photographY nicole bentley STYLING NAOMI SMITH WORDS Eugenie Kelly
Surprise! Megan Gale is married! The actor and model lets us in on her secret elopement, the joy of turning 50 and her unexpected new hobby
Megan hasn’t yet decided if she’ll eventually sell her works, but her “happy place” is what fulfills the Melbourne-based modelling icon these days. That is, when a jam-packed schedule – juggling 11-year-old son River and eight-year-old daughter Rosie’s school pickups and extracurricular activities, or ambassadorial commitments for clients such as David Jones, Western Australian Tourism and luxury fashion labels – doesn’t swallow up weeks of her time.
To describe her past 12 months as a whirlwind feels apt. Let’s rewind for a moment to December 2024, when Megan and her long-time partner, 37-year-old AFL coach Shaun Hampson, wed in a private ceremony on Vomo Island in Fiji, with only their mothers and children in attendance. It’s a detail the couple has kept private and revealed to no-one until today’s interview with marie claire. “The only reason we’re sharing it [now] is because it has been a year,” Megan says with a shrug. “We’ve kept this private because that’s who we are as a couple: extremely low-key. We never wanted a big, public, showy wedding.
Talent: Megan Gale
Editor: Georgie McCourt
Creative Director: Rebecca Rhodes
Stylist: Naomi Smith
Photographer: Nicole Bentley
Hair: Daren Borthwick
Makeup: Victoria Baron
Producer: Robyn Fay Perkins
Wearing: Camilla and Marc and Pandora
With love,
Megan Gale wears Camilla and Marc dress, $550, at David Jones; Pandora earrings, $800, necklaces (from top), $800 and $2250, bracelets (from top), $3900, $3500 and $2850, rings, $850 and $500; Megan’s own ring on ring finger (worn throughout).
Chloé top, $800, at David Jones; Khaite jeans, $1190, at David Jones; Pandora earrings, $800, bracelets, $750 each, and rings (Megan’s right hand), $550 and $2900.
Camilla and Marc jacket, $750, at David Jones; Matteau swimsuit, $340; Pandora earrings, $800, necklace, $800, bracelets, $750 each, and rings (Megan’s left hand), $550, $2000, (right hand), $600, $2900 and $550.
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ou’ll never guess what’s behind this square door,” Megan Gale declares, pointing to a white building the size of a garage just beyond the glass fence of her swimming pool. “It’s my 50th birthday present from Shaun. He’s painted it, installed sconces, laid floorboards, sourced a table … It’s an art studio! Just somewhere I can work on my watercolours and maybe explore acrylics. I got into painting during Covid and have become obsessed with it.”
“I’m not the type who gets excited about dresses and flowers and a million guests”
Megan may have asserted an identity early in her career as an Amazonian glamazon with cascading locks, full lips and curves, but it’s the shoot accompanying this interview that aligns more with how she sees herself today. “Pared back, natural, raw, that’s what I feel most comfortable with on set because that’s how I am day to day,” she explains. “I was so relaxed on [this] set because I felt like I didn’t have to jump into character. This is how I like to be shot. Even in my twenties and thirties I was like that. But modelling is like playing dress-ups. It depends on what your client wants ... and what the creative direction calls for.”
She adds that, at age 50, no longer clinging to a cat’s eye works in her favour beauty-wise. “Too much makeup ages you with all the skin texture changes,” she says. “Piling it on to cultivate a glamorous look is counterproductive. I’m about letting my skin breathe and glow, and feeling hydrated.” Having seen Megan at glamorous events over the years, one might assume that she was the type who lolled about all day in designer clothes with the tags freshly snipped off. But scroll her socials and she’s often clad in “tracky dacks” or in “crazy bird lady” mode (her words), posting content where she’s devoid of makeup and feeding magpies live worms in her garden. It’s not something you might expect to rack up the likes, but that’s social media for you. “I find it lovely and comforting that this kind of ‘content’, for lack of a better word, is what resonates with followers,” she says with a laugh. “That’s the stuff that keeps me even-keeled: being out in nature. Basically what I never used to make time for.”
Carving out alone time has also reaped rewards. “I love heath retreats like Gwinganna [on the Gold Coast], and I also visited RAKxa in Thailand, where I tried cryotherapy and IV therapy,” she says. “That place is the gift that keeps on giving.”
Being able to jump on a plane to take time out while hubby holds the fort at home is a privilege that’s not lost on her. The pair started dating in January 2011, when Shaun was an Australian Rules footballer playing for Carlton. Their 13-year age gap resulted in a hefty share of scrutiny at the start of their relationship.
“Shaun’s approach has always been: we’ll make it work, despite how hectic our schedules can be,” she enthuses. “He has a solution to everything; a pragmatic, optimistic outlook. I’m very, very fortunate I’ve got someone in the trenches with me.” The pair are sage and witty, sharing the same sense of humour. “That’s how we bonded,” she says with a wide smile. “He’s one of the funniest people I know. Even when it feels like the wheels are falling off, Shaun will say something to lift the mood.”
Left: Skims dress, $269, at David Jones; Matteau swimsuit, $340; Longchamp scarf, $320, at David Jones; Pandora necklaces (from top), $800 and $1800, bracelets, $750 each, and rings (Megan’s left hand), $550, $2900, (right hand), $2900, $550 and $600.
Right: SIR the Label swimsuit, $220, at David Jones; Bianca Spender skirt, $595, at David Jones; Pandora bracelets, $750 each, and rings (Megan’s left hand), $500 and $2900.
Megan
Carla Zampatti dress, $699, at David Jones; Pandora earrings, $800, necklaces (from top), $800 and $2250, bracelets (from top), $3900, $3500 and $2850, and rings, $500 and $2900.
