Top model Montana Cox reveals she had Covid twice

After contracting Covid twice while overseas, Melbourne-raised model Montana Cox is back in Australia and “ready for a bit of fun” after lockdown.

She’s used to a jet-set model lifestyle, but Montana Cox has found a new sense of calm being back home in Australia. After contracting Covid twice while overseas, Melbourne-raised Cox returned from London late last year, putting her whole life in storage.

“I have half of my apartment in New York, half of my stuff still back in London. I came back [to Australia] quickly. I’m a bit like, where am I?” Cox tells Stellar On Friday.

“I was in London when Covid happened and I still had my New York apartment. I got rid of the lease and got someone to pack all of my stuff. My whole apartment is sitting in New York storage right now. I don’t even know what’s there anymore. I’m happy at home now.”

It has been a decade since Cox, 28, began her modelling career, winning reality series Australia’s Next Top Model in 2011.

“We’ve had such a grey year. I’m ready for some fun.” Model Montana Cox is ready for spring. Picture: Lucas Dawson

Montana Cox has reflected on the highs of her modelling career since winning Australia’s Next Top Model in 2011.

“It seems like a whole different lifetime,” she says. “It was a great platform to get you out there and to learn, and see what modelling is all about. I reflect on it now... I was a different person back then, so young and still learning.”

From strutting the catwalks in Paris and New York to featuring in magazines, Cox has enjoyed a career full of fashion “pinch-me” moments.

“The shows in Paris were always quite surreal – you look back on it now and you’re like, whoa, that was crazy. You’d be with Karl Lagerfeld one day, Alber Elbaz the next day, and they’d be dressing you. And you’d go out to do the shows and then a fashion week party; it was a really crazy life.”

Cox has used the change of pace during lockdown to focus on her acting ambitions, debuting this month in a guest role on long-running soap Neighbours as the character of Brittany Barnes, who, like Cox, has ties to NYC.

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“We’ll see where that goes. That’s what I’ve been focusing on for now,” Cox says.

“They shoot so quickly, you have to keep up.”

The model is also an ambassador for the Victoria Racing Club’s Sofitel Girls’ Day In, which takes place on Saturday.

“Unfortunately we can’t be there on the track [due to Melbourne’s restrictions],” Cox says, adding that she’ll instead be dressing up for the fashionable event from the comfort of her parents’ home.

“I think because we’ve had such a grey year, everyone is ready for a bit of fun.”

As for whether punters will be trackside at race days later in the Spring Racing Carnival, Cox says she’s “really hoping so. You can never really know but I think it’s the best thing to look forward to it, and hopefully we can. I think we need these events to get back out there.”