Inside Bec Judd’s year of controversy
She was once an untouchable star of Melbourne’s social scene but in 2020, Bec Judd was hit with a wave of controversies - is it justified?
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It’s safe to say that there has never been a more successful red carpet appearance than Bec Judd’s stint at the 2004 Brownlows.
The then-unknown model Rebecca Twigley attended the AFL awards night on the arm of star player and future husband Chris Judd in a plunging red dress that grabbed headlines around the country.
The attention-grabbing outfit propelled Bec to the top of the fashion pack which she then cleverly forayed into a successful career as a TV presenter, radio host and businesswoman.
RELATED: Bec Judd praised over new Jaggad line
2020 has been another year of success for Bec, with her activewear line Jaggad more popular than ever as well as the mum-of-four scoring lucrative Instagram sponsorship deals.
But with Bec’s growing accomplishments has come an increasing backlash to her privileged Melbourne lifestyle, which she doesn’t shy away from sharing on her Instagram and radio show.
Her opinions on Melbourne’s coronavirus lockdown saw her harshly criticised and in November she made the surprise announcement that she was quitting radio to spend more time with her family.
‘POMPOUS FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS’
Back in January, Bec was lashed online after complaining about the pool in her $7.3 million Brighton mansion getting dirty after a dust storm.
The video coincided with large parts of Australia being decimated by bushfire and drought.
“We are slowly fighting back from the dust storm. I’ve had my pool guy over this morning. Sorry to all the pool guys in Melbourne inundated with thousands of calls this morning,” Bec captioned the video of her dirty pool.
A screenshot of Bec’s post was posted to Twitter by Dubbo-based ABC journalist Jen Browning who slammed her complaint.
“I’m sorry your pool got dirty @becjuddloves – at least you have a pool with water in it, try not having enough water to do anything but keep you & your animals alive – & how about considering what it’s like to face dust 10x what poor Melbourne had at least 3-4 times per week,” Jen tweeted.
When Bec shared a photo of her clean pool to Instagram, Jen tweeted again, sarcastically asking whether the socialite’s pool boy could come clean her home.
“Have a think next time before you tell everyone how you‘re slowly ‘fighting back’ from the tiny dust storm you had,” she tweeted.
“How about considering what it‘s like to face dust 10 (times) what poor Melbourne had at least three or four times a week. Seriously! Oh, and most of NSW can’t water their lawns let alone their pool tiles.”
Others echoed Jen’s sentiment, saying Bec’s complaint about her pool was “pompous first world problems”.
FROM PRO-LOCKDOWN TO ‘DICTATOR DAN’
At the beginning of Melbourne’s second wave Bec was supportive of lockdown measures, urging her followers to download the COVID Safe app and wear a mask.
Bec called for parts of Melbourne with coronavirus outbreaks to be locked down in the early days of the state’s second wave.
“As a Victorian, I would like to see Melbourne hot spot suburbs put into lockdown as well,” Judd wrote on Instagram in July.
“Not sure what @danielandrewsmp is waiting for? Hundreds more cases? The whole of Victoria to become reinfected? Short term pain, long term gain.”
She also criticised a rule that allowed people who didn’t have a garden but had tested positive for coronavirus to leave their homes to exercise.
Bec took to her Instagram stories in July to slam the rule, writing: “FFS Victoria (eye-roll emoji). It’s a pandemic.”
“COVID-positive people should not be allowed to leave their houses. Just like in all the other states (facepalm emoji),” she added.
But by September, Bec’s support of Melbourne’s lockdown had diminished, with the mother of four slamming “Dictator Dan” for the ongoing stage 4 restrictions, which included a curfew and only leaving your house for exercise for one hour a day.
Bec made the comments in a sponsored Instagram story promoting a pair of children’s cubby houses from novelty store The Little Cardboard Co.
“Perfect for iso and upcoming school holidays as it seems Dictator Dan will be locking Victorians in our homes even longer,” she wrote, with a rolling eyes emoji.
‘FREE MELBOURNE’ BID SLAMMED
In October, as frustration grew among Melburnians over when businesses would be allowed to fully trade again, Bec found herself in hot water once again – and this time the backlash was particularly harsh.
The WAG and businesswoman shared a video to Instagram of her wearing a T-shirt, which she tagged along with the hashtag #FreeMelbourne, that saw her mocked after screenshots of it were posted on Twitter.
Bec’s post was labelled “embarrassing” given her lockdown circumstances had been far more favourable than others in Melbourne.
“Bec Judd is genuinely so embarrassing. Imagine post like 8 insta stories of sponsored content a couple days after dropping another line of $200 leggings and then wearing a ‘Free Melbourne’ tshirt as if she’s imprisoned in her f***ing mansion,” one person tweeted.
Others argued that if she was concerned about Melbourne businesses she could offer them financial support and pointed out she had been in favour of locking down Melbourne hot spot suburbs in June.
But others thought the criticism of Bec went too far, pointing out that other people had been wearing the same T-shirt too and she was a business owner herself.
BLOCK VIEWERS TURN ON BEC
The backlash against Bec continued when she made an appearance on The Block later that month.
While her appearance as a guest judge had been filmed months in advance and went off without a hitch from contestants, viewers didn’t take too kindly to seeing Bec on their screens:
Hey @Channel9, please don’t make Bec Judd a permanent fixture on #theblock.
— S (@shutterclutter8) October 28, 2020
#theblock me to wife: Wtf credentials does Bec Judd have?
— Pete Tzimos 🇦🇺🇬🇷 (@ptzimos) October 28, 2020
Wife: Money? Privilege?
And when she revealed she was going on holiday to Byron and her family would be “travelling Australia next year” – some Twitter users believed it was another example of the star “whinging her mansion isn’t enough”.
SHOCK RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT
In November, Bec made the unexpected announcement that she had decided to quit her high profile radio gig.
Both Bec and her husband Chris have decided to walk away from radio and had made the decision months ago during Melbourne’s two lockdowns.
Bec will be replaced on the 3pm Pick-up by Kate Langbroek, who is returning from Italy to her home in Melbourne.
Bec said leaving radio had been a “family decision” and “a result of us re-evaluating our lives”.
She also told 3pm Pick-up co-host Monty Diamond that next year would be the first time in five years both she and Chris didn’t have “weekly commitments”.
“He’s not doing radio anymore, I’m not doing radio anymore, so we’ve got a lot of freedom in our schedule and we’re very lucky to have that,” Bec said.
“I’ve got such a young family, my twins start school not next year but the year after, so I’ve got one year left at home with them and we just want to really make the most of those golden years … they’re slipping away, those golden years.”
Bec had hosted 3pm Pick-up for four years and before that presented the weather on Channel 9’s Melbourne 6pm weekend news bulletin.
She also was the host of Nine regional travel show Postcards, however, the show has been put on hold for months due to COVID-19 and it is unknown when it will return.
Originally published as Inside Bec Judd’s year of controversy
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