‘The interest in who I’m dating is quite funny’: Australian model Jessica Gomes addresses dating speculation as she reveals why she left Los Angeles
As one of Australia’s most recognisable models, Jessica Gomes is used to courting attention. Now, as she reveals why she left Los Angeles and moved home, Gomes talks love, life and her new chapter.
Stellar
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Flights, fittings, catwalks, photo shoots and long hours in the make-up chair. For years, that’s what life looked like for Australian model Jessica Gomes, whose days would regularly begin in one country and finish in another.
Which meant there was little time for, well, anything else. So it tracks that these days, the 38-year-old is seizing the opportunity to live her life at a much slower pace.
“It’s important to step back. I really appreciate the simple things,” she tells Stellar.
“That keeps me grounded and well-rounded and it’s good for my mental health. We can work and work and get really burnt out. It’s important for me now to nourish myself and give myself that time.”
The former face of David Jones (she parted ways with the Australian retailer in 2019), actor and one-time Sports Illustrated supermodel – she appeared in the iconic annual swimsuit edition of the US magazine every year between 2008 and 2015 – is clearly relishing this transition to slow living on her Byron Bay property.
“In the mornings I let the ducks and the chickens out and then I go and see how many eggs they’ve laid. I prefer the chicken eggs – but the duck eggs are really good for baking,” says Gomes, adding that she’s equally enthusiastic about her new passion for growing vegetables. “It’s been really fun, having your hands in the soil and seeing things grow. It’s another way of being creative.”
Over the years, Stellar has interviewed Gomes many times, typically as she rushed between those high-profile modelling assignments, acting gigs and ambassadorships.
Back in 2021, she even heralded an emerging trend for virtual fashion, wearing a striking digital creation on our cover to mark a new chapter in the industry.
But three years later, and having chalked up a quarter of a century since she started modelling at the age of 13, she’s entering another era.
The Sydney-born, Perth-raised model is make-up free and rugged up in a cosy knit as she chats via Zoom from her home, where soothing navy walls and shelves full of quirky collectibles speak to her softer, slower pace.
Where once her lunch was whatever was supplied at a shoot, these days it’s likely to be a hearty soup made with ingredients from her garden, followed by some homemade carrot cake.
After living in the US for 10 years, Gomes travelled back and forth during the pandemic before making the northern NSW region her base.
While she still works overseas, this time she’s been home for a few months and says she craves these quiet times more than ever.
“At this stage of my life, I really feel that nature is part of that balance for me to keep myself healthy and to re-energise to take on the next project,” she explains.
“I find nature very healing, it makes me feel at peace and it also inspires me. I love to write and paint, to have some quiet time and sort of seclude myself.”
Just as the half Singaporean-Chinese, half Portuguese Gomes once broke new ground for diversity in the fashion industry, memorably appearing in campaigns when there were few faces like hers, she’s now embodying a newer (and increasingly popular) aspiration that’s characterised less by money and success and more by wellness and contentment.
Indeed, as she describes her typical day, it sounds so idyllic, you can see why she’s opted to live in the region that has drawn other creatives including actor Chris Hemsworth, musician Angus Stone and Gomes’ close friend and fellow model Gemma Ward, whom she sees as often as she can.
“I love getting up and going for a big walk. Sometimes I’ll go to the waterfalls, picking up a hot cacao, and then I love being in my garden or just pottering around the house,” says Gomes.
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“I’ll go to the beach if the weather is nice or to an art show or hang out with friends at the pub. It’s nice having space and creating your own world.”
While the lifestyle she has adopted may suggest Gomes has stepped back from modelling, nothing could be further from the truth.
She’s still in demand, with clients ranging from international luxury fashion house Saint Laurent to local department store Target, but her criteria for accepting work has shifted.
“I feel very lucky to have over 20 years in the business. Now I feel I can pull back and be quite selective and work with brands that are more aligned to me,” she says.
Gomes says she’s grateful that diversity in the industry also now extends to seeing older models as the faces of both emerging and legacy brands.
“I love that the industry is embracing age diversity. I’m so happy to see that. And why not? Because we’re celebrating women. I feel like this next chapter is really exciting.”