Chloé jacket, $4200, at David Jones; Matteau swimsuit, $340; Zara jeans, $89.95; Pandora necklace, $800, bracelets, $750 each, and rings (Megan’s left hand), $2900, $1050, (right hand), $2000, $550 and $600.
All we wanted was a beautiful, quiet, simple, intimate ceremony somewhere that we loved.”
Having the wedding take place on Vomo’s coral-encrusted white sands with the Tiffany Blue water as their backdrop was a nod to Megan’s Polynesian ancestry. Her part-Māori mother, May, Shaun’s mother, Dee, and the children were the only guests, with no-one informed until the night prior. “It called for somewhere tropical and my kids are obsessed with Vomo,” she says. “We knew we could trust the staff to keep it private. Anyone who knows me will attest I’m not the type who gets excited about dresses and flowers and a million guests. God, how do people ever plan weddings for 200 people? But Shaun and I were never going to take the traditional route. We’ve both always gone against the grain.”
Deviating from the norm is something Megan has down pat, especially when it comes to a career she’s chosen to step in and out of as it suits – and without any repercussions. Aged 16, she signed up for deportment classes in Perth as a confidence booster and dabbled in modelling while still at school. At 18, she won a local modelling competition and moved to Sydney a year later. Struggling over the next few years to make a dent with her voluptuous Bond-girl bombshell look, which was at odds with the heroin-chic aesthetic considered cool at the time, things weren’t exactly singing. On the verge of a career change in 1999, the 24-year-old booked a series of advertisements for Italian telecommunications company Omnitel (now Vodafone), who had casted in Sydney. When the campaign aired in Europe, Megan became an overnight sensation. She spent the next seven years working between Europe and Australia, doing runway for Italian fashion houses and shooting for everyone from marie claire, Grazia, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, to GQ and Maxim.
Left: Lee Mathews dress, $1399; Matteau swimsuit, $340; Pandora bracelets (from top), $3900 and $3500, and rings (Megan’s left hand), $2900, $550, (right hand), $600, $550 and $2900.
Above: Zara dress, $149; Matteau swimsuit, $340; Pandora earrings, $800, necklaces (from top), $2250 and $650, bracelets (from top), $3900, $3500 and $2850, and rings (from top), $600, $550, $2900, $550 and $2900.
Snaring a lucrative David Jones contract in 2001 was undoubtedly a career highlight, with Megan becoming the face of the department store for 13 years. “Initially it was a two-year contract, and although it involved restrictions [in terms of] working with other brands, it was a pretty good trade-off,” she explains. “If there’s ever been a strategy behind my career, it’s been opting for quality over quantity. I’ve always been hyper-considered in my choices.”
The David Jones partnership was rekindled in 2024, something she never expected to happen in this chapter of her life, when motherhood has taken precedence. “Any time I’ve stepped back, I’ve given it great thought,” she confesses. “When you’re in the public eye or the fashion industry and step out, there’s no guarantee you can just segue back in. There’s [often] a short shelf life with modelling, acting and television. I knew the risks, but I was comfortable with that.”
Still, the offers kept coming – like posing nude for this magazine while heavily pregnant with River in 2014. Five months after she gave birth, she followed up with a cover for Who magazine’s Sexiest People edition. Three weeks after Rosie’s arrival, she was also back at it, working with Tiffany & Co. “When I felt up to it, I would, but working is still very much a cherry-picking process,” she says.
“I was so relaxed on this set because I felt like I didn’t have to jump into character. This is how I like to be shot”
Being an avatar for beauty has undoubtedly taken a toll, for although it’s an attribute that can deposit the riches of life at the feet of those bestowed with it, the expectations of constant perfectionism can be draining, and she’s had to find ways to deal with it. Perhaps that’s the upside of ageing? “When I started modelling and then experienced it suddenly taking off at an age that’s quite late in the piece, I was very driven and it was just go, go, go,” she says. “I functioned on autopilot for so long, stopped to have kids but even then I didn’t stop. It’s only in the past few years that I’ve managed to. Then you’re faced with yourself and must sit with the flawed parts. I guess I’m at a point in my life where I’m figuring all that out and [how to] not be scared by the discomfort. I’m messy, I’m flawed and that’s OK.”
Megan credits yoga as a huge component of her wellbeing journey, which prioritises vitality and strength over filler and facetuning. “I get up at 6.30am most days, get the kids moving, eat breakfast in the form of a mega smoothie – where I whack in probiotics, collagen, hormone support powders, fruit, oatmeal and yoghurt – then do some form of exercise before I lose the motivation. I fall into bed by 9pm and am asleep by 10.”
“I’m figuring out how to not be scared by discomfort. I’m messy, I’m flawed and that’s OK”
The pair has just finished a full renovation of their home in Melbourne’s leafy inner-east suburbs. It’s a process they loved, although Megan says she doubts they’ll be making an appearance on The Block anytime soon. “The planning was the longest part,” she says with a sigh. “The building component only took six months.”
Megan has also been able to flex her interior-decorating skills with the couple’s Daylesford Airbnb, “Dollywood”, a four-bedroom property they invested in back in 2020 after years of booking it as a holiday rental. It’s a business she takes seriously – and that’s enough for now. She previously launched swimwear label Isola in 2010; followed by a homewares capsule, MG Australia, for Target in 2015. Then she developed online natural skincare brand Mindful Life for babies and children in 2019 but closed it in 2020. “In short, I trusted the wrong people,” she reflects. “I can’t see myself starting another brand at the moment.” She’s happy with the way life is heading. And let’s not forget, that art studio is calling…
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