Green. This episode was recorded at
Speaker 4: Session in Progress Studios and I'm your host Kate Lanebrook.
Speaker 1: I'll see you next Monday for another treat.
Speaker 4: Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and
Speaker 4: waters that this podcast is recorded on