Rebecca Judd on modelling, married life and motherhood

REBECCA Judd, the woman who wowed the country with that red dress in 2004, talks to us about married life, modelling and motherhood.

Rebecca Judd

REBECCA Judd, 30, grew up in Western Australia and wowed the country with that red dress at the 2004 Brownlow.

She now lives in Melbourne with her husband, Carlton footballer Chris Judd, and son Oscar, who is nearly two.

After working as a model and in speech pathology she is now the weather presenter on Channel Nine news and is the host of Postcards.

I loved Perth.
It's a great place to raise a family. My sister Kate is 27 and my dad remarried so I have a step-brother and step-sister around the same age. We grew up in a little crayfishing/mining town about four hours north of Perth, called Leeman. The Kiwis came in the late '80s for the mining boom, so Mum and Dad went there then. It was full of Kiwis.

I spent four years in Leeman and then moved to Perth.
Mum and Dad had separated. I had a stepdad by then, Mark, and we grew up in the outer suburbs of Perth.

I was four when Mum and Dad separated.
Looking back, I am so glad my parents separated. I can never imagine them together. They are so different. When they moved to Australia from New Zealand, Mum was 16 and Dad was 22. You can imagine, they were like two kids. I look back and think, 'I can't believe they were ever together'.

Mum and Dad are very good friends.
There was never any animosity between them. I think that was really good. They still talk every now and again on the phone.

I learnt so much from modelling.
I was able to travel the world - Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul. I really grew up overseas doing TV commercials, fashion shows, just the norm. I had a very Eurasian look, which was very marketable in those countries.

They like you to look a little bit Asian but not too Asian. And I'm not even Asian, I'm Maori. Mum's half-Maori. Dad's of Scottish/Irish descent. When he was young he had bright red hair, freckles. I got Mum's colouring. When people see my half-brother and half-sister they are, 'Whoa!' Family photos are so good.

Rebecca Judd Chris Judd

In modelling you learn to cope with rejection.
Especially with social media. All of the stuff that's happened to me over the past 10 years, especially since being with Chris, and the negative things that you see fly around, to me, I can honestly say, it's water off a duck's back. And I think modelling put me in good stead there. I don't go on (social media) at all and I can see so many people get reactive or need to respond or reply and I'm thinking, 'Why waste your time?'.

People have been talking about my weight my entire life.
In primary school, having the surname Twigley, the boys used to change the 'y' to a 'g' - Twigleg. I've copped it my whole life. Now it's kind of like, 'Oh, again'. When the Spring Carnival comes around, or the Brownlow or some event where's there's heaps of publicity and especially if I wear something that's strapless and have my shoulders out I'll just cop it.

My friends say people ask them, 'Does she eat?' And they say, 'We're always defending you, she does eat!' It's a strange thing people being obsessed with somebody else's weight. I'm in the minority - I eat whatever I want and I don't put on weight. If you look at my mum and my sister, we're exactly the same physique.

People are obsessed with slimming, obsessed with diet, obsessed with exercise and I'm not.
It really perplexes people. On my blog people say, 'What do you do to stay so skinny?' I don't do anything. 'What's your exercise program? Can you post on your blog what you eat in a day?' Well, I don't really exercise. If people did some research and looked at my family they'd realise that I'm completely healthy, I've got good energy. I conceived and grew an above average size healthy baby boy.

An international fashion brand said: "We're not using skinny models any more, we're going to use real women".
And I thought. 'I'm skinny, and people would say I'm not a real woman?' That term grates on me.

The red dress I wore to the Brownlow changed my life.
I don't think I'd be sitting here talking to you today if it wasn't for that red dress. The fact that Chris won the Brownlow meant that red dress was on the front page of every paper the next day.

Rebecca Judd Chris Judd

I feel sorry for the young girls coming through because they feel this pressure that they've got to be the stereotypical WAG.
I hope they're coping OK because there's a lot of pressure.

Chris is fantastic at home, especially with me taking on this new job.
I'm away from the home in the busiest part of the day, between 5-7. Oscar is nearly two. Chris will come home from training and walks in the door and it's dinner time and bathtime and he's incredible. I'm very organised during the day so I make sure everything's lined up for dinner. Everything's a precision logistical operation.

How lucky am I?
I walk in the door at seven o'clock. There's dinner on the table. Oscar's fed and bathed and he's having his bottle and my husband's cooked me dinner. This happens every night.

I'm really excited about life after football.
I've never known Chris not to be a footballer so our whole lives have been dictated by a football schedule and it's been great, I love watching him play. This isn't a complaint at all, if anything it's been an incredible experience, but I'm so looking forward to having Chris Judd the xyz -whatever he chooses to be - as my husband.

Brynne Edelsten named her dog after Chris.
Brynne's lovely. She's genuine, she's kind, she is just a beautiful girl. She's got another dog called Murph after Marc Murphy.

Speech pathology is something I might go back to.
I worked in an acute hospital setting for about three years (at The Alfred). I was working in the trauma and neurosurgery wards with people with head injuries. It was initial assessment. Once they're medically stable they're off to rehab. My job is to hand over to rehab my assessments. For me next would probably be with the kids and in private practice.

I would like more children.
I'd like a big family. I just love watching this little personality grow. He's a toddler, not a baby any more. So I'm missing that baby in my life. Having some more hopefully next year.

Rebecca Judd