Gabriella Brooks on boyfriend Liam Hemsworth and best year of her career

Australian model Gabriella Brooks speaks for the first time about her relationship with Liam Hemsworth and what it was like getting to know Australia’s most famous family.

Gabriella Brooks is experiencing a strange sensation she hasn’t felt in a long time: jet lag.

After not being able to leave New South Wales for two years thanks to Covid, the 25-year-old is speaking to Stellar just two days after she and her boyfriend Liam Hemsworth landed in Los Angeles.

“I completely forgot what [jet lag] felt like,” Brooks laughs down the line.

“I thought: we’ll just land and we’ll be fine. But it’s hit me pretty hard.”

While Brooks feels excited to be able to travel again for work, and about getting to attend important meetings with designers and agents face-to-face, it comes with the realisation that staying in the one spot has actually culminated in the most successful year of her career.

“My personal relationship is very important and very sacred to me” (Photography: Daniel Nadel)

Pre-Covid, Brooks split her time between Sydney, Los Angeles and London. Having grown up in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, she was scouted at 14 and moved to London to pursue her modelling career after she finished school at 17.

In between, Brooks also managed to fit in studying ancient history and archaeology at Sydney University. But the pandemic put an abrupt halt to her jetsetting lifestyle and she has since been based in Australia.

“At the start of Covid, I was like, oh God, what is this going to mean career-wise? Obviously modelling isn’t exactly an essential service. But without a doubt it’s been the best year of my career,” she says.

“It’s funny because you think the best thing to do modelling-wise is to constantly be travelling and moving around. But for me, it was so helpful to just have that time in one place to grow myself and build relationships.”

In the past two years, Brooks has worked with prestige clients such as Calvin Klein and Chanel, shot her first feature for Vogue Australia and signed as Seafolly’s newest ambassador, following in the footsteps of Australian models Jessica Hart and Miranda Kerr.

“Seafolly has been a dream of mine forever. For that to actually become a reality this year, it just kind of feels like the stars have aligned for me. Which is really lucky considering everything else going on,” she says.

The fact the recognition has come at a time when she’s also the most confident in who she is as a person makes it all the more significant.

“The industry … it’s just very different to navigate as a teenager versus as a 25-year-old. I have much thicker skin. I know who I am and I’m confident,” she says.

“When I started out, I was told, ‘You’re a blank slate.’ Literally – down to what you wear to castings. You have to wear black skinny jeans and a white tank top, and not show your personality in how you dress. Don’t show your personality in general. But the amazing thing now is you come as you are and people will respond to that and hire you for that.”

“When I started out, I was told, ‘You’re a blank slate.’ Literally – down to what you wear to castings.” (Photography: Daniel Nadel)

“They [the Hemsworths] are great. They are the most beautiful people and I’m very lucky to know them.” (Photography: Daniel Nadel)

Brooks, whose Singaporean-Chinese mother was also a model but struggled to get work in Australia because of her look, adds the fashion industry’s trend to include more size and age diversity has also been encouraging for her.

“When I was 15 and I was told by an old agent, ‘Gabby, we think you should maybe just stop eating for a week,’ that was just so normal back then,” she says.

“I remember talking to all the other models and we were all going through it. We were all told that we weren’t enough or that if we wanted to make it, we needed to fundamentally change who we were. Which is just a sh*tty thing to say to a 15-year-old girl.

“But I do feel in the span of my career, which is not that long [yet], that it’s changed so much. That would never happen these days. Which is so encouraging for future models.”

Another relationship she’s been able to nurture during this time is the one she has with her actor boyfriend.

Brooks first became associated with Hemsworth when she was spotted having lunch with the 31-year-old and his parents in December 2019, four months after his split from wife Miley Cyrus.

Since then, the two have been photographed together, but have never spoken about each other and buck one specifically modern relationship trend by never really appearing on each other’s social media.

“My personal relationship is very, very important and very sacred to me. And I feel like in an industry where so much is put out on show, there are some things you just want to keep to yourself,” she tells Stellar.

Does she get frustrated that, despite her own success, people want to ask about the Hemsworths?

“No. I completely understand it. But at the end of the day, I guess I just like having that for me,” she says, before adding, “But he’s great. They [the Hemsworths] are great. They are the most beautiful people and I’m very lucky to know them.”

Gabriella Brooks stars on this Sunday’s Stellar

Although it might not be out of the question to one day see her and Hemsworth share the big screen together, with Brooks revealing she’s been taking acting classes since she was 17.

“I’m an introvert naturally and it’s been really helpful for me in coming out of my shell. Especially because with modelling, you have to go on to a different set each day. You’ve got to meet new people every single time.”

So if 2021 was the best year of her career, what does 2022 hold?

“I feel so grateful for this year. I didn’t really know what was going to happen but it ended up being one of the greatest years of my life. I feel super lucky now to be able to travel again, and see family and friends and everyone I love.”

She hints at big international projects and spending more time abroad, but can’t reveal anything yet. But will it be able to top 2021?

“Well,” she says with a laugh, “I’ll give it my best shot.”

Originally published as Gabriella Brooks on boyfriend Liam Hemsworth and best year of her career