‘2020 was easily the worst year I’ve ever had’: Megan Gale and Shaun Hampson open up about challenges
Shaun Hampson and Megan Gale have had a rocky few years of loss and tragedy. The couple open up on finding the unlikely silver linings and how Hampson unlocked beast mode for Australian Survivor: Heroes v Villains.
QWeekend
Don't miss out on the headlines from QWeekend. Followed categories will be added to My News.
As a couple, Megan Gale and Shaun Hampson are a formidable presence.
But not for the reasons you might think – it’s because of the things you can’t see.
Their calm in the chaos. Their unwavering support for one another. Their fierce protective streak, especially for their children, River, 8, and Rosie, 5. Their desire for the quiet life.
Most of all, however, their power is their strength to keep on keeping on when life throws its harshest curveballs.
The latter has been a common theme in the story of supermodel Gale, 47, and Brisbane-raised retired AFL player Hampson, 34, throughout their 12-year relationship.
Together the Melbourne-based couple has navigated public scrutiny in the early days of getting together.
Hampson’s career-ending injuries and multiple operations, the death of their fathers within three months of each other, both to cancer, in 2014, and a miscarriage in 2016.
In 2020, while living through one of the world’s toughest lockdowns in Melbourne, Covid-19 forced the temporary shutdown of their restaurant Ascot Food + Wine, which they own with chef friend Dave Stewart.
Gale also grieved the death of her brother and the messy collapse of her long-time passion project and skincare business, Mindful Life. Yet despite it all, they count themselves lucky.
It made way for a shift that, they say, changed everything.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” says Hampson, who played for Carlton and Richmond before retiring in 2018.
“Family is absolutely first and foremost for us; we both have taken steps in the last couple of years to make that the priority.”
After the years they have endured, Gale says it gave her perspective.
“Having sunk a lot of time and energy into Mindful Life and trying to make that a reality, I lost a lot of time with the kids,” Gale says.
“I think something like going through a significant loss in your family, it does make you re-evaluate your priorities, and life in general.
“It certainly toughens you mentally and makes you more resilient.”
And so it has made way for their year of, as they say, getting “back to basics” and doing what they love.
It’s fitting then for the year to kickstart by doing just that with Hampson, a 201cm powerhouse, competing in Channel 10’s Australian Survivor: Heroes v Villains.
Hampson is back after his stint in the 2019 season, Contenders v Champions, where he was a “contender”. This time, he returns as a “hero”.
“It’s nice to be considered a hero,” he says.
“I didn’t win (last time) so I always wanted to play again – it just had to be when the time was right.
“(This time) it was to go back and really focus and try and win the thing.
“It’s also a big commitment … everybody, the whole family and extended family have to be on board as well. I’m not a single guy or bachelor without any family, there are a lot of moving parts to going in.”
This time around, family man and nice guy Hampson was ready to play and play hard.
“I didn’t want to be thought of as this big challenge guy and all heroic,” he says. “I want to show what the game is about and I have a villainous side as well.
“I know, right, can you believe it?” he says with a laugh. “I’m going away from my family for potentially eight weeks; I want to make it worth it. I have to play hard, and if that means playing dirty or lying or whatever it takes, I’m happy to do it.”
Gale confesses she’s just as “obsessed” with the reality TV contest. “Once he got the call-up to go, we both took it very seriously,” she says.
“We started strategising, we started talking outfits because last time he was terrible with what he took out there,” she jokes.
“This is what I know; I know outfits, let’s talk about practically speaking what you’re going to take.”
As they laugh over Hampson’s Survivor attire, dishing out first-class banter, they’re happy, calm and relaxed.
To appreciate how content they are now is to understand what it took to get there.
“2020 was easily the worst year I’ve ever had in my life,” Gale says.
The sudden loss of Gale’s brother in July that year devastated the model who navigated lockdowns and quarantines to attend his funeral in her home town of Perth.
Months later, Mindful Life, which Gale launched in 2019, collapsed after she says she was blindsided by people she trusted.
“In short … it resulted in me not having much option but to close the business,” says Gale, who has had a number of business ventures including swimwear range Isola and a collection of homewares called MG Australia sold in Target.
“It was tough. It (Mindful Life) was a business I worked really hard on and I started it myself from scratch, I self-funded it, and looking back now, I was really proud of what
I did.
