Page 13: What is behind Bec Judd’s enduring appeal?
Is it guilty escapism — like watching the Kardashians — middle class boredom or marketing brilliance? What’s behind Melbourne’s obsession with Bec Judd?
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Australia’s first wag, parvenu, entrepreneur, socialite, weather girl, property mogul, and this week crime crusader wearing an Ena Pelly cape.
Bec Judd has long worn many fascinators.
But like, loathe, or a combination of both – with a touch of schadenfreude added for good measure – no one can argue the enigma of Melbourne’s Queen B.
How a pretty doe-eyed girl with a surname Twigley in THAT dress from over in the Wild West, has turned into the rolled gold of Australian influenzers, whoops influencers, has become Down Under pop culture folklore.
Like our very own Kardashian, although Page 13 is told she prefers the Victoria Beckham comparison, there is no doubting the calculated former speech therapist creates “noise”. She has said so herself.
“I feel like, since having a public profile when I was 20 when I started dating my husband (Chris), I’ve had this noise; It’s not going to go away, it’s going to continue,” Judd told the Sunday Herald Sun’s Stellar Magazine last year.
“So you live with it and move on. Things pop up all the time. It’s not the first time, it’s not going to be the last and you just roll with the punches and move on.”
Over the past week the punches started flying when Bec posted to her 788k followers she felt “unsafe” in posh leafy Brighton with rapes and burglaries at an all time high. No data provided.
The punches then landed on our Premier, or Dictator Dan as Judd has called him during peak pandemic (creating yet another one-two headline combo).
Dan copped it for pretending not to know who Bec was. Surely it must have bristled the ego of the man holding Victoria’s top job to name check the Juddster.
It had those from the left wondering if Bec is a Liberal stooge and those on the right practically fornicating she stands with them.
She has caused headlines and is a clickity-clack dreamboat for everything from looking too skinny in a bikini, to recoiling at poor sports anchor Tony Jones and that cringey kiss, re-gifting another WAGs fashion line to a Brighton charity bin, cleaning her pool from a Brighton only dust storm when fires ravaged the country and having a whinge during lockdown wearing a Free Melbourne T-shirt in an overtuned post from her $7 million plus pile.
Then there was of course the heavily sponsored trip of WAGgles to music festival Coachella.
But what do you find when you scratch under the over filtered surface?
Calculated is a word often described. Top mean girl is another. Lots of fun from plenty else.
Her girly clique of beauties, think her Jaggad business partner Michelle Greene, mummy influencer Jessie Roberts, stylist Lana Wilkinson and now somewhat on the periphery in posts Nadia Bartel, is likened to the high school cool group where there is only one queen.
“They all worship her and fight over who might be her plus one to an event,” laughed one friend in the know.
“No one wants to rock that boat for fear of being put on the outer.”
Husband Chris Judd’s Carlton teammate Marc Murphy’s wife Jessie found herself on the outer at the aforementioned Coachella trip.
She was made to feel by some on the trip that she was only invited because of the old Navy Blues connection and was housed in what was called the B-room.
Page 13 was told the two have since put distance between themselves, but again details are scant, no one wants to rock the Judd boat for fear of falling out.
Back in her days as a Myer ambassador, Judd was considered by some as not a “people person”.
The department store had snapped her up after THAT Brownlow dress moment by Perth designer Ruth Tarvdas in 2004.
Top girl Jennifer Hawkins and male ambassador Kris Smith knew how to sing for their supper and press the flesh with the people who mattered to Myer inside Flemington’s famed Birdcage.
It’s part of the job. But one insider said Bec was always in the corner at the Myer marquee sipping champagne with her gaggle of girl disciples and a closed door. It didn’t go down well over time.
Not that it matters. The department store behemoth was a mere stepping stone. Judd Inc is now the advertising, marketing and brand in one. Her athleisure label Jaggad’s chief operating officer Scott Browning has told Page 13 her business acumen is next level. Gone are the traditional forms of advertising, just use Bec and the clothes will sell. Scrap that — sellout within minutes.
So what is the appeal?
There are the IRL (Instaspeak for in real life) disciples and there are the sycophants and trolls.
Somewhere in between are a surprisingly large number of barely middle aged, upper middle class, university educated corporate types who feast on her every move, story and post.
Usually this is done in private and, like the guilty escapism of watching a reality show, is done somewhat shamefaced.
Page 13 knows of several. All were unwilling to go on the record for the sheer embarrassment of it all. But asked what was the fascination and the answers vary.
“She is absurd and amazing all at once,” one said.
“I love her Instagram stories – when she cancelled her RSVP to a charity lunch from IN THE CAR citing a sick child as an excuse but sitting in the car looking perfect with another perfect blonde person and sparkly glasses filter. It was fascinating, amazing and awful all at once.”
“She has a snack drawer and says things like fucyum and yasss girl,” said another.
“I bought her makeup from the Skincare Company, I bought the dry shampoo that she used. I even went to Spray Aus.
“I’m a mum and she’s a mum but while I’m at the office all day and then getting home feeding my kids frozen schnitzel she is at Coachella! What!”
One Melbourne A-lister veteran said the then Bec Twigley was very keen to know the right people when she set up in Melbourne from her Perth homeland.
“She was all over me like a rash wanting to meet Melbourne people in society. Fast forward two years and she would white ant me at every event. Thought she was too important and I was dumped like a sack of hot potatoes.”
As Bec says the noise will never relent. But maybe that’s how she likes it.
Some of the more cynical types were quick to say her Brighton post was impressively timed around the new release of a collaboration with Ena Pelly for their new range.
“Make no mistake, she knows people are looking at her page right now after she made those comments and lo and behold she has something to sell. It is straight from the Kardashian handbook of self promotion.”
Her post warranted plenty of reaction and even pushed a move for a Brighton police station to be installed.
Personal favourite was from a Facebook post by a Jenny Malcolm who said “…Bec Judd should come and spend some time in Tarneit!!!”
Bec Judd the mirage shows no signs of waning. But just in case you were wondering, Page 13 was told one moniker she holds no ambition for is politics. Dan can rest easy.
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