Her self-styled life reset has also afforded Gomes the opportunity to lean into creative projects that she hasn’t previously had time to explore. Having appeared in several films – including 2014 sci-fi action film Transformers: Age Of Extinction with Mark Wahlberg, the 2017 comedies Once Upon A Time In Venice with Bruce Willis and Father Figures with Owen Wilson, and the 2020 Netflix drama Tigertail – she’s still hungry to act.
Recently helping a friend learn lines for an audition for the hit Netflix period drama Bridgerton prompted her to yearn for a part on the show for herself.
“That would be a dream role for me,” she admits. “It’s shooting in England, they’re diverse with their casts and I think to join a period piece like that would be fun. Apparently, some of the actresses got horse riding lessons and a dialect coach. And then you get to wear those dresses …”
Ah yes, the dresses. If anyone could pull off a Regency bodice, it’s Gomes. The model previously told Stellar that early in her career, she was shamed for her curvy body by a casting director who said: “Your boobs are too big.”
But in an example of this most mercurial of industries, Gomes was instantly scooped up by Sports Illustrated magazine, which she still credits with kickstarting her career in the US. “I’m very proud of being a Sports Illustrated model,” she says.
“I still think it’s a really great thing for women; they’re so diverse and they’re doing incredible things.” Would she pose for it again? “Of course! If they asked me to. Yeah, why not?” In the meantime, she’s busy writing a script with a friend – “it’s a rom-com but I can’t give too much away” – and has taken up the martial art jiujitsu. She’s also keen to learn to play the drums.
One word that Gomes uses often in her chat to Stellar is “fun”. It’s the reason she first started modelling in Perth, where the industry quickly seized on her striking features.
Whereas others have been vocal about the pressures within such a competitive industry, she’s always been positive, even at the height of the “store wars” when models for Myer and David Jones often found themselves in a confected conflict.
A David Jones ambassador from 2012 to 2019, Gomes says she found the commentary around it frustrating. “It’s like, ‘let’s embrace women’ but then they pit you against each other. It didn’t make sense, but you can’t sweat the small stuff.
“You have to have the confidence within yourself to think, hey, I’m supposed to be here and I’m in my own lane. You’ve just got to have fun with it and not let it get you down if someone says something negative.”
Gomes believes that a lot of successful models learn a mechanism for protecting themselves in an industry that’s as cut-throat as it is ephemeral.
“Otherwise,” she says, “it would be impossible listening to everybody. It wouldn’t be enjoyable.”
It’s this attitude that’s also helped her to adapt as the industry has moved away from elevating models towards a more idiosyncratic approach where personalities and influencers are just as likely to become faces of brands.
And it’s the same pragmatism she employs as she shifts from “It” girl into womanhood.
“It’s a compliment to be considered an ‘It’ girl but it’s lovely to be able to grow and become a woman within my career,” she says. “I’ve been able to evolve and reinvent myself, and it’s lovely to still be embraced throughout all those changes.”
With her 40th birthday on the horizon next year, she regards the new decade as a fresh opportunity. “I don’t feel my age – but it’s a blessing to grow old and age. I feel like it’s a great milestone and a new chapter. It’s a good time to reassess and figure out, OK, what are my next 10 years going to be like? What do I want for my next chapter?”
While she’s been romantically linked to several famous Australians, including motor racing driver Daniel Ricciardo, actor Xavier Samuel and AFL footballer Dustin Martin, Gomes confirms that she’s currently single.
“I’m just focusing on myself at the moment and really enjoying it,” she says, revealing that she’s constantly bemused by the fascination with her love life. “This interest in who I’m dating is quite funny,” she adds.
“As women, we should embrace our achievements; it shouldn’t just be about who we’re dating.”
Relishing being back in the country where her career began, she laughingly recalls her first modelling job, a sports commercial in Perth that involved her holding a lacrosse stick. “I knew at that moment that I really wanted to do this,” she says.
All these years later, she’s thankful to still be working in a career that she loves and with people she admires. “I love working in Australia. It’s lovely to have those relationships that you’ve formed throughout the years.”
An even greater source of gratitude is knowing hers was the face that would help open the door for a generation of Asian-Australian models.
As she notes: “It’s wonderful how far we’ve come and to see faces on brands that look very similar to me.”
See the full cover shoot with Jessica Gomes inside Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.
Originally published as ‘The interest in who I’m dating is quite funny’: Australian model Jessica Gomes addresses dating speculation as she reveals why she left Los Angeles
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