‘Buy my own’: Jesinta Franklin shares biggest misconception about marriage to Buddy
Jesinta Franklin has opened up about one of the most “degrading” assumptions about her marriage to AFL star Buddy Franklin.
As half of one of the AFL’s most high-profile power couples, Jesinta Franklin has long been on the receiving end of accusations that she’s a “gold-digger”.
The 31-year-old, who shot to fame in 2010 after being crowned Miss Universe Australia, married Sydney Swans star Lance “Buddy” Franklin in November 2016. The couple share two children, daughter Tullulah, three, and son Rocky, two.
Earlier this year, Franklin — who appeared on the cover of Stellar — hit back at one of the most “degrading” assumptions about the couple’s six-year marriage: that if she wasn’t with Buddy, she wouldn’t be able to afford her lifestyle.
Read Jesinta Franklin’s full interview with Stellar here
“I don’t understand what my husband has anything to do with my income. I have always worked and whilst we are 100 per cent a team I don’t and will never rely on him financially, because I don’t need to,” she wrote in response to a troll’s social media comment at the time.
Speaking to Stellar, the mum-of-two reflected on her response, opening up about why she and Buddy, whose original contract with the Swans was said to be worth $10 million across nine years, keep their careers separate.
“There’s absolute true equality between Buddy and I – with financial contribution, with emotional, spiritual, mental, all of that. It’s very equal,” Franklin said.
“That’s what makes me feel really empowered as a woman. I know it’s not the same for everyone. Being able to stand on my own two feet, being an equal in this partnership – in every sense of the word – is important for me.”
Franklin added she was “probably more focused on that” when she and Buddy met in 2012.
“Because of that judgment of being a WAG, and being called everything – a ‘gold-digger’ and all of that,” she said.
“I always say, ‘I can buy my own properties and my own handbags. And we can buy them together!’ At the end of the day, it feels equal.”
Despite what appearances might suggest, Franklin shared the couple “are pretty chilled. We’ve never really lived that high life”.
“Our careers probably lend people to the assumption that that’s what we do, but my industry has always been work for me. Events have always been ‘work’. Footy is footy for Bud,” she said.
“When we’re off-duty, we’re homebodies. We don’t need the fancy stuff, and we never really have.”
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