Megan Gale opens up about romance with Shaun Hampson
- From: News Limited newspapers
- March 04, 2012
WHAT do you wear to interview a model? With no designer wardrobe to fall back on, I figure the least I can do is attempt to pull out the stops in the vertiginous heels department.
New shoes strapped on tightly, I arrive at our photoshoot with Megan Gale feeling confident I’ll at least be able to stand eye-to-eye with the woman often described as “Amazonian”.
I was wrong. Gale is wandering around the studio in a blue satin robe and pristine white fluffy slippers - and despite me being a respectable 178cm (heels included), I still have to look up at her to make eye contact.
After shaking my hand enthusiastically, she disappears behind a screen with the stylist. Five minutes later, she emerges in a tiny white Diane Von Furstenberg dress and a staggering pair of seven-inch Yves Saint Laurent heels. (I hide my paltry three inches of shoe under the table.) Everyone turns and stares. She looks incredible.
Of course, she’s had plenty of practice at looking this good. After modelling for 20 years, Gale knows her stuff. Avoiding the plate of pastries and opting for organic fruit balls she brought back from a recent trip to a health resort, she isn’t fazed when hair and make-up run late.
“Don’t worry, I’m quick,” she calls, striding in front of the camera. And she is. Once the photographer stops shooting, she looks at the pictures with him, makes suggestions, points out angles. In short, she’s a true professional.
It’s this work ethic that makes her the perfect choice for this year’s L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival ambassador. “I’ve always attended, but this year I’ll be significantly involved,” she says. “I like it because it has the same glitz and glamour as an overseas show, but because the public can be part of it, it’s much more accessible.
At 36, Gale is a modelling veteran, but that doesn’t seem to matter - she has plenty of work and is held in high regard by the Australian fashion industry. Friend and designer Alex Perry was mesmerised by her from the start.
“Megan offers more than just beauty,” he explains. “She connects with people on many different levels. The first time I met her, she was breathtakingly beautiful, a little shy, and almost a little uncertain of herself. But then she walked for me. I’d never seen anything like it and have never forgotten it. Thirteen years later, she’s still spectacular.”
Gale walked the catwalk for David Jones for seven years before passing the crown to Miranda Kerr in 2008. She’s still the store’s ambassador and last year became the first Aussie face of L’Oréal.
She’s also about to host her second season of Arena’s Project Runway Australia and is creative director of her own swimwear brand, Isola.
But success didn’t come easily. “I struggled in the beginning. I had five years of walking to castings, never having any money, never getting anywhere.” At 22, after moving from Perth to Sydney, she started having doubts. “I thought, if I can’t make it in this city, in this country, what hope do I have in New York or Paris? My dad asked if I wanted to keep going. But something in my gut was telling me to give it one last go.”
Gale auditioned for TV commercials so she could make some money while giving herself time to rethink her career. She was booked for three; the final one was for Italian company Omnitel (now Vodafone).
After it aired, she became an instant hit in Italy, and consequently in Australia. “That was a pretty big lesson - that even when things look as if they’re not working out, sometimes life has some lovely surprises.”
And the surprises kept coming. In 2006 she started dating comedian and radio star Andy Lee, giving hope to gangly men countrywide that a few wisecracks were enough to snare a looker.
In 2007 she was cast as Wonder Woman in George Miller’s film Justice League (the project was shelved due to the Hollywood writers’ strike). She caught industry eyes and was given representation in the US - something she would have killed for 10 years earlier. However, she decided not to pursue a career Stateside.
“I would’ve had to say goodbye to great work opportunities, go base myself in LA and hope I could get something,” she says. “If I was 20, it would have been fine. But, at 32, the idea of giving up guaranteed work to potentially do nothing was something I had to weigh up.”
Then, in 2010, after Australia had fallen in love with Gale and Lee as a mismatched couple, they announced their split. Two months later, she was linked to AFL player Shaun Hampson - and the public didn’t like it one bit.
Gale refused to talk about her new relationship, and for the first time in her career was branded “stony-faced” and a “diva”.
Today she’s relaxed, although a bit nervous, when I ask about the backlash. “When most girls start seeing a guy, they play it cool,” she giggles. “We weren’t even three days in (seeing each other) when the paparazzi found out. I wasn’t calling him my boyfriend yet, so when people were saying, ‘Megan Gale’s got a new boyfriend,’ it was a bit embarrassing! I was figuring out where it was going to go. I didn’t want to call it too early.
“Also, he’s a professional athlete who has to focus on what he does. I didn’t want to do anything wrong by him or the club. My heart was in the right place trying to protect everyone, but it didn’t win me any favours. That was a hard thing to deal with.”
The way Hampson, now 23, reacted brought them closer. “I was a bit overwhelmed, but he handled it in a very mature way,” she smiles. “Some guys would have taken off like a rocket, some might have been outside posing with their top off - you just don’t know!”
And Gale is adamant the 13-year age difference is irrelevant. “If someone knows what they want out of life, it doesn’t matter if they’re 23 or 43. If they treat me well and make me laugh, that’s enough,” she explains. “Throwing around labels such as ‘toyboy’ or ‘cougar’ is unfair. You’re defining someone without seeing past who they really are.”
Does the age gap matter when it comes to planning a future together? “I don’t plan a lot,” she shrugs. “I think you have to be a bit flexible. If you put limits on what you want to do, and when, you only set yourself up for disappointment if you don’t achieve it. You don’t know where life is going to take you.”