“It was breaking my heart just letting it go and to think everything I built up and worked for was going.”
It was a labour of love for Gale with the natural skincare range, made for babies and children, inspired by her kids.
It all culminated, she says, to become one of the darkest periods in her life.
“All of this upheaval with the business was happening at the exact same time I lost my brother,” she says. “I just went, ‘I’m done’, I’m going to take some time out because things were a bit full on.
“At that point, I didn’t have the mental capacity to think about how I was going to save the business because all I need to do now is grieve.
“There was nothing else I could sink my energy into except for being with family and grieving.”
“I said to myself I was going to take the last three to four months of 2020 off.”
It was time to reassess priorities and find balance. “Once I decided to stop and step back, I had a couple of really good opportunities that came up for us,” she says.
At the top of that list, says Gale, was the chance for the couple to buy Dollywood Daylesford, a holiday house in Daylesford, Victoria, about 110km outside of Melbourne, in September 2020.
“It was one of those lovely little moments that had great synergy around it; it was the right thing at the right time and it all happened really fast and seamlessly,” Gale says.
The couple used to get away to Dollywood together long before they were parents, with the pair saying it holds a special place in their hearts. “Dollywood has been really, really rewarding,” Gale says, with Dollywood available to rent.
“There’s another project we’re looking at, but it’s not finalised yet so I can’t talk about it, but it will be in a very similar vein to Dollywood that might happen in the next 12 months which is really exciting.”
The year ahead is full of opportunity.
For Gale, she recently filmed Three Thousand Years of Longing directed by George Miller, and on the small screen, just wrapped filming for season two of Channel 9’s Australia’s Best House, which she hosts, and continues her work as a Perth native with Tourism Western Australia.
As a family, Rosie has just started school, they’re planning a house renovation and have countless fires burning. Too many, they say, to add planning a wedding to the list.
“I am the laziest bride ever,” Gale says with a laugh. “I start to think about it and so many elements like what type of wedding, where, how, who and what do you wear and my head starts to hurt so then I go, ‘maybe another year’. I can’t imagine adding anything else to our list right now. It’s about pulling back, not adding to the load, but we will do it, we will do it in good time, I am sure.”
That to-do list for Hampson hopefully includes continuing his role as assistant coach (ruck) for AFLW side Carlton after joining the team last year in a return to the game he loves.
Hampson, who grew up in Daisy Hill in Logan, Queensland, uncovered his talents for Australian football in his later school years.
He joined Mount Gravatt Football Club, in Brisbane’s south, where he became the club’s No. 1 ruckman.
He moved his life to Melbourne when in 2006 he was picked up by Carlton, where he stayed for six years before moving to Richmond in 2013.
The years were plagued with injury for Hampson, who has endured 12 operations, including four on his right knee, four on his left knee and an ankle reconstruction. But the worst was a degenerative disc in his back.
After retiring in 2018, Hampson says he is excited to see what’s next for him in football.
“I’ve loved it (coaching with AFLW), I’ve loved being a part of it and being around it,” he says. “To be back around that environment again and with a group of people who are doing exactly what they want to do and working towards a common goal is a great place to be. I didn’t realise how much I missed that in my life.”
Hampson, who played 98 AFL games before those injuries cut short a potentially long career, is grateful to have the chance to coach.
“A lot of the players have come from other sports like I did,” he says. “I got to football really late and they had to fast-track me so I’ve been through a lot of what they have gone through. I’m doing a level three coaching course with the AFL this year as well to try
to further my education; it’s a path I’d like
to pursue. I’ve really loved being back doing
it again.”
Hampson is also a strong advocate for the game and for women’s sport as he watches his little girl take to the field.
“My daughter Rosie, who is five now, has started doing Auskick and she knows I’m involved in it and she sees me doing it too,” he says. “AFLW is a really great brand of footy –
I love watching it too.”
As the new year begins, and Gale and Hampson celebrate Rosie’s first year of school and River’s return, time moves on and the dust has settled. There’s a comforting stability in their household.
Their story continues as it always does, quietly, powerfully and together as a family, just how they like it.
‘I’ve found the ultimate creepy hack to falling asleep’
Falling asleep can be a real problem for many but is this the solution to getting a good night’s rest?
New ways to learn
State schools recognised in the Queensland Government’s Showcase awards are delivering excellence through.